Painting Dash Pieces?

I took out all of my dash pieces including my arm rest pieces on the doors. Every piece is plastic. I started out sanding every piece very smooth, 100 grit, with an electric hand held vibrating sander. Then i fiberglass resined every piece with 3 thick layers. All the pieces dryed and so now i need some advice on which sand paper to use, and how i should go about painting my pieces black. I have high build primer in a can, black auto paint in a can, and clear coat in a can. What grit paper should i start out with? What grit should i work up to? how many coats of each paint should i use? Should i sand after the primer? I have not wet sanded before, is this appropriate for this project? Is there certain types of sandpaper just for wetsanding? I need a step by step process on what i should do after the resining. I want a high gloss fiberglass look to the pieces. If anyone can help please do so, Thankyou.

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03 F150 on 24's
HU:Pioneer DVD5700
Frt:MC57
Subs:(12)S12L7
Amps:(3)KX2500.1's, MC-2004

Well I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but you didn't have to resin anything the was already plastic. Plastic will paint fine if you spray on a adhesion promoter after you sand the plastic smooth to get rid of the factory texture. I use bulldog brand and you can by it at wal-mart. Well since you already resined it all this is what you do.

sand the resin to 360 - 400 grit. make sure you don't have any sanding scratches.

spray 2 - 3 layer of primer

wet sand the primer with 400 - 600 grit.

inspect the piece for sanding scratches, dirt, nicks, and other imperfections.

spray 3 coats of your black auto spray let dry 15 minutes between coats in ideal condition. (low humidity, about 70-85 degrees outside)

spray 3 - 4 med wet coats of your clear. let dry 15 - 20 minutes between coats in ideal condition.

now let it set overnight.

come back and inspect it. It won't be perfectly smooth but it should be shiny. If you like it enough great if not time to buff.

wet sand with 1500
wet sand again with 2000

get a buffer and compound the shine back out with a fine grit rubbing compound.

you can buff out dirt, and runs. that could end up in you clear.

finnal note

I hope you paint are the same brand. if not you might have an issue with products repelling one another. If this happens you'll know it right away. The clear will crack up as soon as it hits.

practice with the spray cans, if you start doing more projects with paint get a gravity feed spray gun, and an air compressor. Buy the paint from and autobody supply shop and spray that. 100 times better with a little practice. But wear a respirator.

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Alright sweet! Thanks a lot for the help.

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03 F150 on 24's
HU:Pioneer DVD5700
Frt:MC57
Subs:(12)S12L7
Amps:(3)KX2500.1's, MC-2004

you can paint plasitc part without the adhesion promotor yes. but it's still a good idea to use it. pastic expands and shrinks with hot and cold, it also give off a gas with the change in temp. the spray can paints will allow it to breath enough not to bubble. but when you start to use real paint it's a whole different story. believe me I have learned from personnal experience. always you the adhension promoter.   good paint is expensive and you don't want to waste any of it.

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alrite I still have a few more questions. I just got done sanding all the resined pieces. I started at 80 grit then went to 100,150,230,340,400. Is this good to work up little by little like i just did? Or does it not matter, for example I go from 80 grit to 400 grit. Also i am going to do 3 coats of high build primer tomorrow morning. How long should i wait to wet sand after the last coat of primer is sprayed on? Should I wet sand starting at 300 or 400? If i want to go to 2000 grit should i work my way up or should i go straight from 400 to 1500 to 2000? My guess on "wet sanding" is that I rub a wet cloth on the piece i want to sand and then start sanding with the special wet sand paper. If this isnt correct someone please inform me. Dave I looked at your website and I have to say your projects are crazy! I dream about doing those. I can surely trust you with any info you give me. Thanks for the help.
                            Andy

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03 F150 on 24's
HU:Pioneer DVD5700
Frt:MC57
Subs:(12)S12L7
Amps:(3)KX2500.1's, MC-2004

It's good to step up with the sand paper like you did. You prolly didn't need to do all of those steps but you have the right idea. 80, 120, 220, 360 is what I do. If you try to go from 80 to 400 without steps in between you won't get all of the sanding scratches. And if you do get them all out it's because it took you a long time. Now on the primer give it about 30 minutes in the sun just to make sure it has dried. Wet sand your primer with 400. There is not trick to wet sanding. For smaller parts I use a cup and dip my paper in the water. Big stuff I spray down with a hose. When your done dry it off, then wipe it down with a tach cloth just before you spray on the base coat. You do not want to sand out the primer to 1500 or 2000. 400 is good. You want it smooth enough that all of the sanding scratches are gone but if it is too smooth the base coat has less to stick to so it could peel. Use a tack cloth before each layer of base coat to remove any dust left on the surface, and don't touch it with you hands to keep oils off of it too. People have different ideas on clear coat. Doing it without running it is the tricky part it has to go on heavy but not so heavy it runs. Personnally I put on 3 medium wet coats wait 15-20 minutes between coats. Let it dry overnight, then wet sand with 1500, 2000. then apply 3 more coats let it dry overnight again. After it dries wet sand with 1500, 2000 and buff it. (this might be hard if you don't have a buffer.) again tack coat between every coat. Well I hope it helps I'm about out of secrets. I'm glad you like my website. Honestly I haven't updated it for awhile. I'm working on a car right now and I'll be posting the pics when it's done. Then I'm be changing my whole site.   Good Luck with your project. With a little practice you will be able to paint any of your projects like a pro. Let us know how it turns out.
And be patient with your paint. It is a lot of steps but rushing it will only make more work for yourself, take you time it's worth it.

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Sorry but i got some more questions. When i wet sand should i use my electric vibrating sander? Or should i just use my hand? When you say tack cloth do you mean just take a clean rag and clean off the surface without any water? Is a buffer the same thing as the sander I have? After I am done wet sanding with 400 and have cleaned off the surface, Should I start at 1500 grit with the buffer? Thankyou for all your info, i wouldnt even have been able to do this without the12volt.


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03 F150 on 24's
HU:Pioneer DVD5700
Frt:MC57
Subs:(12)S12L7
Amps:(3)KX2500.1's, MC-2004

When you wet sand you should use your hand for any thing with curves and use a sanding block for anything flat. The primer will sand out really fast. The electric sander could go through it and you don't want that. Also when I say tack cloth I mean tack cloth. You can buy them in the paint section of wal-mart, and prolly anywhere that sells painting supplies. It is a special cloth that will remove all dust and will not leave lint behind. They are cheap like 1.99 for the throw away kind and 3.99 for a washable one. Now when you said.

"After I am done wet sanding with 400 and have cleaned off the surface, Should I start at 1500 grit with the buffer?"

I'm not sure what you meant. After you wet sand the primer with 400 grit and clean it off it's time for base coat. Do not sand the base coat at all only tack cloth before each coat. After your clear coat is completely dry then you can go right to wet sanding with 1500 grit then 2000 then buffing with a rubbing compound do not sand the clear coat with anything more course then 1500 you don't want to go through it, all you are doing is getting out and roughness (also called orange peel) and dirt. Some sanders do have accessories so you can use them as buffers. In my beginning stages I used a palm sander and used pieces of cotton cloth to make it like a buffer. It worked ok. The pros use a dewalt buffer. I just got one and haven't even had a chance to use it yet. It's my new toy.

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alrite i just did the first coat of black and i went out and bought a tack cloth from lowes. The pieces are looking very sharp. I went to ace hardware, lowes, and walmart and no one has 2000 grit sandpaper. I was able to find 1500 grit though. Should i wet sand the clear coat? Or just regular sanding with my hand with the 1500 and 2000 grit. Thankyou

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03 F150 on 24's
HU:Pioneer DVD5700
Frt:MC57
Subs:(12)S12L7
Amps:(3)KX2500.1's, MC-2004

you might be able to find the 2000 grit from an autozone or advance auto but if you can't it's okay you will just be buffing for a little longer, spray bottle clear is softer then professional autobody clear anyway so you should be okay. and definitely wet sand the clear by hand on curves and with a block on anything that is flat. Try to stay away from sanding hard angles, the clear will be thinner in those places.

Sounds like it's coming along good. Take some pictures for us. I'm surprised noone else has comments on the thread. I thought more people painted. I'm glad I could help. I asked a million questions when I was learning to paint, and I'm still learning all the time. A friend of mine works for and autobody shop I bugged him a lot; and I'm on a first name baseis with the owner of our local autobody supply shop. He says there's trouble about everytime I come in cause he know the first think I say is. "So I saw this on a car the other day, how do I do that?", or "well I tried this and it didn't work what did I do wrong". Keep asking questions it's the only way to learn. And if the wife says you can't have an air compressor tell he it will prolly be in your like longer then her!!! LOL jk

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Haha Thats great! Im 17 Im not married yet, but im really into car audio and like putting all my money i get from work into my car. Here are the pics of the pieces, I will have more when everything is on the dash. I also carpeted some of the big dash pieces in black swirl.

https://img37.echo.cx/my.php?image=p10711934yy.jpg
https://img37.echo.cx/my.php?image=p10711926vp.jpg
https://img37.echo.cx/my.php?image=p10711958ep.jpg
https://img37.echo.cx/my.php?image=p10712024vu.jpg

On the last pic you can see the main piece that sits in the middle of the dash that fits around my cd player. Today after I used a tack cloth on the 3rd coat I sprayed the 3rd coat and right after i was done a piece of sand flew up on to it, boy was i pissed, and so i tried using my finger to get it out and as you can see its all ruined at the bottom right. What should i do?? I did so much work on all these pieces i would hate to start over.

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03 F150 on 24's
HU:Pioneer DVD5700
Frt:MC57
Subs:(12)S12L7
Amps:(3)KX2500.1's, MC-2004

Looks good except for that last piece :'( sorry to hear that. Just from experience you are probably going to have to redo that peice, sucks yes I know but if you try to sand down just that one part you are going to have waves in it and you will never be able to color match because the surrounding area will be hit with overspray and become darker than the rest. I am on my third try with fiberglassing my infinity components into my door panels and each time I always f**k up when it comes to smoothing the rest of the door out. I just now finally got the hint to sand it down and use filler primer to cover some of the bumps and such. The first time I did what you did and tried to use resin and that failed because it cracked when the door panel flexed. the second time I tried to use bondo to make it smooth and used my electric hand sander to get that smooth and ended up with waves so now I am stuck at step one.

Krylon has some sort of paint that currently adheres directly to plastic without any prep. For a color change I believe that would do the trick for you 91. Could be mistaken, but I saw it on DIY and I can't evne recall the product line. (It was 2 AM, leave me be) I'll post later if I recall. Sry.

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1998 Monte Carlo w/
Eclipse CD8454
2xRockford 5.25" Power 2-way T152C
2xRockford 6"x9" Punch 3-way FRC4369
1xMemphis 16-MCH1300 5-channel
2xKicker 12" L5 Solobaric-2 Ohm

Yeah, that product line is called Krylon Fusion for plastic. You can go to Advance auto or autozone and find it in different colors (not sure about exotic colors though, I think they just have placid colors: black, silver, green, red...etc) Don't really know how well it works but they say it does and the good thing is that you shouldn't have to put that much clear coat on it because it is already shiny and you probably won't be too rough on your dash.

Hey man, Looks good.
For future reference don't touch it wet. Even if you get dirt in it. Let it dry get it out by wet sanding and buffing. It shouldn't be too hard to fix it. you will need to sand out the area until it smooth again. as long as you using a flat base coat, once it's smooth you should be able to spray that area using a blending method out to the rest that of the piece. 3 coats of base and clear coat the whole piece over again.   That will do it.

91silvy
I've always found matching the factory finish to be a little tricky. You can match honda factory interior just by following all the step we went over for AJRXtreme only don't buff out the clear coat.   The orange peel from the clear coat gives it more of a factory finish. I think the chev interier has more texture then a honda. I would go in search for a textured spray paint that gives you close to the desired finish. Each if it's not the right color. Use it and then use the matching factory color in flat on top of the textured paint. Then just use an acylic spray on clear coat.

mI_what
to mold to door panels you really should be using a fexible filler. Evercoat make some. They add a flex adjent so the vibrataion from opening and closing the doors does't crack it, and make sure you plastic is like 80 grit rough when you apply filler to it. Also primer isn't for filling bumps. Use a glazing compound for filling pin holes and things. As for the waves sand them out using your hand like a sanding block on the curves.

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'ppreciate that d_arnold. Glad I found this website, cause I'm still learning.

Glad I could help, I love the site too. People on the forum have helped me do a countless number of projects.

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Question d_arnold, I follwed your instructions on paiting but when i get to the clearcoat ive put 3 coats on right now, it looks really nice.  So I continued on... when "wet sanding" how wet should it be ? After I was done it looked more like I had scuffed it then polished, More like a residue that was left from the water, but is the rubbing compound going to get rid of this ? (Do you have a compound that you like to use ?)

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2004 2.4l SRT-4

Wet sanding keeps your paper clean and the water washes the sanding particles away. For smaller parts you can just dip your paper in a cup of water or use a spray bottle to wet the part it's self. When you have wet sanded with 1500 and 2000 it will look hazey and dull. The rubbing compound will fix that and it will come back shiny again. This is going to take awhile without a buffer or some kind. By wet sanding and buffing you are removing any orange peel, roughness, or dirt that landed on your project. As for compounds. I use 3M. Autobody supply will have a range of compounds. It's easy to get carried away with all the extra stuff you can get to make your paint jobs better.   After compounding you can hand rubb with a glaze/ sealer. Never apply wax for at least 30 days. For smaller stuff the little bottle of 3M rubbing compound found at wal-mart works just fine.



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I got a question too. Do you have a particuliar website in which you purchase all medium from? I have went to Advance Auto, O' Riellys, and Autozone and could not find "rage gold" body filler, also I know that painting by spray can isn't cost effective for big parts so what brand (cheaper than HOK paints) do you prefer? I have a 120PSI (I think) compressor and 1 1/2 gallon tank ( I only use it for painting my fiberglassed pieces.) Lastly, how do you know the ratio of paint to paint thinner, I am just getting started and am a little confused by the everybody's equations. thanks

mi_what: if you have a NAPA Auto Parts in your city, they carry Rage Gold bodyfiller, also, they carry DUPONT line of paint, it is cheaper than HOK, and if you go with DuPont's "NASON" brand, it will be even cheaper, and get pretty much the same results.

I actually use RM Diamont paints the most. I was getting my paints from a locally onwed auto body supply store until I found I could get it cheaper. Recently I've been order from Autobodysupply.net.   They are out of Texas and have to best prices on just about every thing.

HOK
Dupont
Diamont
3M
Matix

As far as mixing paints. I always ask for the tech sheets, they give the recommending mixing ratio. Most automotive basecoats are a 1:1 ratio with there reducer. At autobodysupply.net they sell pre mixed matrix brand paints. I have sprayed matrix clearcoat which needs to be mixed with a hardner, and it works as well as the twice as expensive Diamont. I have not ordered any basecoats online. But they do make it easy if you know what color you what.    Also these paints are not made to be sprayed on a laquer based primer. If you are going to spray professional basecoat/ clearcoat paint you need to also start spraying a good urethane based primer. Just to save you time you can't buy urethane based primer at wal-mart, autozone, or advance auto, believe me I looked several times at every spray can and they all use laquer witch will repell your clear and piss you off.   I use Evercoat brand from Kunkle auto supply. It's about $80.00 a gallon with the activator you need. Diamont makes a spray can for smaller stuff that's about $11 and U-Pol make a can for $15, cheaper to buy that gallon if you have that much to paint. And while we're at it don't forget a good prep solvent to remove all oils before you paint.

I just primed a project I've been working on today with the evercoat and I must say it's beautiful. I'll post all the pics at once when it's finished prolly only a few more weeks now.   

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Thanks d_arnold. That was extremely good, useful information. You say you use Evercoat brand primer, and Matrix clear, do you find that they don't repel from most basecoats. I mean if I were to say purchase Evercoat primer, HOK or dupont base, and Matrix clear, would they adhere with each other properly or would the different brands repel each other? I read a post on here that was talking about how companies make primer and clear that only work with thier bases. I just want to make sure before I spray some and get all pissed off. I am looking at finishing sanding my fiberglassed door panel tomorrow so I will post pictures and I will probably keep asking you questions about which paints will adhere to what. I appreciate all your help.

I've used every combonation of Evercoat, Diamont, and U-POL urethane primers under Diamont basecoats, Napa basecoats, and with Matrix clear coats, Diamont clear coats, and Napa Clear Coats and never had a problem with any of them repeling. It's pretty safe to say that as long as the primer is urethane based and not laquer based, and you keep off any oils from finger or any thing else you will be fine.

The only time I ever had a problem was when I tried to cheap out on the primer and bought laquer based from wal-mart. Boy was I pissed. I put the base coat down and it looked great so I put on my first layer of clear, and it started lifting in random places. I was so mad. Clear Coat is expensive and I just wasted everything I had mixed. Once you add the hardner that's it. There is no saving that stuff.

I tell people to buy the same brand if they are useing spray cans like krylon, or plasticoat. It's safer that way. The spray cans are for such general use it hard to know the specifics. You just never know which spray can is going to repel and which isn't, so thats why you stick to the same brand.    

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Thanks dave. Do you have your own business by the way? I took a look at your website, you got some good stuff on there. I was just wondering because my friend and myself wanted to start up a shop when we ETS from the Army and I wanted to know if we got out and immediatly started shop, if we would be able to go full time. Now, I know that you probably wouldn't know because you don't know the city where I plan to start it up at, but what I am asking is if you find you have enough traffic to sustain business full time, or do you find that you can only work part time?

Well I used to have a shop. A partner and I owened Audio Xclusive of Woodside Delaware for about 2 years. Unforunitly it wasn't funded properly. I had very little money backing the busines. We were broken into 3 times. The 3rd time I couldn't afford the repairs to the shop. The messed it up pretty bad and we lost a lot of inventory. I had a awesome alarm installed after the first brake in. The second people that tried got caught because of the alarm. The 3rd people got in and wrecked shop so fast they were gone before the cops got there. So we closed after that. Now I only do installs on the side. I actually work full time at a website hosting company. My website will eventually be more of an e commerce site, thats one of my many projects. For the most part I only do side jobs at my house. I get jobs referred to me all the time and make pretty good money doing it that way.   I'm also going to be developing personnal websites after I finish my developing services website it's coming soon. But to answer your question we had a lot of traffic in the summer. In a short time we built up a good reputation of doing custom installs the other shops wouldn't do. I say if you can define your business and market that difference you will do fine. A word of advice put up some bars or just don't have windows. You just never know when someone will break in. It's not a question of if. It really a question of can you stop them when they try, and do you have the insurance and money to recover if thy succeed.


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Dave, You are the man. You have EXTREMELY helpful information for every question I asked. Let me know when you start doing personal webpages, I will be the first one to give you business for my business.

Thank a lot I'm glad I could help. I'll keep you updated on my new development website, and services. It's in the works now. I'm taking my time creating all original images and content. I'm more into web design right now then paint if you can believe that. I can't wait to see your door panels I bet they are awesome. Let me know if you post then some where other then this thread. So i can take a look.

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now you guys need to invest into a nice hvlp gravity feed and move away from krylon and onto dupont hehe

sorry it's just i got my new gun at work and am very very happy with it. so my old descent gun becomes my home project gun.

check out alsocorp whenever you guys get a chance for ideas on paint and the such. amazing amazing stuff. hopefully this fall/winter I will finish restoring my 68 firebird and paint it with alsa candy orange, or lime green, havent decided yet

YEah, I have a gravity feed gun...It's a small one though I don't think it's the one that's used to paint a car. Like I said, all I use it for though is to paint my fiberglass creations...I used to use all sorts of spray paints but then I realized how much of a pain in the ass it was to try and find the same brand and color (advance auto only carries two cans at one time, then you have to wait til their next shipment) Thanks for the info though.