Painted arches look pretty sweet on the mini and i want to do mine, only problem is that im short on cash to get it done professionally. So i know if i take my time and get all the right products i should theoretically be able to do it myself.

tips? comments? concerns?

 

Go for it! I was planning on painting my whole car but I think I'm going to just do the arches first and see how I like it. Are you planning on using a spray gun or just a rattle can? You may want to order new trim pieces if you've ever used any type of cleaner or shine on your current ones as it's hard to get the paint to stay on.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=135078

I've been thinking about doing the same thing and found this thread usefull..

 

Having all of your arches and stuff sprayed will be pretty cheap to do professionally, I would just do it that way. bring all the pieces in off the car and they will have no problem handling it for no more than $150

for things as small as arches just ratle can them. get a couple cans of paint from a duplicolor dealer (use your paint code, guaranteed match)

if you are actually that cheap then your going to need to scuff them down with 400-500 grit and use ALOT of wax and grease remover on them. use gloves to avoid getting any fingerprints on em. make sure your edges are sanded well and lightly mist some plastic adhesion promoter on. let it flash for reccommended time and start spraying your color on!
Dont get runs in it then you have 2 options. use a rattle can clearcoat (90% arent usseul vs UV rays and over time will turn yellowish) or have a bodyshop clear them for you using professional guns and solvents (awesome result and will be cheap to do)

 

are you serious about the 150 quote? ive asked around and heard atleast 800

 

Hey~

I am planning to do the same thing too except the entire plastic trim! I am gona do it with spray paint....http://www.ehow.com/how_2062197_spra...-like-pro.html

I order some new archs from bimmer specialist for 29 dollar each.

 

a 150 dollar job wont look very good. To really paint the arches and other trim pieces properly requires a considerable amount of paint (as they tend to absorb it like a sponge) and a lot of prep work to get rid of the grainy texture so that they match the smooth finish of the rest of the car. You can go ahead and try the job yourself, but if you're the same obsessive kind of Mini owner I am you probably won't be happy with the results.

 

Considering the prep work is done and the pieces are off the vehicle, yes a 150 job is fine. 800 is for them to do everything. My local body guy was perfectly willing to spray mine for 150-200 if I did the prep myself. I have some body experience, and most of a good paint job is in the prep work. Anybody can paint.

 

Wouldn't the best way to go with prep on any plastic trim be using a bondo type solution to get the area perfect and smooth? Paint adheres to bondo very easily.

 

Unless the plastic used for the arches has changed significantly, the $150 quote is asking for trouble. The arches on my R53 are textured black plastic. A release agent (wax) is sprayed in the moulds before the plastic is injected, so the wax is imbedded deeply into the pores of the arch. If you don't get it all out, neither paint nor Bondo will bond.

I approached lots of body shops about doing the work for me 2.5 years ago. Most turned me down flat... they didn't want to take the liability for doing the work and having it fail 1 year later, like they all said that it would. One shop offered to do it for $500 if I did the removal/install, but wouldn't warranty the work. The best shop in Dallas (also the most expensive) said that they could do it but it would cost $$$. It took them 23-26 hours of labor to chemically strip, sand, prime, sand, prime, sand, paint, paint, paint, clear the pieces.

Can you do it yourself? Absolutely. Please just do a lot of research before digging in. It would be awful to spend all that time just to have the finish fail in a year or so.

If I had an R56 and wanted to do the color coded arches again, I'd seriously consider Way Motorworks. They were doing it a while back for a reasonable price and would save you a lot of work.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself

 

Your going to need to sand and use some form of filler to prep them for paint, dont cheap out on.

Jack

 

a couple coats of high-fill primer will be fine (sanding lightly in between), but the real key is in the chemical stripping of the plastic to get the wax out of the pores.

 

+1 on the high-fill primer. I think Bondo as a filler is probably overkill for the textured plastic pieces, since even if you can apply it as an ultra-thin skim coat, you're still going to end up sanding most of it back off.

I got new trim pieces for my wife's car (all 14 of them), and I'm planning on chemically cleaning them, scuffing them up with some 280-grit, cleaning them again, using adhesion promoter on the pieces, then applying several coats of high-build primer, sanding with 320-grit between the coats.

 

I used these guys for paint. http://www.expresspaint.com/ You can have them put it in a rattle can for cheap. You order primer, base and clear. It's the same thing you'd put in a paint gun, but in a rattle can instead. Great for small body parts. I used it to paint a fairing and side panels on a motorcycle.