ridepate, how bout a little paint help!

I was going to PM you about this Jimbo but thought I would put it in a thread where others can access in the future. You did a great job painting your Rhino and I need the info to make mine look great. I got my old plastics off dissassembled and cleaned up. I am ready for sanding and prep to paint. I need to know what equipment such as sandpaper type (size), paint, etc. I will need and where to get it. Take me through the prep and painting for me so I can follow the path to your success. Any tips or tricks you learned along the way.

im in the process right now. i got some tips from pate too.

wet sand with 600
let dry and look for any shiney spots, scuff those with a scotch brite pad.
wet sanded again with 1000.
wipe down real good with laquer thinner, soak it!
wipe with a tack rag
now come the skill.... WARNING!!!!
do not use fusion paint. use the valspar from lowes the end result will look 100 times better.
do light tack coats at first until you get a good coverage, i think i did about three.
then its time for the magic to happen. start to spray off the plastic then in one full sweep cover the entire thing and then release. again from the other side back the other way. if you start and stop spray in the middle of the panel you will get those little spits of paint.
you can really soak it and watch the paint smooth out

here my hood in progress

heres a finished bed side
can you say smoooooooth

looks good man.....i just bought an extra set of plastics and plan on starting on them this winter....great thread Yank

I agree... GOOD THREAD !!

That's lookin' really good, moto !!

Let's see some more, guys !!

But how well does the paint hold up in the woods?
does it get the crap scratched out of it. on the first ride....

i had the same question, ridepate said its harder to scratch than the stock plastic

but while doing the hood i guess i didnt have a great seal and got some black over spray on the yellow. is there a good way to get it off with sanding and shootin it again?

looks great man, cant wait to see that thing next to your truck

Yank,

Water-sand with 600, 800, 1k. or close grits, don't have to be exact as long as it's water-paper. While you are water sanding,drool a little dishwashing liquid on your paper. It will kill most, not all, of any wax. Plexus, or mold release that is in the pores of the plastic. You really just want to knock the shine off of it.
I tried to use Prep-Sol for a final wipe-down but found it contributed to fish-eyes for some reason, I used laquer-thinner for my final wipe followed by a tack-rag.

Here's where the skill comes in. Just lightly dust on your first coat, not too heavy, just a tack coat. If you are gonna have a fish-eye problem it will show now, probably. If at any point you see fish-eyes devoloping, STOP, you will not cover them, no matter how much you spray. Take laquer-thinner and wipe-off all the plastic, paint included, and start over, re-sand if you have to..

I found the Valspar needs to be "melted" when you spray it. If you spray it too light, you will get dry spots, you have to spray it close and fast with out running it. Lay you pieces out flat, don't spray them standing-up or you'll get runs. Follow the wetness, keep it wet as you spray without losing the "shine". It takes some practice and if you mess-up take thinner and wipe it off and start over, that's the beauty of it, if you mess-up you can try again. The hoods the most difficult.
Start at the top, keep it wet. I found some cans of the Valspar spray better than others. When you come across a good tip that atomizes good, keep it, swap it to a can that's not spraying so good.

ChrisC wrote:

But how well does the paint hold up in the woods?
does it get the crap scratched out of it. on the first ride....

It scratches no less than the plastic. If you think it will scratch-through to the stock-color, it won't. After going through some of the stuff we went through in Bell county, do I have some scratches?? yes, so do the guys with stock plastic. My hood was blue before I painted it, did I have any Blue showing after the thrashing we went through at Bell?? NO, none. It's some tough shit.

moto92 wrote:

i had the same question, ridepate said its harder to scratch than the stock plastic

but while doing the hood i guess i didnt have a great seal and got some black over spray on the yellow. is there a good way to get it off with sanding and shootin it again?

Scuff it and shoot it again bro!!!! Tape it without leaks this time!!!! I use the blue painters tape and 12-inch paper.

moto92 wrote:

here my hood in progress

Sweet man!!!! Looks good!!!!!!

i no yall are not liking the fushion paint ..but i loved it..been on 2years with no problems

Mine still looks pretty good. when it go's to crap.
i will eather paint it. or buy camo plastic. and never worry
about scratches again....

camo gets them too i got a few big ol chunks missin(due to pressure washer) its black underneath

Wheelin wrote:

i no yall are not liking the fushion paint ..but i loved it..been on 2years with no problems

Not knocking the Fusion Nick, I just couldn't get it to shine like the Valspar. It sprays dry. Yours does look good, no doubt.

yeah the fushion dont have a real glossy look..

No sanding between coats Jimbo?

I have not made up my mind on which paint i'm going to use yet. depends what color I want. Not many to choose from.

Marty , you already tired of the white....
What color you think you might go with now.....

Chris....

wvyankee2 wrote:

No sanding between coats Jimbo?

depends how much work you are wanting to put into it really.
i did wet sand the yellow in mine between coats with 1000. mainly i had no choice sense i guess damn little knats are attacted to wet yellow paint. but i did knock down any orange peel it had while i was doing it. it will end up with a smoother finish in the end.

moto92 wrote:

wvyankee2 wrote:

No sanding between coats Jimbo?

depends how much work you are wanting to put into it really.
i did wet sand the yellow in mine between coats with 1000. mainly i had no choice sense i guess damn little knats are attacted to wet yellow paint. but i did knock down any orange peel it had while i was doing it. it will end up with a smoother finish in the end.

Yank, motos right, I sanded mine between coats to cut down on the orange peel, which you will most likley have due to having to load the paint on so heavy to keep it glossy. If you sand-through its no big deal, just keep painting.

Well, got them all sanded and ready for paint. Just waiting on a nice day. 63 and rainy the next couple days here.

ridepate wrote:

I tried to use Prep-Sol for a final wipe-down but found it contributed to fish-eyes for some reason, I used laquer-thinner for my final wipe followed by a tack-rag.
.

Yank - remember this - if your plastics are sittin somewhere that dust or something else can get on them - you may need to re-lacquer thinner them then tack rag again - just to be safe - would hate to painta couple of coats and find a "bug" somewhere.....

Have not wiped them down yet. Just got em sanded.