Has anybody painted the lower rocker panel plastic?

[Ron46]

I was wondering if anybody attempted to paint the lower plastic panel that is underneath the doors, and which is above the rock sliders. I painted my rock sliders and now when I put them back on, the plastic looks extremely faded and it is white in some spots. I tried Line-xing it, but the company told me they do not want to paint over the plastic because if its grooves. thanks!

 

[cgalpha08]

I think brodie did something like this to his roof trim, i cant remember what it was tho. Check his build thread

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[ReconH3]

All my plastic parts are painted on my Hummer. Never had a problem with paint chipping or anything else. I've noticed that most body shops that don't want to pain it is because they say they can't sand the whole part. Nonsense! I'm proof.


"Ex Umbris Venimus"

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[benlaud87]

Masked mine off and painted them. Haven't had any problems

 

[Hunner]

Recon, Is yours shot with a polyurethane? I use a DuPont product called "concept" to paint sailboat hulls, which are gelcoated fiberglass, but I sand with 240 grit first. I guess all the dimples in the plastic is what those guys were afraid of for adhesion.
I came up with a mixture of methylene chloride and xylene to clean those hulls to get rid of any wax but that would melt this stuff.
There are some adhesion promoters for that plastic stuff now.
I actually think our OEM fenders and trim are polypropylene thermoplastic polymer.
If there has been multiple applications of some sort of cleaner like Armor All or some plastic conditioner it might be hard to get good adhesion.

 

[ReconH3]

From what I remember they just used regular primer. I lost touch with Bernt since I left. My JK snorkel is also color matched. I just used a primer made for plastics. You can find the plastic primer at Lowes.


"Ex Umbris Venimus"

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[Hunner]

I followed all that when it was being done and wondered how it would hold up. Apparently very well.

 

[Ron46]

Ok thanks guys! I need to go get plastic primer then!

 

[Hunner]

Wallyworld even has some paint for plastic. (I guess primer mixed in?) I tried it on a few things and it works good. I would wash it good with wwarm soapy water and rinse well. Krylon Fusion says it bonds to plastic which is sort what that is.
Wipe it with some lacquer thinner. Drys without residue or oily film. That is the least caustic but effective over the counter prep readily available. Paint thinner, not good.
I would also suggest you apply it where it's warm if possible.
Maybe use a hair dryer if you have to get it slightly warm.

 

[H3slate]

I just used forever black, it's a bumper and plastic trim restorer, on my a pilar trim. Looks good and is supposed to hold up better than other restorers. I will post a thread about it later. It stains the trim black again. It might be a better solution than trying to paint it.

I got it from amazon.com

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[Hummer H3]

I painted my grill, rear fender and b-pillar cover with rattle can truck bed liner and it came out great!! The color is a deep black and it hasnt faded yet.

 

[Sierra H3]

I tried actually rubing in some black paint to hide rock rash on the plastic fenders. It seems to work if you can find a color that is close to the Hummer bumper gray. Still looking for the best off the shelf color match. Anybody found one?

 

[Steve #1]

Another option if you want to keep the texture is to use vinyl dye. I've used it on plastic trim with very good results. I however, havn't used it on anything that got the abbuse the area you are talking about gets so not sure how well it would hold up.

 

[Sierra H3]

Another option if you want to keep the texture is to use vinyl dye. I've used it on plastic trim with very good results. I however, havn't used it on anything that got the abbuse the area you are talking about gets so not sure how well it would hold up.

:hmm: Good suggestion. It might also work on the interior cargo bay plastic. I guess, I could buy some white colorant and experiment altering the color of the dye. There was a parallel suggestion above to use "Forever Black". If if gets too bad to touch up though, I tend to agree with some of the other posts that repainting with a bed-liner type paint is the way to go.