[DIY] Repairing and respraying cracked plastic lips
Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!
Aim: to repair and repaint minor cracks and chipped front lips/spoilers.
here's what it looks like before...
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/1991/before1xc4.jpg
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/8020/before2lu9.jpg
Required: I used the following, i’m sure there are other products out there, but this worked out for me:
- Q-Bond – plastic repair kit – comes with black and grey powder and 2 x liquid adhesives
- K&H Plastic Primer
- K&H Clear Coat
- Holti coloured spray can
- 600 grit sandpaper
- 1200 grit sandpaper
- Filer
- Couple of chairs, or table if you don’t have stands for spraying
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/4862/materialsvi2.jpg
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/7888/filerstu9.jpg
Steps:
1) Remove lip, set the lip on a stand. Since i didn’t have stands, i used 2 old chairs as stands.
2) Dunk the 600grit sandpaper in water and begin wetsanding the lip down, the aim is to strip away the old paint, and even out any minor bumps and imperfections. This was a bit of a bitch to do, because after a while your fingers begin to take a toll – and also probably because 600grit may have been a bit too fine to strip paint so you have to sand pretty vigorously.
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/2205/wetsandzw9.jpg
3) Once all the paint has been stripped away, give it a hose down, and dry with a cloth.
4) Now patching up the crack. Using a filer, file down the crack facing the front to form a sort of ‘V’ groove along the crack – this helps the adhesive to bond the crack together.
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/1527/cracklh3.jpg
sorry about image quality but if you look closely, the crack has a groove through it now... its not flush anymore.. this is what you want to do.
5) Pour the black Q-Bond powder along the ‘V’ you created along the crack (i used black coz my lip is of black pvc) then put a few drops of the adhesive on black powder. Be sure to hold the 2 ends of the crack together aligned as much as possible. Mine was slightly off as you can see in later pics.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4430/qbondsc6.jpg
6)Repeat step 5 for the other side of the crack (you don’t have to form the ‘V’ groove behind coz you’ve done it for the front already – i didn’t anyway)
7)Repeat steps 4-6 for any other cracks you may have
8) Once the Q-Bond dries (should take no more than a few seconds) begin filing it down.
9) Once you’re satisfied, give it a quick dust down and the painting begins. Set the lip back on the stands and begin spraying it with the plastic primer. Give it about 5-10min then sand it down with 1200 grit sandpaper getting rid of any uneven spray and imperfections. I did about 8 coats with sanding in between – last step is sanding.
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/7035/primed1vh3.jpg
...after the first coat
http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/5537/primedrl7.jpg
...after the last coat
10) Once your satisfied, begin spraying the spraying the lip in your desired colour. I did my first coat, then once dried, sanded it down with 1200grit sandpaper – to get rid of any overspray and imperfections. I did this another 2 more times before spraying about 3-4 coats on top of each other without sanding in between. Be sure to wait for the paint to dry before applying individual coats.
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/3184/paintedzz7.jpg
11) Once the paint dries, get your clear coat and begin spraying the painted surface of your lip. I ended up spraying about 7 layers of clear coat until i was satisfied.
12) Reattach your lip and your done!
and here's what it looks like now...
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7702/after1tw3.jpg
http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/2271/afterfp0.jpg
Other comments
I also realise my lip has been through a lot of abuse from gutter grazes etc, hence there are some deep scratches i didnt bother fixing. My main focus was to respray the lip and fix the crack. This is the first time i ever attempted something like this before and i think it turned out pretty good, better than forking out a few hundred to get it repaired from a panel beater or getting a replacement lip. All up it costed me about 70bux including the Q-bond which i’ve only used a little bit of. Try hold the lip as much aligned as possible, as you can see from the pics, mine is a bit off, but it doesn’t phase me too much.
Hope this helps someone!
