I Painted my front grille recently to match my car (Black magic) and the finish was awesome but recently its gone abit bubbly and looks paints why is this?? is there away of fixing it? or is it gonna be a sand back and respray job??

Best fix is to sand it back and re paint I'm afraid matey.

Make sure to be thorough it pays off in the long run.

am i using someiihng wrong though?? do i have to use a special laquer to do with heat resistance? i used halfords clear.

Im thinking you maybe didn't leave sufficient drying time between coats?

The halfords clear laquer takes ages to go off.

Days later it can still be soft, if too much is applied it can appear to have quite alot of micro bubbles in the laquer.

Will be interesting to see how mine turns out, as i've made a bit of a mess of it already. But oh well, will get another grille and have it done properly.

oh thats why then i did leave it 2 days thinking it would be enough. To the garage hahaha

Did you strip, or paint over the chrome coating?

sanded all the way down and keyed it

I Painted my front grille recently to match my car (Black magic) and the finish was awesome but recently its gone abit bubbly and looks paints why is this?? is there away of fixing it? or is it gonna be a sand back and respray job??

What primer did you use ?

The first time I did mine I used Wilko's grey primer - seemed fine - sprayed the black magic on top and it turned into crazy paving after a few hours (looked great immediately after spraying )

I the found a thread on here which said you need to use zinc oxide primer as a base. It's dearer than most, but will save a lot heartache in the longer run

I keyed the chrome with 800 grit, not all the way to the plastic though.

I then used a few coats of plastic etching primer, followed by a few coats of grey. Then followed by a few coats of Black Magic, im now onto the Clear Laquer. I've not had any reactions yet, but i've had plenty of rants when i keep going through the paint on the fine edges :(

Edited 18 September, 200916 yr by Browny_37

you need to use a proper plastic primer if you are sanding back to the plastic

Hope you got the paintjob sorted.

I'd be interested to see photos of how your car looks with the painted grille. Any chance you can post some (before and after shots preferably)?

I done mine about a year ago. Used halfords everything, primer, black magic and clear. Come out ok, but it come out a bit "matt" looking. Dont know how to get the finnish nice. :no: Need re do it again soon, stone chipped to ****

Matt

i had a bodyshop do mine four times before i had a sufficently show room esque finish

paint doesnt bond to to well to plasticy chrome, how thorough was your prep process, preparation is the key to these sorts of jobs.

Come on Tas...

Wrap it, as durable as the original chome IMO.

you need to use a proper plastic primer if you are sanding back to the plastic

There was another thread suggesting that self etch primer (the stuff meant to etch into metal) was the stuff to use, with one poster stating they had used plastic primer and it turned out bad but went ok with the etch primer. Mentioning for completeness. I'd think plastic primer is the stuff to use as it's designed to bond with plastic, and etch primer is designed to bond with bare metal.

this post has bin dug out the past abit hasnt it lol

i did do it though

before

after

Looks smart!

I'd not bet brave enough to do it myself - rather trust a bodyshop...

How is it a year on?

Edited 14 July, 201015 yr by Abominable

hi Tas

i had mine sprayed at the body shop and it was only £20. thought this was a better plan than taking the time to do it myself and inevitably make a mistake or f*** it up and its still going strong and that was the first thing i did on it about 10 months ago. might be worthwhile doing that to get a good quality base and finish.

Elliott

spot on mate guna be doing mine soon

and yh the aerosol paints dry by solvent evapouration so if you apply more coats too quick when the layer below isnt completely dry, the solvent will still come through which is wat these bubles are so take your time