DIY front lip painting ???????
 

Alright people , bought myself a fron lip for my wagon bugeye which comes in primer ready to cloour code. Guess it needs a little rub down and I wanna pain it black to go with my morettes and black Grill and new 19" wheels :)

guess im looking for any advice to prep and paint and finsih it myself in my garage , maybe save a few bucks , wat ya think ???:Whatever_

It's all in the prep!! Iv done wheels and fog covers, can't really go wrong with Matt black!!

so wet n dry for a rub down then , and just spray on the matt black , any laquer after it or anything to stop chipping ???

Do you want Matt finish? Or lacquered?

If lacquered then plenty of black coats with flatting between, then 2-3 clear coats.

Or if it looks **** then you'll have to pay for it to be stripped then prep then paint.

what's it made of? usually they are either GRP (glassfiber) or ABS (moulded plastic) GRP is much more prone to chips but easier to paint, ABS is more flexible so more resistant to chips but the paint is more likely to flake off as it's much more difficult to get a good key for the it to stick to, best option is to use 2K paint system, starting with an etch primer, couple coats of filler primer then black base coat finished with a couple of coats of matt or satin lacquer (clear coat), do you have access to a compressor and gun? because can't do thie above process with rattle cans.
A tip when applying the lacquer is to not let the base coat dry to long, I normally leave it 15-20 mins (depending of air temp) usually I can get the gun cleaned, pop the kettle on and mix the lacquer in this time then shot the lacquer, doing this it's allows the clear to stick to the base coat better so it's less likely to peel off. also try to use the same make of product ie PPG, U-pol, sikens etc for the complete job doing this means it's less likely you'll encounter a reaction between products.

Yeh i think i want a lacquer finish, was just wondering how easy it is . So ya reckon build it up with 3 coats after a good rub down when it arrives the 2 coats of lacquer . If i make a balls up i guess i could take it to be done professionaly but its only a lip after all , how bad can it be lol !

the most important part is prep, getting the surface right, not only smooth and free from blemishes but you also need to ensure the paint sticks to the part hence i'd use an acid etch primer which will bite into the surface and provide a good key for the following coats of paint, it doesn't really matter how many base coats go on so long as it's fully covered and even, the main reason for multple coats of clear is to deepen the shine, not really an issue with matt or satin finishes so I would go mad with the lacquer, there's a point where the finish starts to look 'heavy', to much paint can be as bad as not enough.

If its the Scott Lowe/HT Auto type that sits underneath the bumper you cannot go wrong with Plastidip, it gives a real OE finish and is easy to apply and hides any imperfections.

Attachment 56092
Attachment 56093

its made from GRP fibreglass .Got it from HT auto's on the bay . Think im gonna go with the matt black finish give it a good keying and rub down the apply 3 coats with one coat of lacquer and see how it goes .

What colour is the base fibreglass moulding?

The reason I ask is that I have had a f/glass splitter/lip, and it suffered badly with stone chips which showed through the paint as pale grey:(

I now have one in black injected PU, much better.

Have you thought of gloss black by Hammerite? Would be relatively easy to touch up too. When you get the inevitable stone chips..........

By the way, plastidip gives a rubbery finish so stones bounch rather than chip, as above, painted will look like pebble dash before too long.