I need to put my ego down and ask how to restore flat or close to flat plastic that was on cars back in the 90's. I learned to paint here starting with TAMCO epoxy, Primer (if necessary), base coat, clear coat. I learned it to perfection, but with one problem: super shiny. All parts that needed to be shiny, I restored, but all parts that were flat I was simply cheating by buying the parts brand new. Problem is, some parts can't be bought, or are too expensive now.

The plastic I'm talking about was never painted to begin with. Let me show you what I'm talking about:







This type of material is on motorcycles and cars. It's the part that's never painted, but I now need to restore it, and only way forward is to paint it. The way I painted glossy plastics for motorcycles was using TAMCO epoxy on scratched out plastic, and I would build it from there. NO adhersion promoters. No wet on wet here. So I'm planing on doing the same, but what's the next step? Since it's almost flat, I will need to hand sand the epoxy using the gray scratch pad, and then how do I paint? What paint for this? Single stage flat? I have no clue as I never bothered to restore those things in the past.

I use an Axalta Cromax system and in this there are specific binders for plastics/vinyls. Degree of gloss can be achieved by mixing the flat and gloss binders and the system needs no priming - just degrease and spray. I've used lots and lots of it, for both interior and exterior applications and it seems to last almost forever.

You'll need a mini/midi sized gun that is capable of very fine atomisation since you want dead flat finishes from light coats.

Most other paint manufacturers have a similar system.

Alternately you could spray a light coat of epoxy followed by a coat of 2K Direct Gloss, either with a flattening additive or a flat binder. Again, will last well.

Oh ok, I will research that.

My go to solution was what you mentioned as the second solution: epoxy, base coat and clear coat with Matting agent.

I was thinking the number of layers and thickness does matter, as that plastic was not smooth, so spraying too many things on it, would change the look of it.

A little adhesion promoter followed by SEM Trim Black has worked well for me on the type of plastic parts you mentioned. Durable 1K product, just don't get any isopropyl alcohol on it. For some reason it doesn't like that.

wireburn wrote:SEM Trim Black has worked well for me on the type of plastic parts you mentioned.

I'm glad you mentioned it. I have seen that around and was going to try it.

The epoxy route seems like a lot of layers and tons of work, but I'm most familiar with epoxy work. It would give me most flexibility as I would be able to create my own colors and my own gloss finish.