DIY: How to paint side EK mouldings with no fuss.

[higuys]

Disclaimer: The following are 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!

Things needed:
Custom made paint for your car colour i got mine at Peps with my colour code found on the side of your passenger side door.


Plastic primer, you would be able to find these things probably at Aubobarn or Supercheap but then again i got mine at peps its cheaper


Sandpaper, i used a pretty rough grid paper got my car done quicker then the light grid ones you can get this at Bunnings Warehouse etc.


Sticky tape, same deal you could use something else for it to not go on your car but this was the easiest thing i can find in my household plus it didn't take off my paint which was a good go.


A roll of cloth, helped to cover the wheels while painting you don't want paint on your nice looking wheels.


If your a smoker trust me your going to need this.


Now to business its better if you put on the sticky tape around the mouldings before you start sanding just incase you hit your paint on your car then right after you put the sticky tape on start sanding away it should look something like this do both sides it would go more quick then just doing side by side.


Now get the the roll of cloth you have and cover the wheels as shown in the picture.


Start spraying your mouldings with the plastic primer on all the way through wait for it too dry then spray your custom made paint over the mouldings that are already painted on with the plastic primer do this around 3 - 4 times with each spray can you can do it more if you want the shine to look even greater but im not too fussy lol it should look something like this.



When its all dry and set slowly take off the sticky tape or whatever your using then your all set pretty clean job if i say so myself.



And then done, it shouldn't take too if you follow the steps correctly hopefully i helped some people out on this since i had to learn it by myself it was a tad harder for me to get it right.

From this.


To this.

[jdm_70y]

good stuff mate

[turtle187]

awesome diy dude...pmd you about the paint u got

[na-118]

what sand paper number did you use

[hywindz]

great right up dude, definitely going to try this.
pocketrocket also posted this somewhere thought it might help:

Look up your colour code on the inside of your passenger side door which was where mine was located, go down to your nearest automotive shop ie. autobarn or autoone or something similar and have a look at the book which the paint company provides showing the colour code, year, make and the paint code for the can to match your car.

Your door strip protectors can be removed from the inside of the car by removing the door trims and the back trims and the inside of the guards if your have any strips located on the front fenders and same with the back bumper. The strips in my case were attached on with hooks which were removed by using long nose needle nose pliers and pinching the anchor together and gently pulling the anchor out one by one.

Once done, prep the strips by sanding it with a 600 grit sandpaper to remove the clearcoating or any bumps, then light wet sand it with say 2000 or 1500 to remove any swirl marks and to make it smoother. When i wetsand i do it with water and some added detergent to make it abit smoother when sanding, what i also did was spray degresser on the thing and sanded it down, as it was soapy and did the same thing, although i used an automotive degresser not a general one that you buy in aerosol cans.

Once done degrease it all and clean it and let it dry. Spray some primer on it, best way ive found to apply paint in a can is to spray one light coat first to cover the area, wait a few minutes in between and then spray a thick coat as the first coat would make the contact abit tacky and wont give you runny paint from overspraying much. Wait for that to dry, then spray on a light coat of your colour, wait to dry for a few minutes, then spray a thicker coat until it turns out glossy but dont over do it as the paint could drip and ruin it all.

Repeat it if your want, then apply a clearcoat in the same way, light first then thick coat and wait till that drys and your done. Polish it up the next day as its recommended on the cans to leave it to dry for 24 hours to handened properly otherwise you will leave fingerprint marks and blemishes on the paint. And thats about it. Mine turned out like the body paint and i'm pleased with the results.

But like others have said in here, if its too hard for you better let a professional take on the job, white was pretty hard for me to match but on a black car shouldnt be a problem, although other colours such as red and so fourth might be abit hard to match, so if your after that perfect paint matching, do it professionally and in the end your car will look a million times better.

[Jokkahk]

[steve88]

probably a good idea u remove the actual strip, if ur smart and patient they can be removed without breaking any just involves lotsa twisting and pulling, but good luck!

[Raztaz]

probably a good idea u remove the actual strip, if ur smart and patient they can be removed without breaking any just involves lotsa twisting and pulling, but good luck!

How? have to take off door trim or just careful pulling from the outside?

[higuys]

probably a good idea u remove the actual strip, if ur smart and patient they can be removed without breaking any just involves lotsa twisting and pulling, but good luck!

haha you are very right but like me i have 2 jobs LOL i have no time nor patients so i did it the easy way the results still came out as good as doing that but yeah i dunno its just my way of the easier way

[tiksie]

I think I saw you on parra road tonight in Lidcombe.. Do you have foggies ? lol

So many silver EK's with black bonnets floating around.

You should state the grit of the sandpaper you used, the process of sanding it..

I hope you sanded it until it was all matte with no shine at all as you don't want dimples getting sprayed over making it un-even.

It's also a good idea to clean the bit your spraying with wax and grease remover with a rag (any non-lint rag will do) and allowing it to dry before spraying your first coat of primer..Make sure you don't touch the panel as the oils on your fingers could preety much ruin a paint finish.

[steve88]

How? have to take off door trim or just careful pulling from the outside?

haha you are very right but like me i have 2 jobs LOL i have no time nor patients so i did it the easy way the results still came out as good as doing that but yeah i dunno its just my way of the easier way

there is different levels of "whats safe"

if u take the door trim off you can use a pair of small pliers and unclip the majority of the clips, but the 2 clips on each end of the door cannot be reached so you can lever them off once the other clips are off by simply rotating the strip slowly and feeling incase it doesnt snap the plastic but rather loosen it
u can remove the clips under the side indicator from under the guard
and the other trim that extends to your rear side has to have the rear trim removed... but i mtelling u how to do it the same way a panelbeater would, full pro@life and depends how much time u got

i got 2 jobs bro i know what u mean :P i was lucky i had no shifts and uni break on so best excuse to do it properly lmao

also for anyone wanting to do it, you will need 400-600 grit sand paper to apply the basecoat.. u can pull it off to look nice out of a can if you're lucky but it might be a little bit different

[beeza]

Excellent Job!!