Painting Tips For Your Body

[RC Girl]

I finally picked mine up and have been amazed at its abilities. But I want to get rid of that dang orange and blue (I love the Broncos, but this is a nasty orange and blue).

What do I need to do to the tub to paint it? What type of paint should I be using?

I know, newb questions, but want to do this right.

Gonna paint my 1:18 Scorpion too since my daughter took a Sharpie to it and not its kind of black and kind of yellow.

[SolaceOfWinter]

well most poeple have took sand paper and scuffed up the body, cleaned it, primered it, then did to top coats. i havent tried it yet.
however, if you can wait they are comming out with a 'kit' that will let you paint it the 'right' way...
im not sure if i can wait, i just want to show my friend how it looks 'stock' then ill paint it. may do the roll bars anyway though...

[1bigtracker]

ok here is what i did.

1. Get your supplys, you will need one can of Plastic Adhesion Promoter(primer), one(or more) cans of a paint, one can of clear.

2. Strip body bare(including tail lights and hood latches)

3. Scuff with a SOS pad, make sure to get all the tight little spots or youe paint will peel
4. Clean the body with a cleaner, I don't know what the proper cleaner to use is, i just gave it a good drenching with water and a cloth

5. Hit it with primer, i would recommend you primer the whole body, inside and out, top and bottom, will look much cleaner when done right

6. After giving enough time to dry start shooting you color coats. try to paint the underside too to match. this is for one color only, you might want to do some masking if you are going for two colors.

7. After about 3 coats, start clearing it.

and you might end up with somthing like this:






now, before anyone one freaks out about what i forgot to do while painting, i am just stateing what i did to give people an idea of what it took to to the 2 tone on mine. i have never took a class to paint or even read a book on it, i'm just going by what i think is right.

-If anyone thinks it would help, i am painting another body soon and can get a step by step on it with pics if you think its worth the effort.

stu

[SolaceOfWinter]

a step by step would be great. what kind of clear coat did you use? is it rattle can clear coat or what? and how important would you say it is to the whole process?

[Got Rocks?]

Originally Posted by 1bigtracker

ok here is what i did.

1. Get your supplys, you will need one can of Plastic Adhesion Promoter(primer), one(or more) cans of a paint, one can of clear.

2. Strip body bare(including tail lights and hood latches)

3. Scuff with a SOS pad, make sure to get all the tight little spots or youe paint will peel
4. Clean the body with a cleaner, I don't know what the proper cleaner to use is, i just gave it a good drenching with water and a cloth

5. Hit it with primer, i would recommend you primer the whole body, inside and out, top and bottom, will look much cleaner when done right

6. After giving enough time to dry start shooting you color coats. try to paint the underside too to match. this is for one color only, you might want to do some masking if you are going for two colors.

7. After about 3 coats, start clearing it.

and you might end up with somthing like this:






now, before anyone one freaks out about what i forgot to do while painting, i am just stateing what i did to give people an idea of what it took to to the 2 tone on mine. i have never took a class to paint or even read a book on it, i'm just going by what i think is right.

-If anyone thinks it would help, i am painting another body soon and can get a step by step on it with pics if you think its worth the effort.

stu

what is the biggest improvement you have made

[cstmp8r]

1bigtracker did a pretty good job of describing everything. What i do on my hard body's is get a bucket of warm water with comet in it and scuff it down (realy well) with a grey scotchbright pad, do NOT use red it is way too abrasive and will leave scratches in the plastic. Then rinse it realy good with water, then either let it set for quite a while or if you have a compressor blow it off. And then one of the most important steps is like 1bigtracker said you must use a plasic adhesion promoter wether it be raw plastic primer or specific adhesion promoter. Then put at least two coats of sealer/primer. Let the primer flash (dry) if it sits more than 24 hrs. though i would recomend taking your grey scuff pad and lightly rescuff it. Then put your colors on and clear. Now i hope nobody takes offense to this but rattle can paint jobs don't compare to automotive paints. The rattle bomb clear is usually very thin with no build unlike automotive urathanes. Although not everyone has access to automotive paints due to you needing spray guns and compressor among other things not to mention it is very expensive!! Oh btw 1bigtracker I love the colors on your jeep!! i think its my favorite color combo. My bruiser,vintage rc10, and my sons t3 are all painted blue and silver!! here is a link of my showroom over at tamiyaclub it has some paint jobs that i have done for myself and customers!!http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom.asp?id=2700

[Trike Kid]

I just cleaned and tore down my 1:18 body and started laying light coats of paint, I did a little with some 400 grit on bigger areas. the biggest thing is to use light coats, I ended up laying some of my enamel too thick and getting some kinda f'd areas around edges and on my hood. One tip I have for making your paint job look a little more profesional, paint the whole underside with flat or satin black, draws attention to the outside of the body, and not the ugly orange and overspray mix on the bottom.

[Emaxximuss78]

I know for a fact that some auro store will custome make collors an put them in a ratttle can for you.
My dad had this done so he could use it to paint the doors for the house.
It takes one hell of a beating an never peels.