well..i attempted painting my grill and the piece around it because it was getting faded, especially up near the hood where it was getting noticable. and well...it didnt turn out as good as i thought it would. its black and its all even, but it just doesnt have any gloss to it, AT ALL. i sanded with 600 gritt and painted w/ krylon fusion gloss black, but it just didn't seem too get dark enough, or glossy enough. so i picked up a can of some duplicolor trim paint and it got it darker, but still no gloss.

so my question is...what could i be doing wrong? i tried applying a clear coat as well in an unnoticable area, and it just turned out really cloudy. there is some stuff made by duplicolor that said premium high gloss, but it didnt really say if it was for plastic or not, so should i stay away from it? and one said laquer and another said acrylic, whats the difference? lastly, should i just take it somewhere and get them to respray and clear coat it for me? anyone know how much it might cost?

thanks

Cody

 

krylon? duplicolor? might want to take it to a professional, when it comes to getting a match and a good shine, you need a real paint(ppg, martin senior, dupont, ect.) and a real clear coat. this will also give you room to bring back the shine(if its done right) down the road with a little buffin. if you strip off what you've done yourself, it will be less prep for a shop and therefore cheaper. if your just talkin a grill the most your looking at is a couple hundred bucks

 

im taking my grill to my buddy, i want to see if he can paint my chrome bumpers....but i dont know if the paint will stay on.

 

let me know if that works out cause it would surely shock the hell out of me!

 

I used Krylon for plastics gloss black on mine and its glossy enough and perfect. Did no prep exept for cleaning, thats all you need to do.

 

hmmm..thanks for the help guys. if nothing else works out, i might just try sanding it back down again, spraying a primer, and trying the high gloss duplicolor stuff. i dunno though, maybe i'm putting the coats on too light.

 

spray it enough so that it does not run and your good.

 

yeah, thats my only other guess is that i was trying so hard to not get runs in it, that i put it on way too light. i might try this tomorrow with the primer and high gloss duplicolor, because the trim duplicolor only said universal black. the only thing is with the high gloss can is one was a lacquer and one was an acrylic. anyone have an idea of which one would be best? and which primer would be good? i guess i'm not too familiar with this paint stuff

thanks

Cody

 

Acrylic is more durable. Try spraying it wet enough to not run and keep the shine. If you spray it to dry it wont look to good.

If you paint over what you've already done make sure the first paint wasn't lacquer. If it is it might lift and bubble on ya.

 

well my dads friend is either really busy, or just doesn't wanna do it. BUT i found a pretty good thread on this, are we allowed to post to other forums? ive seen it done before but i'm not too sure. i'll delete it if it causes any trouble later.

http://www.gmfullsize.com/forum/show...hlight=painted

..i know i know, a gm forum don't flame me for it.

tell me what you guys think though

 

That looks like a pretty good how-to article. Looks like they covered it pretty well.
Personally I usually wet sand with 800 for final surface prep, but 400 should be fine too.

Be sure to remove all of that first stuff you sprayed though unless you're using the same brand again. Especially if you think the initial surface prep might've been not good enough...the most important part of the paint job is the prep work to make sure things stick and won't come off the first time it gets hit by a bug or pressure washer.

 

My 08 XL has a textured black grill, bumper cover & bumpers. Plan to paint them to match. The adhesion promoter is a clear primer used when painting plastics. The guy in the GM painting write up used it on the sanded down plastic valance and in between filler primer coats. Sounds excessive to me. But I plan to wet sand the textured plastic upper bumper cover & grill, apply Duplicolor adhesion promoter, apply filler primer, sand & filler primer till its smooth then top coat. I have a buddy that's a Ford dealer bodyman. He uses Duplicolor for small jobs, says its good quality paint.

 

Cody,

Try using fluorescent lighting when spray painting, you can see when the paint is laying "wet" which is the key to a gloss paint job. That's what body men do.

Jerry