Purchased a pair of Italian Oricari cowl Scoops from Pete at Minspeed. He has THE best price I could find anywhere....$145.00 for the pair.

I had to sand a few imperfections out of the white gel undercoating with 2000 grit sandpaper, and rubbed it down good with a 3M Scratch pad. I painted the underside of each scoop with flat black enamel. And prepped the surface for painting with the 3M pad and denatured alcohol.

To paint the scoops I needed some supplies from an auto paint retailer. I have one that is 5 miles away. Unfortunately, the smallest amount of paint they can mix up is one pint ( it will set you back about 80 bucks ) .... and a pint of paint goes a LONG way too. BUT, stored properly, the paint will last a very, very long time.

For this application, I used only used two (2 oz. ) ounces of DuPont paint. It is diluted with DuPont paint reducer at a ratio of 1 to 1. That means for every once of paint, you need one ounce of reducer....easy. Then add paint to 6 oz. mason jar type canister at bottom of sprayer....

The spayer/bottle worked flawlessly ! No runs, No drips, No Errors.....no matter how hard I tried the paint would just not cause any runs.

I only used half of one can of aerosol spray in the photo for this project. I was very impressed with this sprayer. I have used professional sprayers before and this is as close as it gets.

If you can use a rattle can, this is no more difficult. Just remember with metalic paint, to gently swirl the jar around each time before spraying to get the metalic flakes off the bottom of the jar....it makes for more even dispersion of the metalic properties of the paint.









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1st coat of paint....





Coated with DuPont Clear Acrylic Spray from Pete at MINSPEED.....His clear coat is fantastic, makes for very deep shine, I highly recomend it. Just two medium coats to begin with, about 15 mins between applications, then a nice thick even coat....professional results and very easy.

Finished product above.....tomorrow I'll put in the screens that go into the front of the scoop opening, attach the brackets and install them.....

I have lots of OEM Dark Silver paint left....if anyone needs something painted

Hope this encourages you to paint your own !

Ciao for now.


Taken today.....these went in perfectly - VERY well Crafted - No Issues Whatsoever installing them!

 

good stuff

 

Nice write-up, I might be doing likewise for a new hood scoop, and even in the same color. BTW, did you research rattle can options? I thought I read that duplicolor makes some decent products that work very well for the color and the clear coat.

 

looks great!,
post some pics of them on the car once its dry!

 

Nice write-up. Any pics on the car? Btw, how is the cost compared to the spray cans that Pete at Minspeed sells?

 

To answer MINI Racers question: I have used the cans before and have had variations of color....and the clear coat Pete sells is top notch stuff.

Each rattle can probably contains about 8oz ( Its probably more like 6oz) of usable paint at a cost of $20.00+shipping = $27.00.

A pint of paint = 16 oz's....But it is mixed on a 1-1 ratio which means I actually have 32 oz's of paint to spray which cost me $64.84 ( paint/reducer/sprayer & bottle)

By rattle can - an oz of paint is appx $3.37US.

By the way I did it, an ounce of paint is appx $2.02

That is a savings of; $1.35 per oz

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Thanks Wake, The pint of paint alone was 49.75....the reducer and other stuff brought it up to $64.84. But, the reducer is only sold certain size containers and I purchased some stuff I never even use like the additonal aerosol cans. So that brought the grand total up to $80.00.. But, after mixing up some 32 oz paint, I still have two more sprayers, and about 1/2 quart of reducer left over.....

For the scoops, I had to use just 2 oz of paint and 2 oz of reducer for this project. So I have lots left over

Meantime, the paint does not expire and will be always be readily available. The shelf life for the paint is forever...as long as it is stored/sealed properly.

I can also be assured with consistency of color when painting future MINI parts as well. Slated for painting: the grille surround, mirror arm/caps, and maybe even the oem side skirts when climate here gets back to 65 degrees.

Photos up later tonight.

Photos added above ......