How do we go about getting our cars one solid color? I have seen some mini's what all the black trim painted to match car color. Is this a full body kit or are they actually painting the plastic pieces?

 

The short answer is that they are sanded down and painted. But the process is rather laborious and not cheap!

 

What is not cheap anyone have this done? what was the total?

I'm curious about this same procedure.

 

Labor is not cheap. All of the parts need to be removed from the car. Then sanded. Most likely sanded again. Removing the fine texture on the flares may reveal molding imperfections that require more sanding.

Then they need to be primed, first with a flex agent. More sanding, followed by re-priming, then color and clear. It adds up; I don't know of a shop that I'd use that charges less than $50 an hour.

I helped a friend who wanted to color match the black trim (flares, sills, and bumpers similar to the Mini) on their VW Tiguan but didn't want to pay about $1200.

It took most of a weekend (2 mornings/afternoons with bbq and beverage breaks) to remove and sand the parts. We started with 320 wet or dry paper and again with 400, 600, and 1000 before priming the first time. Then we primed with SEM Flexible Primer Surfacer, sanded again with 1200, and sprayed color (followed by another sand with 1200 paper) and finally clearcoat. It came out awesome. I have a lot of experience with spray cans, but my friend didn't; he learned how on the website where he got the paint and bought a couple of cheap cans at walmart to practice with on various junk in his garage. His total cost (besides quality brew and food) was about $200 which included leftover paint.

http://semproducts.com/product-catal...imer-surfacer/

The paint (color and clear) came from a place near us that puts high quality auto paint into spray cans. It's been 18 months and has held up like the factory did it.

http://www.paintworldinc.com/

If you can't/won't try to paint yourself, you can still save a pile of cash by removing the parts, doing a great sanding job, and putting the parts back on the car yourself. I've restored several cars and have found that painting is 95% in the prep work, which takes time = $$.