Fiberglass Fender Painting

I want to finally paint my front fenders silver to match my truck. Who has done it? I will be using a paint sprayer. Where is the best place to get the paint? How much do I need to do the 2 front fenders? A quart? Also, do I have to prime, then silver, then clear? How many coats of each. I've sprayed houses before but never car parts. Thanks for the help.

 

Mine were painted for free under a TSB for our trucks...

 

subd, since i want to re-do mine as well, OP what fenders did you get?

 

All pro. Match my width perfect with the spindles and wheel spacers. I need a front bumper now. Lol

 

you can probably go to a automotive paint shop and get all the material you need there. i usually use dupont but there are plenty of brands out there. for just the flares you would probably only need 1/2 a pint since with the reducer it will total to be one 1 pint this is if your brand of paint is a 1:1 ratio. yes you do need to scuff then primer and then wet sand that with some 400grit for a smoother finish, and then 2 coats of base and 2-3 coats of clear. shouldnt be 2 hard a few of my friends painted houses b4 and became really good automotive painters

 

Thanks man. And do I wet sand after all coats of primer and after all coats of silver? Or just the primer?

 

The more you sand, the better it comes oout normally

 

Ok. I'll keep that in mind.

 

Just wet sand the primer most base color have a certain amt of time it needs 2 b clear coats for beter adhension....u don't wanna wet sand that unless u have run...and just curious op what kinda of equipment r u gonna use 2 lay the paint down

 

My stepdad has a sprayer and and my neighbor has one too. Not sure what model. Haven't looked. But I'm not going for perfection. just want it to be a little better than a spray can. But if it looks perfect then hey, i won't complain. Lol

 

Make a small booth inside your garage if you can. Using plastic sheets and lay the fenders down nice or hang them for paint.


The more you prep, sand, and secure the paint booth. The better it will come out. I mean, Steve (Bajamoon) Rattle canned his and they came out ok. It was nice but not perfect. If you do all the other stuff with a spray gun. It will come out much better.


God Speed my White Brotha. . . .Don't let the fenders come out like your DUNLOP Shirt. ​

 

Thanks Ray. Garage is a no go. Too much stuff in there. Lol

 

^ Hang strings outside on the side of your home. Make it into a box. Then hang the plastic sheets to form a Booth. Then tape the edges of each sheet. That will make a pretty decent booth.

YOu want to keep dust and small particles off the paint while it dries. ​

 

Ok. Ill give it a shot. Seems like a lot of work for some all poo fenders.

 

Usually the wetsanding removes all or almost every all the imperfections.

Good luck

 

You'll get lots of opinions but what I do with 'glass is sand with 180 using a flexible block, the I always use an epoxy primer to seal 'glass stuff, then prime with a 2K urethane primer. When that dries wetsand (using a block)with 400 then 600 since it's a metallic. Sometimes I will shoot another coat of reduced epoxy as a sealer under metallics to fill any tiny sand scratches as they can show, but as long as you dont sand through the primer back down to the gelcoat you probably won't need to. Might as well get a pint of basecoat, you'll probably want to spray something else later. Get the right reducer for whatever the temp is. Don't just use laquer thinner.
With silver be careful to not let the metallic mottle or tiger stripe. Criss cross your first two coats then fog on the last in a random pattern, not too wet. That will help it from getting blotchy.
Three coats of clear will give you plenty of room to fix boo-boos like runs and trash.
If you don't want to spend a bunch of $ PPG Omni line is inexpensive and easy to use. MBC basecoat and their Production Clear is very easy to spray and buffs out nice if you want to go that far. Good luck.

 

Thanks for all the info. I'll definitely be referencing your post. Lol

 

if you gonna use a house spray gun it may not work out since automotive paint is thinner than house paint. another thing about the guns is that most of todays house paint is latex while automotive paint is enamel, urethane, etc etc the chemicals may tear up the gaskets in the house spray gun...and the tips on the house spray guns are a bigger nozzle size than most automotive spray guns fyi it may work out for ya but just wanna give you the heads up...

 

I'm not using a house sprayer. I have an automotive one. I just haven't used it before.