Painting engine plastics, to sand or not to sand?

[MaddShadez]

In my quest to do cheap car stuff I'm thinking about painting the some of the plastics in the engine bay like the heat shield and some other parts that have faded with age. My 2004LS is black so I'm sticking with black in there as well, but glossier/cleaner. Having never painted plastic before I'm not sure on the prep. I'll be using rattle can engine enamel stuff. Do i need to sand it first? like a light scuff or full blown smoothing it out? Or would just a plastic primer work? Thanks in advance!

 

[Ghost_Ls8]

Have you considered dip, I dipped my engine cover white as you see here , and others have used red to do theirs , you can choose from a ton of colors and finishes. no sanding needed

 

[RigsLS]

I'm glad you brought this up, has been on my mind for some time now as well but wasn't convinced I would go that route.

If member Rollin would chime in, you should see his underhood. When I look at his engine cover, fuse box & shock tower covers, I swear he had to have sanded it down before paint.

Never did ask him myself though. would be interesting for sure.

 

[LS4me]

I scuffed the cover with a red Scotch-Brite pad and used primer before painting with Dupli-Color bumper trim paint......

 

[LS4me]

Double post...

Please remove this post......

 

[jolinc01]

I sanded mine with 200 followed by 400 then painted.

 

[MaddShadez]

Ghost, I've heard the dip leaves a texture that i'm not sure i want. I suppose i can play with it though, it just peels off, right?

BigRig, I've seen pics of Rollin's, but for some reason I thought he had his professionally done? If not than props to him cuz it looks pro. Hopefully he'll chime in.

LS4Me, what year is yours? I've never seen an engine cover with the middle cut out like that? Looks killer!

 

[Ghost_Ls8]

if its sprayed correctly you will have no texture, its more of a temporary thing, I got tired of it and just peeled it off , if you want a legit permanent look then sanding and painting is the way to go

 

[1LoudLS]

F-beans, that Jag-coln cover looks sick

 

[LS4me]

LS4Me, what year is yours? I've never seen an engine cover with the middle cut out like that? Looks killer!

It's an '06, but this is a custom made cover. It is the result of a marriage between a factory cover and an S-Type engine cover. See here......

 

[String]

I would go with the scotch brite pad buff, prime and paint. Clean is the key. Wipe it down real good with mineral spirits, and allow to dry. Hydrographic printing is another way to go. Check out mydipkit.com. Several patterns and colors to choose from, and no texture.

 

[1LoudLS]

Clean is the key.

+1

 

[De-marko]

I've sanded and painted the VC's before that turned out well. An adhesion promoter like Bull-dog helps the paint to adhere to plastic pieces. I have what I did written in another post.