I just ordered a front lip - Poly Urethane material and the paint shop is quoting me for $150 for paint and install. Money is a little tight..so I was thinking about painting the lip myself. Can anyone recommend any websites that sells paint that match up well with the stock OEM paint? And, is this a good idea? Or is it worth it to let the shop handle it. Thanks.

 

unless your really good you will more then likely make it look bad with rattle cans, but 150 seems a bit steep for just a bit of paint and installation, see if you can install it yourself maybe it will be cheaper

 

If you take your time, you can achieve a decent finish with a rattle can. The key is prep. You need to clean the hell out of the urethane and use a quality adhesion promotor (not primer) to get the paint to stick the urethane. Painting like this works fine for lips because the item is low on the body and will get chipped and pitted quickly anyways.

There should be numerous shops around you that can mix and sell you the factory paint in a can. Search Google and call around. There are also larger companies that do mail order.

1) Wash and clean the urethane.
2) Scuff the urethane with a red automotive pad. You don't want scraps in the lip, you want surface hazy with lots and lots very fine scratches.
3) Clean the urethane again, make sure to wear gloves this time because you don't want get oils from your hands onto the lip. Use rubbing alcohol as the final cleaning agent.
4) Apply a few coats of adhesion promotor per the directions.
5) Following the directions on the can, apply 3 very light coats of paint. Then follow up with 2 to 3 heavier coats of paint. Make sure to keep the nozzle cleaned off to reduce splattering of the paint. Don't go too heavy or too close or else you'll get runs.
6) Follow up with 3 to 4 coats of clear. Again, light coats followed by heavier coats. Take your time.
7) Let the paint/clear dry for atleast 8 hours before handling. The paint will be soft and handling it too early could damage the paint.

 

Thanks for the tutorial Dave B. I've looked around at local shops around my area and they offer a 12oz rattle can paint. Is this enough for a lip and maybe side skirts?

 

If you're doing the side skirts, I'd plan on at least 3 cans. Prep is key. The painting is easy. See my DIY on painting the skirts.

 

Dude, don't rattle can it.

Don't get me wrong, I've rattle canned plenty of things and had them come out really well, but you won't be able to match the factory finish, and when you mount it on the bumper your OEM paint will make it look like crap.

 

^ what he said. pay 100 or so for it to come out clean. better to have it done right than regret it.

 

Also, any quality "rattle can" paint, is going to cost you plenty. (The stuff that's actually supposed to be OEM quality, not the single coat matching crap from pep boys) Probably close to half of what you could get it professionally done for.
But if it comes out crappy from the shop, you can hold them to it and get it fixed.
If it comes out crap when you do it, the oh well, you've wasted expensive paint, and still don't have a result you'll be happy with.

 

I recently had to repaint two large door mouldings on my wife's metallic silver 98 Legacy wagon that got hit by our friend. A large amount of paint was scraped off, but luckily no gashes. I had a local paint shop mix a rattle can of factory paint using the paint code I gave them. 3 coats of adhesion promotor, 6 coats of paint, and 4 coats of clear resulted in an exact factory match and a shockingly smooth finish. Any sort of metallic paint is hard to match and this came out perfect. Hell, Nissan can't even match thier painted plastic aero parts to match the OEM metallic paint finishes on the car. This was my first experience using a OEM-spec paint in a rattle can. I was very impressed.

I've painted the sills on my G with my spray gun and it came out really well, especially for my first time. Paint and materials cost me around $120. Automotive spray gun paint, reducer, hardner, etc, isn't cheap and you often have to buy more than you need. Even with the purchase of cheap bottom-feed spray gun, my out of pocket cost to paint the sills myself was about $600 less than what shops were quoting me to paint just the side and rear sills and even with their $700-800 estimates, they weren't going to warranty their work because they said the paint wouldn't stick to the plastic. Interesting because I've managed to make the paint stick to the sills for over 2 years now Secondly, I had a Stillen body kit on my black 96 Maxima and all the parts were painted with a rattle can using generic black paint. No one knew the difference. With lip spoilors, who really cares if the paint doesn't match perfectly? With a daily driver, the thing will get peppered with chips very quickly whether you paint it or have it done professionally.

If you've got a solid color car (ie non-metallic or pearl) it's worth it to try painting these parts yourself. What's the worst thing that cna happen is that you'll need to repaint it. It's not rocket science to use a rattle can or spray gun. Hell, I've seen amazing automotive paint jobs done with a roller. Yes, a roller! Though I'd recommend using a spray gun, a rattle can paint job can come out well if you take your time and do all the necessary prep work. I'd also recommend painting the parts mounted on the car because you want to be painting the surface the way it hangs on the car and it gives you a better finish. The problem is you'll need to tape off and cover the car if you're doing the sills. It's easy though because all you do is buy thin mil plastic sheeting to cover the car in. This weekend I'll be installing and painting my Stillen rear valence and I'll be painting with my spray gun.

 

i dont want to high jack the thread or anything but im from the bay area to an i just got a poly urethane lip and i want it painted not by me at least because idont trust myself painting the lip. So i was thinking about going to maaco or somewhere does anyone know of any shops that can do a decent job for a decent price? like i mean under 100 for painting it i can mount the lip by myself.

 

when i had a lip on my car, i had a body shop paint it for $50bucks and installed myself.

there really nothing to it, installing a lip.