painting plastic

[John]

I'm about to paint my 87 Hurricane. The body is plastic. Prep work is
almost done including repair of the stress cracks and scrapes.
The paint store wants to sell me plastic cleaner. adhesion promoter,
primer activator. There seems to be concerns over the paint sticking
to the plastic properly. Since these guys tend to only deal with cars
I don't want to buy a bunch of stuff i don't really need ($150). Any
advice would be appreciated.

[Tony Cooper]

Check with any body shop and ask their advice. There are as
many plastic panels on automobiles as sheet metal. Almost
all "bumpers" are now plastic.

In my opinion, the plastic cleaner is unnecessary. Use any
degreaser or solvent. Mineral spirits or lacquer thinner
will work fine. Dunno what an adhesion promoter or primer
activator is, but I'd go with a self-etching primer after
scuffing the finish or wet sanding it with 1200 to 2000 grit
wet sandpaper. If you are going to prime it (and you
should) the self etching primer is just a little bit more.
Make sure the primer sets up before finish painting.
Consider a clearcoat overfinish.

--
Tony Cooper aka: tony_co...@yahoo.com
Provider of Jots and Tittles

[Cameron Cook]

Yeah, just what Tony said. make sure to use primer and paint for plastic,
it's out there. I've done a few and it comes out pretty nice.

CRs'
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