# spray can painting bumper & door trim



## TigerUK (Apr 1, 2012)

Hi I'm trying to improve the looks of my humble mk4 golf. Nothing crazy just colour coding the trim to color of body. Perhaps lower it a little - but not too sure about this to be honest, I dont want to mess with the suspension too much and wear out the bushes, wishbones and other mechanics of the axles.

I''ve sanded the front bumper trim and primed it using hycote plastic primer.

I've been researching and very confused, they're all sorts of talk about adhesion promoters, epoxy primers on top of the base primer etc.

I thought it was as simple as 2 coats primer, 2 coats paint, 3 coats clear coat and boom. Job done.

It's starting to go all over my head a little bit to be honest. Any tips will be appreciated.


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

Dont worry about epoxy primer you wont need that.

Plastic primer is a 1k product that is clear when sprayed, you apply one coat to plastic, this is what they mean by an adhesion promoter. its spayed on first prior to priming.
Unless you have the plastic primer that you have from hycote.

Right with these golf trims they will need to be flatted first, as they have a textured finish. Remove this by sanding with some P240 then work your way up with finer grades of wet flatting paper, finishing with P800, after the trims are nice and smooth, clean properly with some solvent degreaser.

primer wise if your using the highcote primer apply two-three coats nice and evenly,allowing ten-fifteen mins between coats to dry properly. Leave over night to fully dry. Then wet flat the primer with some P1000 flating paper until nice and smooth, trying not to go through.
Clean trim again with solvent degreaser.
Colour wise apply nice even coats until covered leaving time between coats, no need to flat between coats. Leave for fifteen mins. Then your ready to to apply your laquer two-three nice even coats should be fine. 
hope that helps all be it a basic guide for you. :thumb:


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## TigerUK (Apr 1, 2012)

thanks for the tip andy.

Is IPA good enough as the solvent degreaser? 

I've primed the trim and it looks nice and smooth. It's smooth enough right now to paint on I beleive. Only one issue though. The primer is weak - real weak. as I'm smoothing it with p400 it comes off without any effort at all. Is it supposed to be this easy to take off?

Does it harden over time?


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## Fiesta-125 (Mar 18, 2012)

TigerUK said:


> thanks for the tip andy.
> 
> Is IPA good enough as the solvent degreaser?
> 
> ...


400is too low grit to be flatting with, you at least 800 or even 1000 to flat. Make sure you're doing it wet too.


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## TigerUK (Apr 1, 2012)

ok i used 1200 and got the layer smooth. But the results aren't so great. Sprayed it and the finished product is very patchy. I think that could be cause by the fact that I rested the trim facing upand was holding the spray can facing down. I will have to redo it so the the bumper trim is rested like it would on the car and then spray it while holding the can vertical.


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## TigerUK (Apr 1, 2012)

any tips on how I should go about sanding the base coat and reapplying new base coat? WIll it bond, or do I have to go back down to primer level?


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## Fiesta-125 (Mar 18, 2012)

No paint will bond to old paint the newer then better as it's more sticky. Juat go over with 1000 grit or more then 2-3 coats of base 30 mins apart then two lacquer 30 mins


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