Aerosol Clearcoat Tail lights

[Pieta]

Hi all,

So I am going to try something to tint the tail light of my Polo 6N. I am going to use Tamiya Spraytint, I used it before on my Citi Taillights some time ago and it worked great, but over about a year it slowly started to come off.

I want to do the same again, but this time clearcoat over it. I have had some **** luck with clearcoat in the past in aerosol cans that it cracked & flaked off after spray and drying.

Any tips or advice on this?

This is what I want to do,

Wet sand the lights with 1500-2000 grit, (To remove the gloss), spray tint it black, wet sand again with 2000 grit and then Tamiya Clear it afterwards or 2k clear it? Just afraid the 2k will maybe attack the spraytint and not stick to the plastic tail lights.

Any advice will be appreciated...

[GaVeN]

Aerosol is very risky on plastic taillights.
Tamiya will stick, and you'll be golden, but the aerosol clear coat tends to have too much solvent in it & you could end up with micro cracks in the plastic. They really don't like the quick evaporation.
But, you might be okay and nothing happens. It's a massive gamble.

I for one have stopped tinting(Painting) taillights for this exact reason, as a lot of the lights I got to do was damaged from exposure to UV, and once you start tinting them they crack up.

If you want some advice, go with a laminx or cheaper alternative film. When you are sick of the look, simply pull it off and you're good to go. Whereas painting them will require more sanding & polishing to remove, potentially causing damage to them.

[Pieta]

Aerosol is very risky on plastic taillights.
Tamiya will stick, and you'll be golden, but the aerosol clear coat tends to have too much solvent in it & you could end up with micro cracks in the plastic. They really don't like the quick evaporation.
But, you might be okay and nothing happens. It's a massive gamble.

I for one have stopped tinting(Painting) taillights for this exact reason, as a lot of the lights I got to do was damaged from exposure to UV, and once you start tinting them they crack up.

If you want some advice, go with a laminx or cheaper alternative film. When you are sick of the look, simply pull it off and you're good to go. Whereas painting them will require more sanding & polishing to remove, potentially causing damage to them.

Hi Gaven,

Thanks for the reply, Polo 6N lights aint that hard or expensive to come by, I think I am going to risk it with the Tamiya Spraytint and Tamiya Clear. I tried the laminx but the problem is the cast lettering and marks on the original lights tend to lift and leave bubbles that are visible with the film.

So you say the Tamiya Spratint with Tamiya Clear is worth a go?

[Shivvy]

Would using a clear plastic primer not help adhesion?

[Cornel]

this is how i've done it for 4 years on a few brands of cars.

wet sand with 400 grid sand paper. then you mix a little gloss black 2k paint into your 2k clear coat. no need for any funny stuff.

holds very long, haven't seen any plastic cracking when i removed the paint. had mine done by another company, removed it after a year without any problems, left it stock for 4 months and then i smoked it again. just make sure you get into the corners. my personal lights have been like this for last 3 years without any problems.

remember you can not apply 2k clear over aerosol. 2k is a lot stronger than aerosol.