dye flexible plastic with SEM color coat
Oct 6, 2011 16:39:14 GMT -5
Post by sigmfsk on Oct 6, 2011 16:39:14 GMT -5
I copied these "first step" instructions from the "dye hard plastic" thread:
The first step is to determine what type of plastic is to be dyed:
a) standard, somewhat flexible plastic, ABS, PVC, smear with acetone
or
b) rigid, problem plastics, TPO, EPDM, PP, no smear with acetone
SEM offers the tech tip:
> If the type of plastic is unknown, place a drop of acetone on the back of
> the plastic and rub it with your finger. If the plastic smears and melts, use
> 3836( ) SAND FREE for your adhesion promoter
> [the plastic is standard ABS / PVC flexible plastic].
> If acetone does not have
> an effect on the plastic, use 3986( ) PLASTIC ADHESION PROMOTER
> or 7772( ) XXX ADHESION PROMOTER
> [the plastic is problematic TPO / EPDM / PP rigid plastic]
On my Monaco, I found that the sail panels and inner and outer interior a-pillar trim pieces were of RIGID type. All the other plastic pieces were of the flexible type. These instructions are for the flexible type.
---------------
the instructions in the SEM manual conflicted with the instructions on the can.
FLEXIBLE PLASTIC:
After cleaning with soap, the manual says:
> Clean with 38353 PLASTIC LEATHER/PREP. Or 38464. Wipe in one direction, etc.
>
> Use 39863 PLASTIC ADHESION PROMOTER. Apply one light coat, left flash for 5 minues,
> and then apply one full wet coat. Allow this coat to flash 10-15 minutes, but no longer
> than 30 minutes before topcoating.
The 39863 can says:
> Clean with 38353 PLASTIC LEATHER/PREP. (nothing about 38464). Wipe in one direction, etc.
>
> Sand area to be refinished with 400 grit sandpaper. Blow off and clean again with
> 38353.
>
> Apply one light coat. Allow 5 minutes flash time followed by one full wet coat. Allow to
> flash 15 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes before topcoating.
Well, one of the things I really liked about this refinishing was just using scuff pads and not having to use sandpaper, and I had already cleaned and scrubbed the pieces until I was blue in the face, so felt comfortable with a route that didn't require any sanding. I chose the route in the manual.
Steps I used:
1) clean with hot soapy water and a sponge
2) clean with 39362 SEM SOAP and a toothbrush
3) determine if plastic is "flexible" or "rigid": place a drop of acetone on the back of the plastic.
plastic smears and melts = rigid (ABS, PVC)
plastic has no effect = flexible (TPO, EPDM, PP)
4) clean with 39362 SEM SOAP and a gray scuff pad. Scrub thoroughly, rinse with water and dry.
The manual says to clearn with 38353 PLASTIC & LEATHER PREP (spray on, wipe off), or 38464 WORLD CLASS VINYL/PLASTIC PREP (scrub on with gray scuff pad). Since I already had the 38464 which I needed for my vinyl, I did the following:
5) On all parts, I then applied 38464 WORLD CLASS VINYL / PLASTIC PREP and scrubbed with a clean gray scuff pad.
Wiped off with blue wiping towel.
6) On all parts, I then applied 38353 PLASTIC & LEATHER PREP, spraying on parts directly from can, then wiping off in one direction.
No water rinse.
[Note: I performed steps 5 and 6 while wearing latex gloves to ensure that I didn't get any finger oil on the parts between wiping them down and hanging them for paint]
7) Apply one light coat of 39863 PLASTIC ADHESIVE PROMOTER, let flash for 5 minutes, and then apply one full wet coat. Allow this top coat to flash 12 minutes.
8 ) Apply top coat (COLOR COAT)
I waited about 7 minutes between top coats. I used a "bandit" respirator.
I'm happy how things appeared to have turned out. Similar to the other paint sessions, most of the hard work is the prep-work. Painting is almost anti-climactic.
pic 1 shows the lower door panels
pic 2 shows the driver door pocket.
This pocket gave me the most trouble during prep-work. Although both the pocket and the door panel were "flexible" plastic (not being affected by the acetone test), there's clearly something different about them, as the door pocket was just crumbling apart. I scrubbed and scrubbed and kept getting residue. Although it's important to scrub down until there's a clean part (for best paint adhesion), it doesn't do much good to scrub down if it results in the part disappearing (if the entire part is crumbly). So I used my best judgment on how deep to scrub on all the crumbly parts. To me, the door pocket actually doesn't look too bad. It's certainly a lot better than I expected during much of the scrubbing. The one weird bump on the door is the metal snap, over which I haven't yet removed the painting tape.
pic 3 shows a closeup of the door panel in the lower right of pic 1. It shows some pitted areas. These were areas that I didn't scrub too deeply into as I figured it would just make them worse.
pic 4 shows an area on the passenger a-pillar.
Do you scrub it just a little? or do you keep scrubbing until it looks like:
pic 5 shows the same area on the driver side a-pillar. The driver side was much worse, with several spots, so I blended them in together.
One piece that I'm particularly pleased with is the rear deck (from the parts car). It was in pretty good shape, but was stained and could use a coat of paint. When I'd scrub the speaker hole sections with 38464, I'd continually get some paint off them, but I'd also hear the board creaking and moaning and I feared that I'd end up breaking it. So I did some scrubbing until the loose paint was gone, then cleaned with 38353, and got a nice coat of paint on it (pic 6).
One of the best investments I made was the "bandit" respirator. You can tell I've been painting "camel".
---
here are the smaller "flexible" items I painted. The four strips on the right are for the a-pillar pieces.
This pic includes the previously painted vinyl "steering wheel center pad" for color comparison.
I hung the steering wheel from a wire clothes hanger through one of the three holes. And then I covered the hole and hanger with tape. For each coat, I would paint the side of the wheel facing me, then rehang the hanger on the rod so that the steering wheel pointed away from me, then paint the back side.
back of wheel:
front, with painters tape removed:
You can see the original unpainted color. This wasn't the black wheel on the car - it was a spare in the trunk. I thought it was better, because if the original color showed through it wouldn't be as obvious as if it was black. And this wheel was in much better condition.
I've noticed when removing the tape on the wheel that the surface is a little gritty, like what I found on the sail panels.
When I noticed this on the sail panels, I thought it had to do with my paint technique (as they were the first things I painted), but now I think it has to do with the material involved.
All the vinyl pieces and rear decklid are silky smooth.
Lower door panels are smooth enough.
And the sail panels and steering wheel are a little gritty. It feels like there's a film of dry paint dust on them. There doesn't seem to be much sense investigating more now. I'll let them sit over the winter and harden up, then wash them down next year.
--
Update. I've since learned (come to believe) that the rear rubber covers for the seatbelts mounted to the transmission tunnel just behind and under the front seat were always black in 74. So these two painted covers just to the left of the 4 a-pillar strips aren't 74-like. These are my tan 76 covers that I dyed to color match the Camel, but it looks like I'll just cleanup my black 74 covers and use them instead.
Mainly from info here:
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/topic/8327-theres-a-new-marin-county-sheriff-in-town/page__view__findpost__p__112489
The first step is to determine what type of plastic is to be dyed:
a) standard, somewhat flexible plastic, ABS, PVC, smear with acetone
or
b) rigid, problem plastics, TPO, EPDM, PP, no smear with acetone
SEM offers the tech tip:
> If the type of plastic is unknown, place a drop of acetone on the back of
> the plastic and rub it with your finger. If the plastic smears and melts, use
> 3836( ) SAND FREE for your adhesion promoter
> [the plastic is standard ABS / PVC flexible plastic].
> If acetone does not have
> an effect on the plastic, use 3986( ) PLASTIC ADHESION PROMOTER
> or 7772( ) XXX ADHESION PROMOTER
> [the plastic is problematic TPO / EPDM / PP rigid plastic]
On my Monaco, I found that the sail panels and inner and outer interior a-pillar trim pieces were of RIGID type. All the other plastic pieces were of the flexible type. These instructions are for the flexible type.
---------------
the instructions in the SEM manual conflicted with the instructions on the can.
FLEXIBLE PLASTIC:
After cleaning with soap, the manual says:
> Clean with 38353 PLASTIC LEATHER/PREP. Or 38464. Wipe in one direction, etc.
>
> Use 39863 PLASTIC ADHESION PROMOTER. Apply one light coat, left flash for 5 minues,
> and then apply one full wet coat. Allow this coat to flash 10-15 minutes, but no longer
> than 30 minutes before topcoating.
The 39863 can says:
> Clean with 38353 PLASTIC LEATHER/PREP. (nothing about 38464). Wipe in one direction, etc.
>
> Sand area to be refinished with 400 grit sandpaper. Blow off and clean again with
> 38353.
>
> Apply one light coat. Allow 5 minutes flash time followed by one full wet coat. Allow to
> flash 15 minutes but no longer than 30 minutes before topcoating.
Well, one of the things I really liked about this refinishing was just using scuff pads and not having to use sandpaper, and I had already cleaned and scrubbed the pieces until I was blue in the face, so felt comfortable with a route that didn't require any sanding. I chose the route in the manual.
Steps I used:
1) clean with hot soapy water and a sponge
2) clean with 39362 SEM SOAP and a toothbrush
3) determine if plastic is "flexible" or "rigid": place a drop of acetone on the back of the plastic.
plastic smears and melts = rigid (ABS, PVC)
plastic has no effect = flexible (TPO, EPDM, PP)
4) clean with 39362 SEM SOAP and a gray scuff pad. Scrub thoroughly, rinse with water and dry.
The manual says to clearn with 38353 PLASTIC & LEATHER PREP (spray on, wipe off), or 38464 WORLD CLASS VINYL/PLASTIC PREP (scrub on with gray scuff pad). Since I already had the 38464 which I needed for my vinyl, I did the following:
5) On all parts, I then applied 38464 WORLD CLASS VINYL / PLASTIC PREP and scrubbed with a clean gray scuff pad.
Wiped off with blue wiping towel.
6) On all parts, I then applied 38353 PLASTIC & LEATHER PREP, spraying on parts directly from can, then wiping off in one direction.
No water rinse.
[Note: I performed steps 5 and 6 while wearing latex gloves to ensure that I didn't get any finger oil on the parts between wiping them down and hanging them for paint]
7) Apply one light coat of 39863 PLASTIC ADHESIVE PROMOTER, let flash for 5 minutes, and then apply one full wet coat. Allow this top coat to flash 12 minutes.
8 ) Apply top coat (COLOR COAT)
I waited about 7 minutes between top coats. I used a "bandit" respirator.
I'm happy how things appeared to have turned out. Similar to the other paint sessions, most of the hard work is the prep-work. Painting is almost anti-climactic.
pic 1 shows the lower door panels
pic 2 shows the driver door pocket.
This pocket gave me the most trouble during prep-work. Although both the pocket and the door panel were "flexible" plastic (not being affected by the acetone test), there's clearly something different about them, as the door pocket was just crumbling apart. I scrubbed and scrubbed and kept getting residue. Although it's important to scrub down until there's a clean part (for best paint adhesion), it doesn't do much good to scrub down if it results in the part disappearing (if the entire part is crumbly). So I used my best judgment on how deep to scrub on all the crumbly parts. To me, the door pocket actually doesn't look too bad. It's certainly a lot better than I expected during much of the scrubbing. The one weird bump on the door is the metal snap, over which I haven't yet removed the painting tape.
pic 3 shows a closeup of the door panel in the lower right of pic 1. It shows some pitted areas. These were areas that I didn't scrub too deeply into as I figured it would just make them worse.
pic 4 shows an area on the passenger a-pillar.
Do you scrub it just a little? or do you keep scrubbing until it looks like:
pic 5 shows the same area on the driver side a-pillar. The driver side was much worse, with several spots, so I blended them in together.
One piece that I'm particularly pleased with is the rear deck (from the parts car). It was in pretty good shape, but was stained and could use a coat of paint. When I'd scrub the speaker hole sections with 38464, I'd continually get some paint off them, but I'd also hear the board creaking and moaning and I feared that I'd end up breaking it. So I did some scrubbing until the loose paint was gone, then cleaned with 38353, and got a nice coat of paint on it (pic 6).
One of the best investments I made was the "bandit" respirator. You can tell I've been painting "camel".
---
here are the smaller "flexible" items I painted. The four strips on the right are for the a-pillar pieces.
This pic includes the previously painted vinyl "steering wheel center pad" for color comparison.
I hung the steering wheel from a wire clothes hanger through one of the three holes. And then I covered the hole and hanger with tape. For each coat, I would paint the side of the wheel facing me, then rehang the hanger on the rod so that the steering wheel pointed away from me, then paint the back side.
back of wheel:
front, with painters tape removed:
You can see the original unpainted color. This wasn't the black wheel on the car - it was a spare in the trunk. I thought it was better, because if the original color showed through it wouldn't be as obvious as if it was black. And this wheel was in much better condition.
I've noticed when removing the tape on the wheel that the surface is a little gritty, like what I found on the sail panels.
When I noticed this on the sail panels, I thought it had to do with my paint technique (as they were the first things I painted), but now I think it has to do with the material involved.
All the vinyl pieces and rear decklid are silky smooth.
Lower door panels are smooth enough.
And the sail panels and steering wheel are a little gritty. It feels like there's a film of dry paint dust on them. There doesn't seem to be much sense investigating more now. I'll let them sit over the winter and harden up, then wash them down next year.
--
Update. I've since learned (come to believe) that the rear rubber covers for the seatbelts mounted to the transmission tunnel just behind and under the front seat were always black in 74. So these two painted covers just to the left of the 4 a-pillar strips aren't 74-like. These are my tan 76 covers that I dyed to color match the Camel, but it looks like I'll just cleanup my black 74 covers and use them instead.
Mainly from info here:
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/topic/8327-theres-a-new-marin-county-sheriff-in-town/page__view__findpost__p__112489
