Scorpion Whip Hood Repair
It appears that the hoods for the Whip are a Polycarbonate/ABS Plastic blend.
For most repair procedures these plastics can be repaired the same and can actually be a combination or blend.
Since the color is all the way through the plastic and I have buffed this type of plastic before, I just went after it.
The results were not good this time around!
As you can see, the hood was VERY faded.
So, I color sanded the hood fairly aggressively to remove the chalking. I color sanded with 1000 grit, and then followed up with 1500 grit. You can see that as I sanded I came to different layers within the plastic. Looking back, this was a BAD sign.
I then proceeded to buff the plastic back to a shine. You can see the blotchy look that I obtained. It was kind of strange that the darker areas in the picture above are what buffed to the "grayer" looking areas in the picture below. The nice looking areas below are the grayer or whiter looking areas above.
Under the windshield had not faded quite so bad. This area was buffed up fairly successfully.
So, if you were to ask me how do I buff colored ABS/Polycarbonate hoods, this would be my recommendation, but it is a use at your own risk!
Remember when buffing, being less aggressive is safer!
I would recommend using 2000 grit wet and lightly sand if needed. 1500 grit to remove more serious imperfections if necessary, but be very careful!
I would then buff to the desired gloss. I prefer a wool pad and round edged abrasive compounds. HT-420 is one of my favorites. This should be a safe method to remove some loss of gloss. I think in my case the sun had actually destroyed the top layer of the plastic also destroying my hope for success!
I then like to polish with Wizards Shine Master using a blue foam pad and about 1700 RPM.
So, I have a blotchy bad looking hood, what now?
Paint it!
I have seen a fair amount of information on how difficult it is to Paint Polycarbonate and ABS plastic. Or even that it CANNOT be painted.
I contend that this is not all fact and somewhat fiction. With that said, there are different blends that could react differently. I have painted a fair amount of both plastics and have not had any issues. Infact ABS is considered a fairly easy plastic to paint by paint manufacturers.
Yes I am sure some horror stories do exist but I have not experienced them.
At first I was going to paint it black stock, then as I was painting, well things went wild!
First, I washed it with hot soapy water, then I sanded it with a grey scuff pad using plastic cleaner such as Dupont 2319/RM 902.
I then sanded the flat areas with 320 DA and cleaned it again with plastic cleaner.
The next step is to adhesion promote. I used RM 865, Dupont 2330 would be very similar.
Let the adhesion promoter flash adequately, and then prime or seal.
I then primed with flex additive so as to hide some imperfections and to smooth out the decal lines.
Sanded with 400 grit, filled a few minor imperfections.
Re-primed as necessary, and finish sanded in 500 grit.
I did not prime some areas that did not need it, and priming in those locations would have just caused extra sanding.
Flexed sealer applied.
Black catalyzed basecoat applied. Ready to go "stock". I even had the reproduction stock decals!
OK, looking at it, it just didn't have the pizzazz that I wanted.
So, I added one dose of craziness!
Dupont Chromalusion Baby!
Cleared without stripes. I initially was still going to put the stock decals on it.
After setting the stock decals on this paint, it just didn't work. Blah, ugh, and just plain well plain came to mind.
So, lets do a similar stripe to the originals in BASF Extreme.
Both of these colors change colors depending on the light. I faded the base color on the stripes to cause an illusion of the stripe fading as the stripe goes toward the rear of the sled.
The clear used is Limco LC4500 with Flex and sprayed with a Sata Mini Jet 4 1.0SR tip.
A picture of the semi finished project coming together.
More to come!