Thinking about painting mine in chili red. What type of paint is used for these parts?

 

The paint is important, but the prep work before it is what really matter. Plastic needs to be prepped and primed with the proper products or it will not last (crack/peel off). I'm not a profesionnal painter and I never really did major work on plastic, so I can't do really more than giving you that small piece of info. With the size of NAM, there's probably a bunch of painters on here! :p

 

I am NOT a painter but I did my old R53 MCS and the results were EXCELLENT! After you have removed all the black plastic pieces, get out your sanding gear as ALL that grain that you see and feel HAS to be removed. Use progressively higher # grits until you achieve a smooth, glasslike finish. That fine dust is not parmesean cheese but that nasty plastic. Wear a mask! Take your paint code # to a PROFESSIONAL auto body supply and tell them what you are painting; have them mix 4 cans of aerosol rattle cans(enough to do ALL the arches,rockers,and front and rear valences). Also pick up 2 cans of U-POL #1 CLEAR for your finishing shine. Take your time; everything is in the prep work and the proper professional grade products. You'll be glad you did as this mod really changes the appearance of your ride,esspecially RED.


ISAMIN

 

I believe a high-build primer will be key to a smooth prep surface. You'd want to sand down the texture as much as you can on the black plastic and then start with a high build primer to fill in the leftover texture, then more sanding until everything is perfectly smooth. A good flex additive should also be used since those plastic bits are quite a bit more flexible than standard body pieces, and installing them really stretches the limits of paint flex.

 

Thanks all. Sounds like a good dog days of summer project. Here is the way Dougal currently looks: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...0&ref=gnr-prev


I can't seem to grab an image directly from my gallery...

 

You'll probably do the right research for this, but some things to keep in mind...

Clean, clean, clean the plastic with prep solution before even starting sanding. The plastic is porous and you'll grind the oils and dirt into it if you don't clean it very well first.

High-build primer will do you a favor, so you won't have to sand down the surface too much. You'll still sand down the primer after it kicks, but I doubt the plastic alone will give you as good a surface to paint on.

You'll probably need a product - Bulldog - to apply before doing any painting (primer). It's made for adhering paint (and primer) to plastic.

If you haven't seen examples, color-keying your flares will change the look of the Mini drastically. This guy bought his as painted hard plastic parts (and his is Dark Silver) but you get an idea of how different the body and wheel wells look without the black in-between: http://www.billswebspace.com/mcs.htm (scroll down) This is also a great page for mods.

I hope you do it! Would love to see pics when you're done. Good luck!

 

WOW - the color match look is too cool... never even thought about that one. My middle son is an automotive painter - may need some father/son sanding time and give this a try.

 

There are some really good "adhesion promoter" primers out there for plastic......probably a good idea to prime with one of those first before you spray a primer surfacer on them, and then the color/clear. Getting the paint to stick to the plastic (for more than a year or two) is the tough part.