Colour coding

[pumpkin7]

how easy is it to colour code the strips around the car? is it possible to do it yourself? i only ask because both the front and rear strips on mine are damaged, and i would have thought you would have to sand them down, which would get rid of the damage, and then primer, paint and lacquer... but i don't know!
thanks =)

damage:







it looks dirty 'cause it hasn't been washed all winter. i plan on claying and polishing it goooood next week

ta

[ian7675]

If you try searching through the MOD's section, I'm sure I've read threads about this. You're on the right lines though with the sanding etc...Hope that helps a bit.

[kingsize]

hi mate. em you would be better taking it to a body shop and get them to smooth all you bumper strips and then getting them to spary them the same colour as your car it looks well better when there smothed.

[TheFinn]

I'm with Kingsize about having the surface texture smoothed prior to applying colour. If you just paint&lacquer the textured surface it won't match the gloss on the body panels as light reflects differently from the textured finish than from the smooth surface on the body panels.

If you choose to sand the strips (i.e. sand through the factory underlayers), you should then apply a plastic adhesion primer meant for PE plastics. Without a proper adhesion primer you'll risk the paint flaking off later. And the clearcoat should have a flexi agent added to it, otherwise there's the danger of it developing hairline cracks as the soft plastic flexes.

[deni.babe]

colour coding without the proper stuff is risky as most people think you can just spray the aerosol onto the plastic which you can but after a month or so the paint will flake,it wouldn't cost a lot from a body shop you could rub out the texture yourself to save on the labour they use the proper plastic primer which doesn't flake then paint and laquer it ,looks nice smooth.