I'm wondering what the best way to take care of painting my headlight inlets black would be?

The whole front bumper is that cheap plastic crap and its spidering in the inlets. Should I just sand it down and respray it black or do I need to lay primer first. I've never heard of laying primer on plastic so I'm wondering what would be best.

why are you painting tham black? you mean like the 93-96 models (i think those were the year models)

the irocs were black too... id sand it down really well, mask everything off, clean it very very well, then give it a few medium light coats with a final semi heavy coat. If your looking for a shine, use a clear coat with everything else.

All the third gens are black. They started out egg shell them later was closer to semi gloss.
You sand out the cracks you are going to go through some layers and will need to prime to build it back up. Be careful not to dig into the plastic. Most primers have a certain amount of flexability. Those corners stay rigid so you dont have to worry about it too much.

oh yeah 3rd gens. were too

make sure you get the right kind of paint, otherwise it'll crack and spider the same way down the road. They make a specialty bumper paint for plastic and urethane. You can get it pretty much anywhere.

According to the auto paint shop by me, as long as you use a high end automotive paint additives are not needed for flexability. The devil is in the details with painting. A good finished product depends on how well you prep it first.

ORIGINAL: greg w

According to the auto paint shop by me, as long as you use a high end automotive paint additives are not needed for flexability.

well then I wouldn't bring my car to them for anything at all. I wouldn't even let them touch a Matchbox car.

if you do tackle this job, one VERY important thing is to make sure you use some kind of wax stripper before you start painting.

sand it down and use a primer that has a. adhesion promoter in it and b. is made for polyeurethane/plastic, also called felxible primer, then you can paint it and all should be good

could sand blast it pumpkin seed...