i have a sti limited lip on my car but it is a replica one. it has turned blueish and is sorta anoying. if i put tire shine stuff on it, it turns black again i was just wondering if there is anything that i could use that would work better and would hold up? like paint or even that plasti-dip stuff?? thanks guys here are a couple pics of it so you can tell what im talking about.
Just go pick up some Duplicolor sandable black primer. It's cheap paint, is pretty resilient, and goes on smooth. Plus, it is easy to re-coat whenever it starts to look chipped up. Probably take you all of 30 minutes to paint it with 3 coats.
that is a serious turbo you got there!!! bet thats fun. i was leaning toward painting it just dont know if i have the lute to get that done right now!!
that sounds more in my price range. thanks for the quick replies guys. i figured it had something to do with the sun!
I think you can buy a solution in a can that makes sunfaded plastic look new. If I were you I would just buy some flat black paint and paint the thing. Takes 30 minutes to paint and a let it dry over night.
yeah i did that and it works, but after about a day or two it begins to go back to how it is in the pics. i think i will be painting it i dont want to have to put tire shine on every other day to have it look good. im too lazy!
I have probably 4 cans of it, you'd probably only need about half of one to do the job. I'm in Cottage Grove. If you were to bring the lip to me off the car, I'd be more than happy to toss a few coats on it for you. Tomorrow would be the best day, late afternoon after 5pm, since the temps are supposed to be upper 60's...should make for great painting weather.
hey I appreciate the offer but I'm busy every night this week at work. I'll prolly just go get some paint and do it so then I'll have my own for touch ups
This is a polyurethane lip right? Krylon Fusion also works really well for a rattle can job. I think all I used was 1/4 can and some light sanding for prep. Didn't bother with clear coat but you could always throw a matte/semi-gloss/gloss coat over it depending on what kind of finish you want and if yr worried about it bleaching out again.
thanks! I check it out. What kinda sanding? Like the grit? Is it even necessary to sand? Thanks to all you guys for the help I apreciate it!
I think I used 400 or 600. It certainly won't hurt to sand it... the paint will stick better and it'll help clean off all the armor all crap.
Get one of those scouring sponges. I think they sell them in 4 packs at Target. Then use dish soap and the scouring pad on the unpainted surface to clean all the tire wet off. Sand paper will NOT remove all the tire wet, and may actually cause it to get down into the sanding marks. Sand with 400 grit paper. This will be dry sanding. After you have sanded the piece dull, scrub it again with soap and water and rinse it thoroughly. If you have a can of prep-all, use that to finish the cleaning job. Otherwise a rag soaked in rubbing alcohol will probably do the trick...you are trying to get rid of any hint of soap from the surface. Once clean, give the surface a very light coating of sandable black primer. Do this about 3 times. The surface should have a nice, uniform, dull black color. Remember...LIGHT COATS. If at any point the paint drips or rolls, you have sprayed entirely too much. Sandable black primer does best when put on very lightly. And it takes no more than 10 minutes to fully dry in 65-70 degree weather. Maybe a little longer in colder weather. Either way, you can recoat usually within about 5-10 minutes. Each coat should be light. It should take at least 3 coats for the entire surface to be completely covered. Once the primer is dry, if you wish to coat it with something else, simply follow the instructions on the can of whatever it is you are spraying. I know Duplicolor recommends 10min between coats for most of its Enamel sprays. If you intend to clear coat the surface, I recommend the Duplicolor Wheel Clear Coat. It is pretty resilient to day to day driving damage (road sand, etc...) and goes on nice and thick. I've had best results using that by applying 2 thin coats, and then 2 medium coats. The first 2 get a surface texture going, then the 2 medium coats cover it and thicken it up. When everything has dried for at least 24 hours, you can also give that clear coat the added touch of wetsanding and polishing. For wetsanding, I would recommend starting with a 600 - 800 grit, you don't want to go over the surface too many times though as these grits will take the paint down pretty quickly. Make sure the surface you are sanding is soaked. ANd keep a spray bottle near by to continue wetting the surface. After 800 grit, you can move to 1500. Remember, keep the surface wet. Finish up with 2000 grit and water, again, keeping that surface wet. Once you have finished sanding with the 2000 grit, the surface should look cloudy, but it should feel really smooth. Give it a once over (elbow grease or use an air powered buffer) with 3M fine cut. This will remove all those 2000 grit scratches (says it removes 1500, but we 2000 grit for good measure). Be sure to follow the instructions on the bottle of polish. WHen you are done, it is ready to be waxed and installed.
^this is the right way to do it. OP, based on your posts above, I'm assuming most of the tire shine/armorall is gone or washed off. It's still not a bad idea to give it a good once over. Dishsoap should work fine since most dash/tire/plastic shine products are water soluble. If you want a flat black finish you can just clean, sand, clean, paint... you can use an appropriate optional adhesion promoter before the color coats and an optional matte clear coat after. Otherwise a semi-gloss or gloss clear coat will work, but will likely end up uneven unless you wetsand and polish it as detailed above. As mentioned earlier, the clearcoat will help keep it from dulling in the sun, but a flat black finish usually doesn't get more dull than it already is. For cleaning I use a lint free terry cloth (detailing cotton cloth from any automotive store) and rubbing alcohol. FWIW I have the same lip and all I did was quickly sand it to rough up the surface, quickly cleaned it, then sprayed 5-6 light, even coats of flat black Krylon Fusion. Call me lazy but I didn't invest a whole lot of time painting it, knowing that it's gonna get beat up. It's only been a few weeks but it has seen rain, snow, several pressure washes, it's been scraped a couple times and it was used as a snow/ice plow to get out of my alley a couple days... paint is holding up fine so far, but hasn't seen much sunlight.
thanks a lot guys ill prolly be doing some painting this weekend. can't wait to get rid of the bluish color that is on it now it just looks stupid. i think i am going the lazy route also but sand and clean it really well before i put any paint on. i just don't want to put a bunch of time into it and have it scrape on something and get ****ed up. thanks again for the advice!
