Folks

Just took ownership of some fibregalss flares and want to paint them.

They come covered in the "Gelcoat" that they all use, and comes with the normal minor scratches that you get from the moulds.

As the Gelcoat is not UV rated, i want to paint them to keep them nice and shiney if I can.

They will be blak, so i went and bought two cans of gloss enamel spray paint and two sheets of 600grit and 1200 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

Since the surface is pretty much perfect (bar a few minor scratches) i was just going to 600 grit them, clean off, and then paint with the spray cans. A few coats and then fit.

Any further advice before I cock it up and need to start again??

That should be fine champ, sand them until you like the surface ie no scratches
just make the surface rough enough so the paint will stick nicely,

should come up real nice look forward to seeing them

Cheers for the info.

When you say "rough enough" for the paint to stick, how rough is rough?
Will the 600 grit provide enough "roughness" for the paint to stick properly?

600 will be fine, don't be lazy like me and either 80 150 or 320 grit- whatever comes out of the box

whats the finish on the rest of the car?

gloss black will look wrong against anything other than a show car finish

much better with satin black, or against a faded old paint job use matte black

but that can be personal taste, i just find if you try to match the finish to the other paint the end look will be much nicer/better suited

Hmm now you have me thinking 1200RC

Its actually for my 4wd (hence in off topic)
Std 10 year old white paint, in 10 year old condition. If I go with the gloss, then the flares will look far too new i spose.

maybe satin or matte would be a better option. hmmmm.

hey reuby_tuesday,

get yourself some prepsol to rub down the flares after you sand them, this will also help the paint stick a hell of a lot better.