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MG MGF Technical - Mud flaps

Hi all

Bought some mud flaps a month or so a go and in my infinite wisdom decided to spray them Flame Red to match the car...

Not being a techy on spraying and painting i though i'd use the halfords spray....

The colour match is fine but i obviously didnt prepare the flaps right cos 1 month on most of the red has peeled off...

Any ideas what paint i should be using and how best to prepare the flaps...

Ta muchly

stu
Stu

Stu

Did you use any plastic primer, if not that is what you'll need otherwise it will not adhear to flaps.

You can also get this from Halfords!

Arron
Arron

I did use a primer but dont know if it was specifically for plastic or not...

stu
Stu

Stu,
The Halfords paint you used was it specially for rubber/plastic applications ?
IIRC you need a plastisier in the paint as well to allow for the flex of the rubber, otherwise it will flake off in no time.
Mike
Mike

Funnly enough i sprayed mine white
they are now black again


Primer............Hummmmmmmm

Must give that a go
P Sayer

Painting plastic is notoriously difficult.
Speaking to the paint-finishers at work (who have a lot of sand-coloured paint if anyone needs any) they pointed out the following.
Aerosol tins will NEVER produce even a half decent cosmetic result and are best saved for fly spray and air fresheners.
Spraying needs to be done in a dry, conditioned environment which is virtually impossible to achieve on a self-help basis.
The spray bay they have at work (big enough to take a BIG helicopter by the way) is kept at near-zero % humidity. This means there's absolutely no condensation on the spraying surface.
Also, the temperature is regulated meaning all paint goes on at the same temperature.
Primer, top coat and lacquer are all applied in identical conditions which is the key apparently. Even leaving a part overnight in your garage to allow one coat to dry (and overnight isn't really enough) then leads to the next coat being applied under slightly different conditions be it humidity or temperature.
THEN, factor in the aerosol itself which simply blurts out a set amount of paint at a set pressure, speed and density...regardless of what might be best for the job.
So in short, tins from Halfords are good for WD40 and stuff like that but hopeless for painting. Sorry :-(
Bob

This thread was discussed between 11/07/2003 and 12/07/2003

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