polycarbonate spray paint
- Thread starter deadshot
- Start date
How is this different from the new plastic adhering paints like Krylon's Fusion? Unless I don't understand the application, it would seem that the paint for the border would be on the backside of the lexan, therefore somewhat protected.. Most paints should work in those situations unless the panel was to see frequent removal.
Ken Roberts
Supporter
Jerry Bickel Race Cars #JBRC4002
Fran Hall RCR
GT40s Sponsor
Another choice is to use black dye as used in the printing/banner/decal world...it adheres much better than a regular paint as it stains and does not sit on the surface..
I scuff the area to be painted with 1,000 grit and use whatever black I have laying around in a can. Just do a very light coat, enough to cover. You just want to have a thin layer of rubber/foam that it sits on though like a gasket. Nothing will hold up to friction if nothing is used.
I personally will be using black silicone or 3m window weld for installation to kill 2 birds with one stone (not needing a foam gasket) and a clean look.
I personally will be using black silicone or 3m window weld for installation to kill 2 birds with one stone (not needing a foam gasket) and a clean look.
You run a high chance the glue will look uneven if placed inside, and see the cut lines in it too. Worth a test tho.
Well Looks like us folk living on the north side of the border can't have Jerry Bickel race car paint according to government regs, So I guess I try the polycarbonate paint at the Hobby store for RC car polycarbonate bodies and hope its the same stuff just in a different can ? and If that don't work Ill buying some black dye maybe, if were allowed to have it here in Canada 
Fran,
Can you get a crisp border edge with die?
I used the Jerry Bickel Poly Paint and its elastic quality makes is difficult to get a clean edge. Even though I prepped by scuffing the border with 200 grit, it still does not adhere that well to the lexan.
Fran Hall RCR
GT40s Sponsor
The edge depends upon your taping medium just like painting stripes
Professional Fine line tape works great
Professional Fine line tape works great
This is why I mentioned "very light coats". If you start right off doing wet coats, you can undermine your tape. Any tape. You need to start with light misting coats to build up past the tape line. Then finish your last coat wet if you have to. This goes for any type of paint on any type of surface.
200grit is pretty aggresive. On the bonding level, it really only needs to be deglazed. Light coats will also limit the wet chemical prolonged contact (and pentration) from the paint to the plastic. It can lead to situation where the paint adhesion will be rejected during the drying process from unwanted chemical gas off from plastic.
I'd vote against using silicon to seal the junction between cover and body. Makes a hell of a mess if you ever need to remove the cover. I cut mine out using a cheese cutting wire, but it was still a pain in the ass, and required quite a lot of touching up as the silicon removed quite a lot of border paint. Better to use soft foam as a gasket.
I would imagine that the 'special' part of Lexan approved paint is so that the solvents in the paint don't attack the Lexan. In my teens I acquired a lot of experience with painting Lexan RC car bodies, and if you painted them too wet....they would crack when using conventional automotive solvent based paint. One way to do it (limited colors) was to use vinyl upholstery paint, very flexible (maybe the current Bickel stuff?) and durable, but I don't know if that is still legal? Air quality and VOCs and all that.
I painted my lexan window borders with the Jerry Bickel border paint and did not get good results.
I prepped the windows by scuff-sanding, followed by compressed air and a tack-cloth. The Jerry Bickel paint has little pigment, with the result that multiple coats are necessary. Perhaps because of this, when the Fineline tape was removed along the paint edge, it left a jagged edge. The problem was made worse by poor paint adhesion. The poor paint adhesion also caused problems with subsequent handling and installation. My windows are screwed into place with nylon screws and thin weatherstripping, with the non-adhesive side against the windows. When the windows were subsequently removed, some of the paint came off as well, leaving unsightly non-black areas in the otherwise black border.
The job needed to be redone, so the windows were removed again and I discovered that the old paint could be chipped off with just a fingernail. I removed all the old paint by scraping, followed by sanding.
Not wanting to do the job three times, I bought three different cans of paint to use on a lexan test panel:
1) Rustoleum paint for plastic (black)
2) Krylon Camouflage "with Fusion Technology" (Ultra Flat Black)
3) Kylon Fusion All-in-one paint+primer (Satin Black)
All three of these paints were much better than the Jerry Bickel paint. All three covered much better, with fewer coats, a much cleaner edge and much better adhesion.
After 48 hours cure, none of the three paints could be scraped off the test panel with a fingernail.
For paints #1 and #2, you could see a shiny area where the fingernail was scraped. For #3, after rubbing with my thumb, I could hardly tell where my fingernail had been scraping.
Paint #1 had one little "jiggle" in the edge line. This might have been an issue with the panel or the tape, but the other two did not have this issue.
In the end, I thought paint #3 looked a little better in terms of final appearance, so that is what went on the side windows. The final result looks good and is much superior to the initial attempt with the Jerry Bickel paint.
I prepped the windows by scuff-sanding, followed by compressed air and a tack-cloth. The Jerry Bickel paint has little pigment, with the result that multiple coats are necessary. Perhaps because of this, when the Fineline tape was removed along the paint edge, it left a jagged edge. The problem was made worse by poor paint adhesion. The poor paint adhesion also caused problems with subsequent handling and installation. My windows are screwed into place with nylon screws and thin weatherstripping, with the non-adhesive side against the windows. When the windows were subsequently removed, some of the paint came off as well, leaving unsightly non-black areas in the otherwise black border.
The job needed to be redone, so the windows were removed again and I discovered that the old paint could be chipped off with just a fingernail. I removed all the old paint by scraping, followed by sanding.
Not wanting to do the job three times, I bought three different cans of paint to use on a lexan test panel:
1) Rustoleum paint for plastic (black)
2) Krylon Camouflage "with Fusion Technology" (Ultra Flat Black)
3) Kylon Fusion All-in-one paint+primer (Satin Black)
All three of these paints were much better than the Jerry Bickel paint. All three covered much better, with fewer coats, a much cleaner edge and much better adhesion.
After 48 hours cure, none of the three paints could be scraped off the test panel with a fingernail.
For paints #1 and #2, you could see a shiny area where the fingernail was scraped. For #3, after rubbing with my thumb, I could hardly tell where my fingernail had been scraping.
Paint #1 had one little "jiggle" in the edge line. This might have been an issue with the panel or the tape, but the other two did not have this issue.
In the end, I thought paint #3 looked a little better in terms of final appearance, so that is what went on the side windows. The final result looks good and is much superior to the initial attempt with the Jerry Bickel paint.
Johan
Supporter
Thanks for info Dave, I`m just about to start painting the lexan. There is a lot of info on the forum with regard to this and a summary would point to the Krylon Fusion being the best. I`m planning to use this, it says on the can "no sanding or priming" but I`m planning to scuff the edges.
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Ken Roberts
Supporter
Thanks Dave. You have some great info.
Joel K
Supporter
I do a lot of RC car builds and the RC polycarb paint is laquer based and on regular lexan works great because it adheres well and is very flexible. Scuffing it up with steel wool or very fine sand paper insures it sticks well. Getting nice crisp lines work best with vinyl masking tap available at on line hobby shops.
what I don’t know is if it sticks to the scratch resistant coating. So before I would use any paint I would buy a sheet of scratch resistant lexan and test it.
Also, if you get laquer paint where you don’t want it on the lexan do not under any circumstance use lacquer thinner as it will craze the lexan. I use brake fluid. you lightly dab it on the paint you want to remove. Leave it on for some time until the paint you are trying to remove becomes very soft so you can use a small plastic edge and sort and remove it from the lexan. This approach works well and leaves no residue on the lexan.
what I don’t know is if it sticks to the scratch resistant coating. So before I would use any paint I would buy a sheet of scratch resistant lexan and test it.
Also, if you get laquer paint where you don’t want it on the lexan do not under any circumstance use lacquer thinner as it will craze the lexan. I use brake fluid. you lightly dab it on the paint you want to remove. Leave it on for some time until the paint you are trying to remove becomes very soft so you can use a small plastic edge and sort and remove it from the lexan. This approach works well and leaves no residue on the lexan.
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