Newb to customs, want help

[DeceptiCog72283]

Although the custom I am planning on making is not a Cars products, it's a little 3" transformer. I figured some here might have a few words of wisdom for me.

I finally figured out how to take it apart after many months of looking at it.

Now, I know how to go about the metal/diecast pieces. Strip the paint, prime it, paint it, etc...

I'm talkign about the little soft plastic pieces. Think along the line of Red's Mirrors. Soft coloured plastic. The pieces are not painted, they are molded in molded in the blue plastic. I want to paint these black.

Can I just prime this and paint them? Do I need to sand them a little bit?

Thanks for any advice!

JF

[GotFrank]

Painting any soft plastic\rubber is ill advised. Usually ends up a little sticky or the paint can crack & peel if it bends. The only thing that I might try is a black Sharpie. But that will often rub off of most plastics. The only paint that'll work at all IMO would be acrylic. And then you might want to rough up the plastic with a super fine grit sand paper. To aid in adhesion.

[DeceptiCog72283]

Thanks GotFrank.

Well at least the positive part is that it wont get played with lol It will just be displayed.

I've done a bit of reading, but it's always nice to get info directly from a well knowing source.

People recommend giving plastic pieces a thorough warm/hot soapy bath to get rid of any oil build up (?) Acrylic paint was mentioned quite a bit as well so I'll be going that route if I end up doing this thing lol.

[GotFrank]

Rubbing alcohol will clean it off nicely too.

[DeceptiCog72283]

oh...very nice idea.

After reading some more, I'm a little worried that these pieces may be polyetheline...which I hear is nearly impossible to get a good paint bond :S

[EliteThink]

finish this project?

[DeceptiCog72283]

lol...unfortunately never even got started

It's still someting I want to do...but I'm so tired in the evenings when I get home from work and kids on the weekends take up my days...so, eventually lol