Wow, thats a great looking result! Out of curiosity, how does the finished texture feel? Would it be worth shooting one of the SEM clear coats over it?
Interior Maintenance Restoration and Repair
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Wow, thats a great looking result! Out of curiosity, how does the finished texture feel? Would it be worth shooting one of the SEM clear coats over it?
Here's a before and after from the piece that I recently sprayed. You can probably see it well enough in the picture, but the finish turns out just as you would see on a brand new panel.
The distance you spray from plays a huge role. This applies to any paint. But, with this paint being as thin as it is, and having a fast drying time, distance is even more important.Too far away, and you will end up with a "dry" coat. A fuzzy-like finish, and loosely sitting on the panel's surface. If I remember correctly, the directions suggest roughly 8 inches away.
It is definitely not tacky. I read or saw some youtube video's of folks spraying with a clear to avoid the tacky feel but don't think they were using SEM products. The texture feels just fine. I clean my interior with Meguiars interior cleaner so it has a little bit more of a sheen than the freshly painted panels. I expect once I spray the new panels, they'll have that little extra level of protection from the Meguiars. IMO, no need to spray a clear on top but I'm open for thoughts from anyone
I haven't seen the videos you mentioned, but I agree with your thinking. I recently did some restoration in a 1987 S-10 Blazer. We used SEM paint for the color, but not for the clear coat. No problems with the SEM paint, but we did have problems with the clear coat.
What I assume the cause was, was the material that was being painted. Oddly enough, it didn't matter that the piece was sprayed with SEM paint prior to the clear coat neither. When certain pieces were top coated with the clear, it felt as if the clear would never cure. Several days after spraying, and the surface was very sticky.
The pieces that did this were the soft, vinyl pouches, the armrests, and console lid. The armrests and console lid weren't made from ABS plastic, or not entirely. They have more of a pliable, polypropylene feel to them.
I've been meaning to gather up more details on the plastic compounds in our TJs. The type that of plastic definitely plays a part in how well the paint bonds, if it bonds at all.
So far, here's the two pictures that I've taken so far, for getting up some plastic info.
Crash Pad
PC(Polycarbonate)/ABS
Shifter Bezel
PP (Polypropylene)
I don't have a picture, but the dash panel in front of your knees is a blend also. If I remember right, it's a PC/ABS blend.
Did you use an adhesion promoter on the plastic before painting? I see from the manufacturer code on your photo that it looks like ABS plastic. I understand with ABS plastic, you'd most likely need to use SEM 38363 Sand Free Adhesion Promoter instead of the SEM 39863 Plastic Adhesion Promoter I used for my door panels. Probably doesn't matter but just curious.
Thanks. I used their "Sand Free" adhesion promotor.
When I ordered the custom mix color from Vinyl Pro, I went ahead and ordered a can of the SEM XXX adhesion promotor. But, then I did a bit more reading on it through the SEM Products site and researched info on the differences. That led me to choosing the Sand Free.
I may just do a little test to see how each of them perform. I've got a scrap dash panel that can serve as a guinea pig.
MountaineerTom
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Painted my old damaged, beat up, previously painted door panels with SEM 77723 XXX Adhesion Promoter and SEM 5545 mixed by Vinyl Pro. Previously cleaned with Dawn soap and a 3M gray scrub pad.
From this:
To this:
From this:
To this:
How did you go about getting good coverage in the pocket/storage area at the bottom of the panel?
Those turned out great.
MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
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Thanks. They’re not perfect, but they weren’t perfect to begin with, so I’m happy with them.
I used painters tape to mask off the inside of the pockets. It’s still in there in that picture.
Very nice! Man, that made my itch for a set of half doors even worse.
Have you already put them back on? If not, do you mind taking a look around the backside to see what type of plastic they're made up from?
Are the backs of the pockets a separate piece that can be removed?
It's been several years since I had my door panels off, so I don't remember. Even if it involved heating a few plastic tabs to remove them, that might be worth it.
The backs are plastic tabs pressed in to plastic, and imo could not be easily removed.
MountaineerTom
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I haven't got them back on yet. I buddy of mine has the doors to paint them for me when he has time. I told him no hurry. He works, goes to school and is a single parent with a 6 year old so I just told him when ever he has time to work on them.
These are the only markings I seen on them. These door came off of a '97 from what I can tell. The original door seals were the plastic track with the rubber slid into them. I've got new MOPAR seals with the plastic track to install once they are painted.
Left panel
Right panel
The pocket panel is plastic welded and could be taken off I guess and reglued/RTV’d/plastic welded. I just masked it off.
You can still see some of the cracks so I guess I didn’t do a great job filling those. I’m ok with it though. They are epoxied and reinforced with mesh on the back.
These are the only markings I seen on them. These door came off of a '97 from what I can tell. The original door seals were the plastic track with the rubber slid into them. I've got new MOPAR seals with the plastic track to install once they are painted.
Left panel
Right panel
The pocket panel is plastic welded and could be taken off I guess and reglued/RTV’d/plastic welded. I just masked it off.
You can still see some of the cracks so I guess I didn’t do a great job filling those. I’m ok with it though. They are epoxied and reinforced with mesh on the back.
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Thanks for the pictures. I'm not seeing any indicators that show the type of plastic. Since it has the recycle logo, I'm thinking it's got to Polypropylene, like a lot of the others.
One way of knowing is with the epoxy. I think most epoxies don't want to bond to PP very well at all. It's almost like trying to use hot glue to bond two glass surfaces together.
Is it looking like the epoxy made a good bond?
That's good info to know. Thanks for that too.
So we could use a little heat and that back panel could come right off. Same with the upper defrost vent/crash pad.
Here's another picture from my recent respraying of the crash pad. I used a plastic welding tip on the soldering iron to heat the tabs and push their heated plastic around, as needed.
Taking that route isn't the fastest, but it helps later with having those tabs to reattach the deflector. Most especially if it's Polypropylene that we're working with, because of the adhesive issue.
I've got the infamous cracks on the topside of both door panels that need reinforcing. I haven't had the time to get into that project, but I've picked up some of the materials for the project.
I'm not sure when I'll get to that project to share the results of one that I plan to try, so I'll just share the info for anyone who's interested.
I had to do some drywall work recently, and remembered seeing this on the shelf at Lowe's. It's a roll of stranded fiberglass that is branded as "FibaFuse".
I could end up being disappointed in the results, but I feel like it will work well. Best of all, it only costed me $5.00 from Lowe's. I would have guessed that much fiberglass would have costed far more than that. Just a few square feet of fiberglass from the local auto parts store is $9.00 or so.
Anyway, if anyone tries it, let us know how it works out. I plan to do the same.
I'm not sure when I'll get to that project to share the results of one that I plan to try, so I'll just share the info for anyone who's interested.
I had to do some drywall work recently, and remembered seeing this on the shelf at Lowe's. It's a roll of stranded fiberglass that is branded as "FibaFuse".
I could end up being disappointed in the results, but I feel like it will work well. Best of all, it only costed me $5.00 from Lowe's. I would have guessed that much fiberglass would have costed far more than that. Just a few square feet of fiberglass from the local auto parts store is $9.00 or so.
Anyway, if anyone tries it, let us know how it works out. I plan to do the same.
MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
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The adhesive seems to have held pretty good to me. I didn't try prying it off or anything though. LOL It was done back around October if I remember correctly. I scuffed up the area I was going to apply it to with some really rough sand paper (don't remember the grit) then used JB Weld Plastic Weld to hold it all together. The stiff gutter guard is stout but harder to work with. The drywall patch with aluminum was way easier to shape and work with. I'd say that Fibafuse would work well too.
MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Here’s a comparison of the painted half door panels with the OEM full door panels.
Just waiting on my buddy to get time to paint the doors and I’ll be ready to put everything back together. Still need to get some mirrors though.
Just waiting on my buddy to get time to paint the doors and I’ll be ready to put everything back together. Still need to get some mirrors though.
Man, they turned out nice! Nearly spot-on match.