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smoothing out trim pieces?

 
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Old Dec 19, 2003
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Lightbulb smoothing out trim pieces?

If you don't already know, I have all my interior trim pieces painted red, including the center console (to match my exterior). This worked well, but there's one problem; the surface of the plastic is all rough. Its just how Honda made the plastic. My question is; how can I make this smooth, so that it really looks like my exterior. I don't want to dish out the money for a trim kit, so I've been thinking; what about Bondo? Would it be possible to take some Bondo body filler, and smooth in the pits in the plastic? Sand it smooth and it should be good, right? I just don't know 1) if Bondo will bond to plastic, and 2) if some of the trim pieces (vents, door handle surrounds), are too small and have too many corners for this to look good. Just looking for ideas, opinons, and if anyone has done this, please chime in!
Old Dec 19, 2003
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1) if Bondo will bond to plastic
Bondo pretty much is a plastic as i recall, it should bond either way if you rough up the surface with some sand paper.

Im not sure what its called but there is some sort of primmer that is thicker then normal primer when its applied . I think bondo may be a bit too thick of a product but i could be wrong. You almost could use that spot putty stuff maybe shrug. Maybe someone in to auto body refinishing will post an idea
Old Dec 19, 2003
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spot putty.
Old Dec 19, 2003
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spot putty; sweet. THats pretty cheap stuff, right? I'll probably call some shop in town just to talk to them before I actually do anything.
Old Dec 22, 2003
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the best way im thinking you cn do this (bondo will be messy as dirt) is one layer of a plastic primer, theres a specific primer made for bonding to automotive playstic interior, ive seen it on jcwhitney.com , then, using sandable primer. thats the stuff yorue talking about, the thicker one.
Old Dec 22, 2003
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Just spray paint the trim pieces, then sand them down with fine sand paper, spray again.. sand again... and repeat untill you smooth out all the bumps, if you do this enough, it's supposed to look kinda like plexiglass
Old Dec 22, 2003
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sand the trim pieces with 120 grit. Then wet sand with 400, 600, 800 and 1000. It will be smooth as a babys butt. Thats what I had to do before I had molds made of the parts for Carbon Fiber.

Bondo will not bond well to plastic. You take the chance of it cracking.
Old Dec 22, 2003
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how do you go about wet sanding? do you just wet down the sand paper, or what?
Old Dec 22, 2003
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yep
Old Dec 22, 2003
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sweet....i might try this over x-mas break. Im tires of my bumpy center console.
Old Dec 23, 2003
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Painting interior stuff rocks!
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Old Jan 15, 2004
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ok i tried this when i painted my valve cover, and i had some problems. I wet sanded with 400, then 800. After I painted, I could still see the swirl marks a little bit...it sucks. Do I just need to go to a higher grit, or am I doing something wrong.

I used the plastic-primer for like 4 coats, then sanded, then painted.
Old Jan 15, 2004
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Why don't you try to use a coat of fiberglass resin over the trim pieces? My old neighbor did this on his whole dash and it looks like he has a fiberglass replacement. The only thing is that on sunny days it reflected the light like a ****.
Old Jan 15, 2004
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hmm...that sounds like a really good idea. The only problem would be that there are some pretty tight corners; those would probably look pretty bad, since it would be hard to get in there and sand those well. That might work really well for the center though.
 
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