agpatel
Touring Car Champion
- Location
- Greensboro, NC
- Car(s)
- 2006 GTI MkV
So I wanted to paint my lowers and talked to my dad who works for SEM Products. The first thought was to sand down the texture and go from there but he brought home some Scuff and Clean. It is pretty much soap with pumice in it. Using it with a scouring pad it will smooth out the texture enough to were you are able to prime and paint it. It will not get rid of the texture, can if you spend the time to do it, but will take it down a good deal. I felt that it was easier to do it this way than sanding it a few times. On the rear bumper I just put the scouring pad on a DA and used it on med speed.
Below you can see the Scuff and Clean and the plastic prep that was used to clean up the plastic to get rid of the residue from the scuff and clean.
As you can see above the ares above the bumper were taped off so I would not scratch and paint and the lower section was taped off as I wanted to keep that black.
Once everything was cleaned on the car, all the parts were taken off the car and given one final once over.
The side skirt removal was difficult as it was held in by the rail and the tape, ended up pulling a little and just cutting the tape as my dad pulled on the skirt.
The tape was then removed using Xylene(3m adhesive remove will work as it is mostly Xylene) Just soaked a rag in it and put it on top of the foam tape and it just started to come off pretty easily.
Took the parts to my dads work to use their new spray booth:
We tinted the primer red so that it would take less coats of base coat as well if the base coat chips for any reason the priper is red. First a adhesion promoter was sprayed on and allowed to flash then 2 coats of primer were applied:
Pic's Primed and cured 24 hrs:
Went back the next day and started the sanding, first started out with 320 grit to knock off the orange peal and make them smooth then a final pass with 600 grit.
Once everything was sanded, all the parts were solvent cleaned and tack clothed outside the booth, and then once more inside the spray booth.
All the products that have been used and mixing the base coat for spraying:
First coat of PPG base coat was applied as you can see some of the deeper sanding marks can be seen...
Now the 2ed coat of base coat was applied:
Once the 2ed base coat was given time to flash, 2 coats of SEM Real Clear was applied:
The parts were then baked at 140*F for 20 min with a 10 min cool down time. This was to help cure the finish stronger and faster.
Final parts after baking and cool down:
I have not put them on the car yet but will be doing it soon, waiting a day or so to finish the curing process. The color is a exact match, PPG allows a +/- 0.2% delta from a standard paint color, which the eye can not see the difference of 0.2%. Once put next to the car the color is pretty much exact. Will post installed pics as soon as i get them on and get some tape to put the side skirts on. Which one is most people using, the one i found at the store was 30 mil and seemed to be too thin, do I need 45 or 60 mil?
Let me know if you have any questions. But hope this shows that you don't need to sand it down the whole way and its just another way to prep the texture plastic for painting.
Below you can see the Scuff and Clean and the plastic prep that was used to clean up the plastic to get rid of the residue from the scuff and clean.
As you can see above the ares above the bumper were taped off so I would not scratch and paint and the lower section was taped off as I wanted to keep that black.
Once everything was cleaned on the car, all the parts were taken off the car and given one final once over.
The side skirt removal was difficult as it was held in by the rail and the tape, ended up pulling a little and just cutting the tape as my dad pulled on the skirt.
The tape was then removed using Xylene(3m adhesive remove will work as it is mostly Xylene) Just soaked a rag in it and put it on top of the foam tape and it just started to come off pretty easily.
Took the parts to my dads work to use their new spray booth:
Pic's Primed and cured 24 hrs:
Once everything was sanded, all the parts were solvent cleaned and tack clothed outside the booth, and then once more inside the spray booth.
All the products that have been used and mixing the base coat for spraying:
First coat of PPG base coat was applied as you can see some of the deeper sanding marks can be seen...
Now the 2ed coat of base coat was applied:
Once the 2ed base coat was given time to flash, 2 coats of SEM Real Clear was applied:
The parts were then baked at 140*F for 20 min with a 10 min cool down time. This was to help cure the finish stronger and faster.
Final parts after baking and cool down:
I have not put them on the car yet but will be doing it soon, waiting a day or so to finish the curing process. The color is a exact match, PPG allows a +/- 0.2% delta from a standard paint color, which the eye can not see the difference of 0.2%. Once put next to the car the color is pretty much exact. Will post installed pics as soon as i get them on and get some tape to put the side skirts on. Which one is most people using, the one i found at the store was 30 mil and seemed to be too thin, do I need 45 or 60 mil?
Let me know if you have any questions. But hope this shows that you don't need to sand it down the whole way and its just another way to prep the texture plastic for painting.
Last edited:
