Plasics Painting?

[Sean-NT700]

hi,
I have a Silver NT700 that has the plastics a little faded. When I armor all them they look good. I was wondering if anyone has ever painted theirs and what paint they used. or my brother recommended that I spray them with clear coat. But I think personally that clear coat will be too shiny. Any ideas or suggestions. The body shop's around here wanna charge 65 dollars a piece and with the two top lids and the 4 pieces on each side plus the back piece that hold the license plate. That can get expensive.
Thanks,
Sean

 

[Bear]

Re: Plasics Painting

Sean,
Paint will not adhere to a surface that was treated with Armor-All. You will have to wash the surface very well with Ammonia (Wear rubber gloves) You will probably need to do it two or three times. You would then WET Sand the surface with very fine sandpaper--a body shop person can tell you what grit to use. Prep work is very important because any imperfection will show. I am not sure if just clear coating will do the job--again, you should talk to a pro on that. Are you talking about the black plastic ? If you are--Armor All is a very temporary solution. On my bike I use Turtle Wax ICE in the spray bottle. It is the consistency of water. It is easy to apply. Use it on the whole bike. It will restore the black plastic. You will still have to get the Armor All off with Ammonia. I would not use Armor All on anything on the NT, or my car, or anything else, for that matter. A friend bought an inflatible dinghy to get to his mooring. He Armor Alled it and it looked great. Problem--if he ever got a puncture no patch would stick. Hypalon is porous, so the Ammonia would not work. In effect he had a 2K dinghy he could never patch.

 

[Phil Tarman]

Re: Plasics Painting

I haven't thought about painting the whole bike because the silver still polishes up nicely on mine after 53,000 miles and sitting outside in the sun nearly every day.

But I have painted my silver big pannier lids (and now I've painted a brand new black 2011 big lid). I scraped mine up once and sold them to Alex for $250 and bought another set. When those got scraped up, I let the insurance company buy me the next set because the bike had fallen over in the hospital parking lot due to soft asphalt there. I sold that scraped up set for $250 to someone else here on the Forum. But when I dropped the bike in my driveway one night and scraped up the 3rd set I decided to get out of the scraped-up big pannier lid business and paint them myself. So I rough-sanded them with 100 grit paper and then sprayed them with rattle-can semi-gloss black paint.

I decided I really liked that look and when a busted pannier latch ended up with me slamming the right-side lid too hard and breaking the inside of the lid (where the striker plates mount) I found a way to buy only one lid from David Silver Spares US distributor for a bit less than $200. It came last week and on Saturday I rough-sanded a brand-new metallic black lid and sprayed it with rattle-can semi-gloss black. It looks great on pannier lids, but I doubt if you'd want to paint your whole bike that way.

 

[Bear]

Re: Plasics Painting

I was not clear which part of the bike Sean wanted to paint. The black plastic portions which are textured would not benefit from a clearcoat or paint. I use Turtle Wax ICE on the whole bike and it really shines. It does a great job on the black plastic. I think that your black lids on a silver bike would look great. I like the look of the lids I got from Phil that I painted (Four hours each). I'll probably cry if I scratch them. The metallic black is beautiful on a red bike.

 

[Warren]

Re: Plasics Painting

Someone on this list mentioned painting the black plastic parts. I think someone also mentioned using Krylon spay paint that they advertise as being for plastics. Since Sean mentioned the parts were faded I assume he is referring to the black plastic parts.

Quote from post below

Just removed all plastic except around saddle bags, that never turns gray. Washed down with ammonia and painted with Krylon Fusion satin black, looks like factory and matches saddle bag trim perfectly.
Harry

 

[slider]

Re: Plasics Painting

Phil, where's a pic of the silver with black lids? I'll trade you a pic of an all black one. :smile:

 

[Phil Tarman]

Re: Plasics Painting

Slider, here you go. I'll be waiting for your picture.

 

[EX Winger]

Re: Plasics Painting

HEY Phil, that is looking PLUM almost stealthyL , seriously it looks real good. Darn shame you went out of the scraped big lid buisness though I would sure like to get in on tha deal

Eldon

 

[Phil Tarman]

Re: Plasics Painting

Eldon, I'm willing to go back into it for ... oh, say ... $595.95.

 

[DirtFlier]

Re: Plasics Painting

Krylon Plastic Paint - I bought a can of this stuff in hopes that it would revive the look of my plastic mailbox that had faded badly over 15+ years. I cleaned the surface as best I could with a new 3m scouring pad (green) then blew off all the residue and painted it in stages. The original color was a matte black and it had faded in some areas but not others so that showed through even after two coats; in spite of that it looks 100% better and the paint has stayed on. I still have plenty of paint remaining so I'll probably give it another coat or two after Old Man Winter departs.

 

[silverstrike]

Re: Plasics Painting

On my '10, all the gray plastic is sun damaged, the black plastic looks new (i just got the bike last Nov.) I can scrape the gray plastic with my finger nail and it leaves a mark and gunk under the nail. I am thinking about sanding and doing a Krylon job on them. I started using 303 protectant...recommended by my inflatable boat maker.

 

[charlie b]

I got some Meguir stuff for black plastic. Two coats and it looks just like the stuff that didn't fade. Have washed it a couple of times and no ill effects. Will see how long it lasts.

 

[Curious Mike]

Re: Plasics Painting

I use Turtle Wax ICE on the whole bike and it really shines.

Alex, is that the Turtle Wax Ice "spray wax" or the "spray detailer" you are using?

 

[slider]

Re: Plasics Painting

Slider, here you go. I'll be waiting for your picture.

Whoa! That was fast. I'll get a couple up. Both I took with the small and big lids it was on the park n move. Looks ridiculous.

 

[Chuck 500]

I used Krylon Fusion black to paint the hideous orange trim on my J C Whitney top trunk. With no prep other than cleaning with alcohol, it came out pretty good. The Meguir stuff is called Back to Black. It works very well also.

I'm no expert (HA HA HA) but over on the forum GS Twins there are some. There are threads over there detailing how to paint plastic and some beautiful results. It really is all about prep and those guys do a LOT of sanding and filling.

 

[artemedes]

I am going to try and paint mine too. I have tried 303 protectant and pledge. I have a thread on here showing before and after with 303 protectant. Those results are only temporary. It doesn't take long for them to go back to the sun drenched look. I have purposely been waiting for more of the 303 to evaporate off before I wash them and paint them. The first year I had my NT I rode it to work whenever I could and it would sit there and bake in the Kansas Sunshine. The last two summers have had very little rain and higher temps and more sun than normal. By the end of the first summer they were already starting to look sun bleached. I think if I had used the 303 protectant before they got sun burned they would probably look a lot better.

These black plastic pieces that turn grey are really the only thing I find dissapointing with my NT. They know it is going to spend alot of time outside under the sun, why couldn't they used more UV resistant plastic. Anyway, I have high hopes for the krylon paint. It has to be better than what I have been doing. I am going to paint the pocket covers, the front black piece under the headlight. and the side pieces with the vents in them. All the other black plastics are fine and look brand new.

 

[Bear]

Re: Plasics Painting

Alex, is that the Turtle Wax Ice "spray wax" or the "spray detailer" you are using?

I use the wax on the red and the detailer (which is like water) on the whole bike. It really repells dirt.

 

[slider]

Bondo's Restore Black is really good. Wal Mart in the auto isle. Lasts a year or two on my pickup hardcover. Anything 3M rocks.

 

[Warren]

Turtle Wax trim restorer is reported to be very good. I am waiting for the weather to warm up to give it a try.

 

[charlie b]

I just wish the black plastic was all made out of the same stuff as the plastic that the panniers are made from. That part doesn't fade.