club.liberty.asn.au

Hey guys,
So ive been getting quite irritated about the silver on my centre consol losing its colour. Ive decided that i want to repaint it, and im thinking about doing it possibly in black. If i think its necessary i will pay someone to do it. But mainly im looking for advice as to how to go about doing this, what i should use, n what i should look out for.
Taking the out the centre consol shouldnt be an issue. Its more about the paint used, how it would look and how would it age.
any advice would be greatly appreciated.

cheers



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well if i were to do it i would,

lightly sand the old paint off, using very very light sand paper.

apply a few coats of Flexi-Prime or Bumper Primers allowing it about 5 minutes between coats (you can get this from any automotive shop, i have used the stuff from supercheap and it worked well)

pick your colour, grab a can of acrylic auto paint in rattle pack form from wherever you got the flexi prime in your desired colour, now apply thin layers leaving around 2 minutes per layer until there is a nice thick coat of paint on the item, once you are happy let it sit for at least 24 hours before replacing it in the car, it should be dry to the touch within about an hour or so but you need the extra time for the paint to cure.

so a flexi prime is needed so the paint wont just flake off in a week, and with the acrylic paints if you give it nice thin coats and work your way up you can get a really nice smooth shiny finish without using a clear coat.
if you try applying heavy coats of paint you will find it will trap air in the paint and it wont be a nice finish in the end.

** clear coat is optional for added protection, i dont imagine you would need it but it can be purchased from any automotive paint store in a aerosole application

i have done this to an old commodore of mine a few years back and it turned out fantastic, lasted at least a year with no chips or anything until the car was sold, and i used this on the actual inside door handles so it was getting a fair bit of use.

the end

You made my skin crawl just reading your heading... one thing ive always hated is guys who paint their interiors, especially when you roll up at the lights to a gemini owner and they have decorated there dash either white or pink with the use of a spray can.

its horrible.

However your interior is damaged and therefore needs to be fixed. The Liberty is a beautiful car and holds its value nicely.
so if your gonna do it, do it right the first time, spend the money get it done professionally - perhaps even powdercoated.

haha mate, i know exactly what your talking about. one of my best mates actually has a gemini, n you can probs guess what it looks like.
Yeah i want it to look as if it is orginal. im guessing it wouldnt cost too much to get it powder coated. would you have any ideas price wise?

i do like the idea of doing it myself, but i do question my ability to make it look good. i defs dont want a tacky interior, its not a liberty thing to do.

If you do it yourself, whatever you do, make sure you prepare the surface properly before applying the paint, that'll help it stay looking good, rather than peeling off in two weeks

Is it metal though? Feels like plastic to me and plastic isn't all that good for powdercoating

It's plastic... Can't powder coat it people because it's a heat process. Thus why they can't powder coat the centre caps on wheels.

To be honest, it does look pretty far gone, & that sort of thing happens when you use the car everyday. Personally, screw trying to repair it, just go buy a new one... I'm sure they aren't too expensive

well like i said i have done mine in my old commodore and was very impressed with how it turned out and how it lasted. it wasnt tacky and looked the goods, the colour choice is up to you but the method will work superbly so long as you just take your time.

swingn wrote:It's plastic... Can't powder coat it people because it's a heat process. Thus why they can't powder coat the centre caps on wheels.

Dude...? Your wrong!

Any object that can be given an electrostatic charge can be powder coated. This includes glass, wood, and many kinds of plastics.

The only problem comes in the curing process—plastic melts at fairly low temperatures, and wood can burn. So special types of resin powder have been created that melt at much lower temperatures. Another option is curing using infrared radiation.

why does that make it sound like it would cost me a million dollars to do?

simon wrote:why does that make it sound like it would cost me a million dollars to do?

Powder coating is cheap, but only for metal parts. Plus, powder coat really is NOT up to everyday wear and tear. The coating will flake off after no time.

Your best bet is to do a proper spray paint job yourself. You need to sand the parts down properly first. Coarse sandpaper to get off all the coating, and gradually working down to about 800 grit sandpaper til the plastic is smooth. Doesn't have to be perfect just yet.

Next prime it with some plastic primer. It's fairly thin, and the trick is to spray just enough so that it melds together and isn't bumpy, but not so much that it run. Do about 2-3 coats of primer and sand it smooth between with 1200 grit sandpaper.

Use automotive paint, as it is the hardest wearing and best bet. I'd suggest matt black for the interior. Same technique as above. Spray so that the droplets just meld together and sand between coats with 1200 grit wet n dry sandpaper (use it dry tho!). You need to leave each coat for 24 hours, otherwise it WILL be wet.

On your final coat (about 3 coats should be fine) make sure you sand it smooth, now you need to leave it for ONE WEEK to dry.

Now use some autosol metal polish with a clean dry cloth and buff the paint to smooth it. You can also add a clear top coat for extra hardiness or just use some autopolish. Be careful when polishing that you don't go too nuts!

Keep in mind that automotive paint actually stays wet in the lower levels for up to a month, so you want to be careful!

P.S: The entire cost of doing this yourself should only be about $70. That includes the plastic primer, sandpaper, paint (you should only need about 2-3 large cans) and the metal polish.

Good tips in there guys.

Look forward to seeing what you end up doing mate.