This week i took my sideskirts to a respectable paint shop in town to get an estimate, and he recommended that i not paint them because of bonding problems. Is this true?? Most mouldings on cars are made of plastic anyway. How much should i expect to pay to have both painted??

Rimmie

it is possible to paint the sideskirts..the only thing to it is to scuff the sideskirts so that the paint can bond to it..see if your subaru dealer will do it for u..they offered to do mine for $200 canadian..good luck =)

It has been quite a few months that I had mine painted but I think it was like 175.

Rick
http://roads.to/ricksrides

I just dropped off my side skirts, rear skirts, fog light covers, and the orange covers from the front dam (below the turn signals) to get painted for $310. This includes a dip to remove wax/grease and flex agents in the paint to bond it to the plastic. They had no problem painting that stuff, and this place is well known in Ventura. YMMV.

I was told by my guy that he couldnt paint them either. He said that if I took fiberglass fabric and laid the fiberglass over the skirts that it would be enought to bond to. He said the skirts were made of some nylon material that would flake in a month or two. Is that what you heard or did he just not want to do it?

Thanks
Snyder
New Age Motorsports

I had mine done. Cost is $100. They used some material called FLEX or something to that extent. Its been on my car for over a year now and is still as shiny as the day they were painted. No flakes or scratches.

Kenneth

I had my side skirts and fog light shrouds painted by Maaco almost a year ago for less than $100. The color match was perfect, I have a guarantee, and have yet to see a chip or a scratch.

Do i need to get mine sanded?

matt

The body shop was lying to you, I work at a body shop and there is nothing that paint won't stick to without proper prepping,I painted my own, all I did was sand the black plastic until there was NO shine its really important that you sand the snot out of the plastic, thats what the paint will stick to. You don't need to sand the plastic flat, you know all the roughness in the plastic (thats what the primer will do) but just sand until all the plastic looks cloudy (white) then I primed them with cheap primer, sanded the primer flat (this will determine how flat the paint looks on top of the primer, the flater the primer the shinyer the paint will be. then painted them with base coat/clear coat (thats the type of paint used in the factory) I haven't had a problem with them flaking or chipping, though chipping will eventually occur because of how much abuse they take. The wheels spit rocks right into them. But over time, just get them painted again its easy. Any body shop should be able to do it for around 100 bucks at most. Good luck.
Steve

Steve is correct http://www.i-club.com/ubb-files/biggrin.gif from my experiance as a painter i have found that plastic can be one of the better materials to paint BUT! you must prep the serface properly and it must be cleaned with a solvent to remove all the wax, oil, ect. if you dont the flex additive and sanding will do nothing for you http://www.i-club.com/ubb-files/eek.gif Dan

I read on Mike Moffa's site that he paid $250 to get his done. Apparently a little high accourding to this board. I would not go back to that guy. He obviouly dosn't want to do it, and if you confonted him, he would probably do it, but do a bad/lazy job.
Hit up the local mom&pop shops and find an old coot that know what he's doing. Oh and get some mud flaps to protect those babies, especially if you like to dirt/rally race. http://www.i-club.com/ubb-files/smile.gif

i did my side skirts with boom... if possible, do all the prep work yourself including the sanding and priming, and just have them paint them. see if you can find a shop that will do this. and boom forgot to mention, before you prime them wipe them down with a solvent to clean it... i forget what we used.

ChosenWon,

Keep in mind that Mike Moffa is probably giving the price in Canadian dollars, which at C$250 converts to something close to US$165.

My other car is a saturn. The whole car is plastic. I never had any paint problems. I was told if I had to get it painted to make sure they use the proper flex agent. I'm sure the same goes for the side skirts. You may want to ask your respectable paint shop if they have ever painted a saturn. http://www.i-club.com/ubb-files/smile.gif