Thoughts on painting the exterior plastic trim

[6500rpm]

The fact that the plastic trim always looks like it has a grey tint to it makes me a little crazy. I'm thinking I'd like to spray it all gloss black. Have any of you shot this stuff, and did you take the time to block sand it smooth or just shoot the textured part as is?

While we're at it, has anyone seen a small mud flap for a lack of better terms to keep all the shit on the road from kicking up on the doors. It seems like something about the vehicle design lends itself to throwing road grime on the doors and across the back of the car. It's shocking that after driving in the rain how parts of the car look completely clean and the doors and back of the car are covered in grime. I just today changed my tires over to all seasons, but on a damp road I could hear the summer tire picking up sand and dirt from the road and throwing it on the doors.

 

[justme2011]

I hate it too. I've seen a thread where one member got them painted but I don't think the car was a daily driver.
I've considered plastidip but otherwise have been curious to see/hear what others have done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[krewat]

Ford has "splash gaurds" that are hard plastic. I bought a set, but haven't put them on yet, because they look a little weird on the wheel-side of the splash guard.

This picture shows the "back" but not the wheel side, and the wheel side is just a concave sort of thing that looks unfinished in a way.

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/8OwAAOSwR0JUR9IW/s-l500.jpg

I'll take pics if you want to see what they look like on the "flip side"

 

[Majestic]

I used Wipe-New on the trim and it actually looks pretty nice 3k miles later.

 

[bpd1151]

I had my lower rockers painted in gloss black several years ago by a local body shop.

It was labor intensive, as they reported having to fill, block, and sand 3x in order to achieve a smooth, paintable surface.

Once completed, I then went the extra mile to have each piece wrapped in 3M paint guard protection film.

I daily drove it like that for 3yrs, including the craptastic winter weather here in CHI-Town, all w/o any issues whatsoever.

Still looks as good as new, to this very day. IMHO, given the SHO, top of the line trim level, it's how it should've came, directly from the factory.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[6500rpm]

Thanks for the replies so far, I need to get by the auto paint store and see what products they have and start playing on some scrap parts from one of our wrecks. The plastic parts primer and paint I've used on interior parts is really thin, not sure what's available for the exterior. I'm really curious what things would look like without sanding smooth, bpd that's a lot of work considering all the shapes and voids but sometimes ultimately that's what it takes. Another bonus of the black was that it's a easy color to re shoot (the Ruby Red was out of the question), but then again I didn't think about the protective wrap. krewat, I found pics of the splash guard on the web. I was hoping for something more shapely, but there really isn't any real estate on our front fender to work with.

 

[tokyorick79]

I was thinking about wrapping the bottom carbon fiber, with a burnt orange pin stripe at the bottom to bring my interior out. Along with the wing and maybe the roof.

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk