Before I placed an order for my aero kit and some new arches, I stopped by my local paint shop to give them a heads up and ask a few questions. One question was, were they going to smooth out the textured/grain out of the arches. When I priced quoted them before, I was under the impression that they were going to smooth them out. But they told me that they can't do that. They also told me that they couldn't do the black texture trim if I decided to go that route.

My question is to the folks that have had their arches painted, were they smoothed out or do they have the texture/grain still in it? If they were smoothed out, I guess I'll have to search for another auto shop that will do that.

 

The trim can be sanded. Before you spray anything, make sure it's super clean and put on a few coats of adhesion promoter like Bulldog: http://www.kleanstripauto.com/products/plasticprep.html

The trim can be filled using a flexible primer/surfacer. SEM makes some that I've used before: http://www.sem.ws/product.php?product_id=138

Also get flex agent to add to the color and clear: http://www.sem.ws/product.php?product_id=167

 

they should be smooth, and if they cant do that find another place, nparker is right they should sand it smooth and put some adhesion promoter on it cause plastic is picky about getting paint to stick to it with chipping or flaking off, then they primer it and paint it using your cars paint code. Im in the process of doing this right now. but im not going full aero kit.

 

Try to find a shop that has done it before or a shop that is highly qualified. If it seams too cheap then look somewhere else because you will probably get a junky job done on them.

 

Mine were smoothed, they sanded the plastic down smooth, then put on a filler primer thats thicker than normal. Smoothed that, then painted it. A chemical additive like bulldog was added to make sure the paint stays somewhat flexible so it doesnt crack.

Its just like painting a rubber bumper (except for the sanding) and any body shop/collision shop should be able to do it.

I got mine done for $560, the cost of labor/paint.

If they feed you some junk about why they cant do it, they are just being lazy or they just arnt skilled enough to do it.

Shop around to different places and make them tell you how they plan on doing the work and what materials they plan to use. You can normally tell when someone knows what they are talking about or not.

Good luck!