Plexiglass painting..

[Dargasonus]

Anyone have any tips for prepping / paint brands for painting a peice of plexiglass?

[Dargasonus]

Guess no ones had any experience with it?

Trying a couple methods on a pair of small scrap peices..we'll see.

[Big Joe]

just scuff it real good. Thats about all you really need to know.

[DSMMAN]

NO clue but id love to know how it turns out and how you did it :)

[mc_88]

use those scotch brite pads on it first then make sure you clean with a good paint prep. should paint nice.

[Dargasonus]

I've got about 3 light coats on one scuffed and one unscuffed

It's looking fantastic ATM, im not gunna go too much heavier on the paint then do a few coats of clear and see how it holds / looks. I should have enough time for several tests on combo's before I need to paint my project.

[mc_88]

whats ur project? if i may ask

[Dargasonus]

Somethin to throw in the trash can if I can't get it painted the way I want :lol:


What type of paint prep would be safe on plexiglass? I tried w/o and just doesn't seem to want to stick on my first attempts, cracking up a bit on one of the edges. Scuffed a bit more and tried a diffrent scrap peice, I'll peek at it in the morning before work.

[mc_88]

I'd prob jus use a standard paint prep you can get from jus bout anywhere. make sure you pour it on ur rag, not on the plexi. also if that doesnt work, use an etch primer before you paint. an etch primer has acid in it that will grab hold of the surface. then you can paint on top of the primer. but that wont work if you trying to have it semi-transparent....

[tenspeed]

You could paint the inside and skip the clear coat.

[Dargasonus]

Originally posted by tenspeed
You could paint the inside and skip the clear coat.

I am, im painting the side thats going against what I'm mounting it too..I'd be too affraid of scratches to paint the outside.

Haven't went out to check my last attempt yet, hopefully It turned out better.

[Dargasonus]

Originally posted by mc_88
I'd prob jus use a standard paint prep you can get from jus bout anywhere. make sure you pour it on ur rag, not on the plexi. also if that doesnt work, use an etch primer before you paint. an etch primer has acid in it that will grab hold of the surface. then you can paint on top of the primer. but that wont work if you trying to have it semi-transparent....

Yeah, I can't use primer and still paint the inside..unless I can find some pretty black primer :lol:

[mc_88]

lol, yeh i didnt know you were painting the inside, but yeh that prob would not be a good idea to use primer! :lol.:

[Dargasonus]

Im thinkin maybe I idn't give enough time to dry between coats since I wasn't really concerned with the first test peices..im goin really light and plenty of time inbetween on this next one, we'll see

[Nighthawk243]

You can also use an adhesion promoter.

[TA^Guy]

I've painted many plexi things. I never scuffti cause I always paint on the backside of it for a deep, protected finish. I just clean it with alcohol, dry, and spray with several good coats of quality paint. Then clear coat it to protect it.

[Dargasonus]

Okay then..a few tests peices later

I found cleaning it with a dish washing pad and NOT scuffing got me the best results. I think I'm going to have to agree with John with his method..getting alot better results w/o bubbling cracking.

Gunna pick up some alcohol to clean with tomorrow and see what I can make of a few more testers.

Thanks for the input guys.

[freekLED]

There is such a thing as plastic primer, mostly used for ABS & PP type plastics (not sure what plexiglas is) that I have found works wonders for adhesion & flexing without cracking/bubbling. This might be the same as the adhesion promoter someone else mentioned.

Cleaning with rubbing alcohol & a soft lint free rag should do the trick though unless you flex it alot before/during installation.

[cristian03gt]

If you want to still see through the plexiglass but also want color you could try transparent vinyl. It comes in different colors.

[Dargasonus]

Yeah..

My plan was if the paint wouldn't stick I'd buy a roll of vinyl and just go that route to get the effect I wanted.

[ga5speed02]

or you could buy colored plexi :D

[MantaGreen97]

Originally posted by ga5speed02
or you could buy colored plexi :D
Yeah that's what I was going to say. It does come in a lot of colours... I just assumed he wanted some metallic or custom colour, outside of those choices...