Spray Paint Question

Scarfacé

Scarfacé

Scarfacé

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Joined
14 Dec 2002
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2,428
Hello,

Someone nicked the plastic wing mirror cover from my MK2 Ford Focus about a month ago. I refused to pay Ford £40 for a bit of plastic so I got a cover off ebay for £8. The only problem being that I had to get one in a different colour as they don't often pop up on ebay.

I have fitted it to my car so it looks a bit odd having one silver wing mirror and one black one...

Do I need to sand it back, primer it, spray it and then laquer it or is there an easier/cheaper way of doing it?

Cheers.
 
You can take it to a bodyshop and they'd probably charge you £30 for a little job like that. Should have either waited for one the right colour or got one from Fords.
 
iaind said:
What colour is it meant to be?
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Black.

I don't mind doing it myself... I've sprayed grills and stuff before, they have usually been primed already though.

Rather pay £20 on materials and £10 on the cover and do it myself then pay Ford £40 for one already done...
 
You won't need to prime it unless it's chipped/scratched/damaged. Flat it with 600 wet then go for the paint. Better still, get a paint shop to do it, this way you're guaranteed not to get a rubbish rattle can finish :p
 
It really depends on how good a finish you want from it. Its only a small area and if you just want the colour to match, you could just key it and use hammerite. Easy and cheap - entirely depends how fussy you are
 
Halfords Project Pack
Paint Colour
Lacquer

Will come to about £14 in total IIRC

600 grit up the old one, spray the new colour on in lots of very fine coats (the more you do, ie the longer it takes, the better the finish). 5 coats minimum IMO!

Leave it overnight, laquer it, 2 coats for black imo. First one should be nice a light to get surface tacky for following coat which can be quite (not too) thick.

Leave for 48hours if possible, very carefully wet sand it with 1200 or finer paper / pad.

Dry off = admire your work = ??? = win
 
Scarfacé said:
Black.

Rather pay £20 on materials and £10 on the cover and do it myself then pay Ford £40 for one already done...
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That just doesn't make sense.

It won't cost £20 in materials anyway. What alec said is the proper way though. I wouldn't use halfords. The 'hycote' range of paints in the car spares shops are good enough for the job.

Can of spray £5
Laquer £5
Sandpaper £2
 
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Dogbreath said:
That's odd, I'm sure I remember some paint expert telling me fairly recently what a bad idea wet sanding was prior to putting top coats on...
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It's done to get rid of imperfections lumps, bumps and runs that may be from the old paint. It also provides a key for the paint to adhere to. When using a rattle can, it's best to sand between coats with 1000+ grade paper as well to get a better smoother finish
 
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Dogbreath said:
That's odd, I'm sure I remember some paint expert telling me fairly recently what a bad idea wet sanding was prior to putting top coats on...
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Nope, wet sanding is just fine. You'd also want to wipe it down with wax and grease remover after though (2 cloths, 1 on, 1 off) and then tack cloth it.

Dry sanding is just a bad idea altogether imo unless you are doing some heavy sanding with coarse paper. Dry paper loads easily, ending up with clumps on the surface. Continue to sand with that paper and you will introduce a bunch of deep scratches and end up worse than before. This is before you even think about the horrendous dust when dry sanding. Doing it with holed paper on a machine with extraction is much better but I'd still go for wet every time.

You shouldn't sand on basecoat prior to clearcoat though, ever. Well, not the final coat of base anyway.
 
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