plastic painting

[Chuck Chiodini]

Fellow riders: I have a small business/hobby fixing and repainting motorcycle plastic. Most of the work I do is on "hard plastic" which usually is the ABS type. My Honda road bike does have some "soft plastic" or polypropolyne (sp?) that can be painted. The technique for a lasting paint on bare polypro is: 1) Rough up the surface with 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper 2) Appy plastic adhesion promoter, let dry at least 6 hours 3) Apply flexible primer 4) Color coat with urethane paint with flex additive mixed in. 5) If you clear coat over everything, be sure to add the flex additive to the clear coat too or it will "spider crack" the first time you drop the bike. All of the above can be found at any automotive paint supply house, it's the same stuff they use to paint the plastic bumpers on cars. Another source is : http://www.urethanesupply.com The hardest part of getting a good,lasting paint job on plastic is to identify the type of plastic you are working on either by codes printed on the part, burn testing or chemical testing. Just painting an unknown piece "like any other plastic" may produce unwanted effects such as, spider cracks in the paint, peeling and chipping of the paint or (shudder the thought) chemically melting the plastic part. Then again, the military uses regular Krylon to paint their plastic KLR parts but they aren't worried about what it looks like or how long it lasts as long as the bike is "earth tones/black". You do not want to go this route! If someone has a junk piece of KLR plastic handy and sends it to me, I'll be happy to try to identify the type of plastic, paint it and report the results back to the list. Then I'll send the piece back to the owner so he can evaluate the paint and report his impressions. Ride like your life depends on it! Chuck Chiodini Heber Springs, Arkansas