Painting phenolic plastic?

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:12 pm
Anyone ever paint phenolic? I have a carb spacer I'm using on my car and want to paint it to match the engine, if possible. Can it be done? special primer? Adhesion promoter? Epoxy?

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2021 1:43 pm
So we've shot over Formica countertops for 40 years or so. The old original brand Formica surfaces were some pretty great phenolic. I've shot lacquers, polyesters, and polyurethanes over them. We always did a good scuff, primer, and topcoats much like working over fiberglass. I never used AP on it but probably couldn't hurt. Here is the thing though.... I might be concerned about the heat trying to delam. my paint on something like these spacers. Might want to put the spacer in, warm up the engine, and shoot a infra-red temp. probe to see what kind of temp.s build up underhood. The other thing could be a problem with heating/cooling down off and on......
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2021 4:24 am
Thanks, Darrell, I knew you would have some experience with this! And about the heat...it's going on a painted alum. intake manifold, so it will be cooler than the intake itself. So shouldn't be a problem.

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2021 9:44 am
You'll be fine then....pick your favorite medium. Ha, ha, so I was setting up one of those spacers one time on a rotary motor. When you mount those motors in the rear of a car hanging off a transaxle the engine bay gets hotter than normal, nothing crazy but you do get heat "creep" up from the motor to the Holley Street Avenger carb. So I ended up using a carb heat shield and also needed a spacer. There was still too much heat trying to come up the phenolic so....... I ended up tracing out that pattern on a half inch high temp. commerical polyethylene red cutting board (car and engine accessories were red). No more heat "creep." Oh, and that carb was mounting to a supercharger....so gee, how hot was that right? Sorry, didn't mean to pull us off subject...... I once finished a phenolic statue, it was 15 years ago, it still looked like the day I finished it.....
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!

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