painting projects

i have a lot of painting projects planned for next weekend. i plan on painting my radio bezel blue. i just have to figure out if i like the dupli color blue or the krylon fusion blue. i have both not sure which i like. i have the sand paper that i am going to use already. i also plan on taking my door panels off and dyeing my arm rest with sem which i hope to pick up tomorrow. im debating if i want to paint the handle bezels also on the door panels blue to match the radio bezel. i was looking at my tool box and its heavily oxidized i plan on polishing it and maybe painting it with a spray on bedliner. i need some opinions on what parts i should paint. thanks for any help. ill update this thread with pics when i finish parts.

 

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If you just plan on bedlining the toolbox, don't bother polishing it dude. The polish will cause the paint to flake off easier.

 

^^ Hes right. If you polish it, the bedliner wont stick at all. Youd be better off leaving it nasty and sanding it down then painting it

 

alright thanks a lot. now i just need to decide which i want to do.

 

i finally had a chance to go out to the paint store and get the sem paint. i painted the vinyl arm rest satin black instead of dirty grey. i think it came out pretty good after all the screws up i had.
before:

after:

now i need some opinions. i placed the arm rest against the door panel so i could see how it looked. now im not sure if i want to continue painting. im debating if i should do the handle bezel blue and do the part above the arm rest black. or just leave it how it is.
heres a pic to show what im talking about. ][

 

I like the way it looks there.

I painted my armrests a while back with duplicolor's fabric & vinyl paint, worked great & still shines like new. I used the fusion gloss black on my door handle panels & I kinda wish I had went with the satin finish.

For the bezel... if you use anything other than fusion, you'll probably need to prime it or use an adhesion promoter... after you remove all the rubbery junk & get it all sanded down.
The first bunch of radio bezels I painted, I used around 6-8 coats of fusion gloss, lightly wet sanding between coats. Now I use fusion satin & only need 4-5 coats, sanding between coats.

Take your time with the prep, it will really pay off in the end

 

alright thanks for tips buggman. i think ill just leave it. i also forgot to mention that my radio bezel is going to be painted blue to match the exterior.

 

Or just prime it heavily then paint it to how you like then clear coat and it'll be fine mine is clean and glossy

 

alright guys i finished up the bezel but im not pleased at all with it. heres some pics of it
this came after i started clear coating. i did three coats of the blue and 3 coats of clear

and here are two spots that bubbled for some reason.


i used krylon fusion both for the paint and the clear. i did not use a primer. what could be causing this. i will be sanding it down and painting it again.

 

It looks kinda bubbley. Did you use a wax and grease remover before you painted?

 

I used a scotch pad to get all of the rubber junk off of mine and just wiped it down with a damp rag and sprayed it with duplicolor color match so it matched my truck, 3 coats of paint and 3 coats of clear and it looks awesome

 

Kinda looks like the clear melted through the color. I've had that happen when I mix & match paints, but I don't think it's happened when using the same brand of paint & clear though. :huh:

 

i used dish soap after sanding it. i think i sanded it to heavily. any suggestions on getting the paint off so i can re spray. i might have used to much clear so next time ill just use really light coats and only do 2.

 

I usually wet sand from 220 down to 600 for the initial color & 600 - 800 between coats.

I just wipe everything down with a clean cloth or paper towel with plain old 70%+ rubbing alcohol to remove any greasy fingerprints or whatever happens to be left on the surface. The 50% rubbing alcohol will work, but you need to let the 50% water in it dry/evaporate a bit longer before you can paint, the 70% - 91% alcohol evaporates a lot quicker.

I actually stopped using clear on my bezels... I was getting a rainbow effect in some of the clear that looked kinda funky. After 4-8 coats of paint, they're usually pretty tough, although I just scratched my new bezel up from all the moving around & changing stuff in the truck

 

i think i might have destroyed my bezel i sanded to deeply at parts because i stupidly took out the electrical sander. im working on getting the paint off. im able to use my fingers and just peel it but my hand turns blue. ill clean it better and see if it prevents the bubbling. also im going to go get a krylon primer to try and even out my bad sanding.

 

i repainted it but its still messed up. so im going to get a new bezel and try it again. i like how it looks though. im thinking about using spray on bedliner on my tool box. im going to do that or polish it. what do you guys think i should do with it?

 

Have you tried the brake fluid method for removing the paint from the bezel? It might be a little less messy... make sure to wear rubber gloves anyway though

For the toolbox, I'm thinking you should use a scotch brite pad or a scotch brite paint removal disc for a drill to scuff up the surface a little & maybe even spray on a couple coats of self-etching primer before painting it.... but for bed liner, you might be ok with just scuffing it up beforehand.

 

no i havent tried to brake fluid method. ill try it when i get my new one. im getting a new one because i put a whole in it for a switch. but now that im adding lights. ill use that switch panel.

im leaning towards painting the tool box. since its the only chrome on my truck except my center caps and my ovals.

 

i painted my mustang dome blue today with duplicolor but it came out bad. so i sanded that off and used sem and did it satin black. wow this sem paint is awesome it goes on so smoothly. i think i might have to get a can to color the match the truck to do my radio and door bezels. i highly recommend it for any interior painting.

 

what paint do you guys recommend for the ranger emblems? i want to take mine off and black them out since the grey is starting to fade.