Paint Plastic
 

well last year I bought all of theg equipment including a SATA gun and painted my outdrives

My next project is my girlfriends sons mini crotch rocket
What would you guys recomend for painting plastic?

Scuff it down real good with 400 and put a few coats of Bulldog adhesion promotor on it. Shoulbe good to go with anything after that.

Your best bet is to go to an automotive supply shop that specializes in paints. Not only do you need to prep it as glass dave sugests but you will also need some aditive for the paint to give for the the lack of better terms flex. I did some plastic parts on my truck a number of years back and my local auto parts store was tremendous help.

What Dave said- Bulldog.

I've been told by automotive painters that the flex additive does nothing once the paint cures. Don't know that as fact and I've continued to use it. It's not that expensive.

I painted the funky purple fuel tank on my son't KX a few years ago- and it promptly peeled off. Fuel vapor penetrates and evaporates right through the plastic tank- very slowly, but enough to damage the paint. I redid it with an epoxy primer and then used a polyurethane and this time - no troubles. It's sat now for years and no peeling.

As with all paint, prep is everything.

We used vinyl dye on corvette interior plastic parts. you can get it at good auto stores and fabric shops, Rainbow Industries in (so)CA. is the only company I know of that makes it in cool colors, (like 1969 Camaro Hugger Orange).

Clean w 409, then wipe down w mineral spirits to get the surface clean of oils and spray it on in very light coats. dries in 10 minutes.

Chris your right. Flex additives lose their ability to "flex" over time. I have always thought they were a waste myself.

there is also a product called blend prep and/or scuffit . it is a paste that comes in a tube or pint bottle. you use it with a grey scuff pad and water. this methos insures complete and even surface prep with out breaking thru the initial skin of plastic and causing micro abrasions or small grooves caused by sand paper, which will cause swelling later on in the paint process.
i just did a kawi 750 in a 3 stage ppg irodescence baby blue pearl. this was how i preped the surface. then primed using ppg urethane primer, follwed by their sealer then top coat. the only product used outside of ppg's was the clear. it is made by hb body, a european clear, medium to high biuld that only requires 2 coats. the urethanes tend to flexible enough. and the hb clear sands very well and has a high u-v inhibitor in it.
besdies too many total coats of whatever will diminish any paint jobs flex value and result in cracking anyway.
take your time, reduce properly , and donot apply more to be safe. more is not always better.

just painted the golf cart using Bull Dog and regular paint with clear. Didn't crack at all. Just as Dave said.