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Painting Black 70-72 Plastic Inner Fenders SEM Flame Red?
I remember reading on ROP a few years ago about painting black 70-72 plastic inner fenders red with SEM paint to look like w30 inner fenders. Of course that info was lost many crashes ago. If I remember it was Flame Red. I have a nice set of black inner fenders that I was planning on doing this too. I just wanted to check if anybody has had success with this. I have heard of using oven cleaner to clean the plastic. I’m just not sure if that would be a good way to prep before paint. Also if I’m painting with SEM paint should I sand out any scratches before paint? I’m hoping somebody else has done this before and can give me some advise.
I have refinished 2 sets of Cutlass inner fenders with SEM black and they have held up very well, one since 2001. Red should work well, but you will probably have to have it mixed at a SEM dealer. I used their Color Coat brand and Sand Free Adhesion Promoter for the primer for ABS plastic. Both in aerosol cans. I believe I used 1 can of Sand Free and 3 or 4 cans of Color Coat.
I have discovered that Easy Off in the yellow can is great for removing paint and grease, It contains Lye plus it’s cheap. Keep a water hose handy in case you get it on your skin. Oven cleaner and/or a pressure washer should be your first step to clean the inner fenders. Be careful with the pressure washer, it can cut into the ABS surface. Start with the bottom side in case your too aggressive, it won't show as much as the top. Rinse the oven cleaner with a water hose. If grease and paint are still there, repeat. You can use a brush with the over cleaner to help. Use Simple Green or Pine-Sol to finish cleaning.
Mine had some scratches in the surface. Wet sand with 1000 or finer paper. Don’t use anything coarser or you will scratch the surface.
Follow the instructions on the SEM site to the letter.The 1st coat of Color Coat is applied while the Sand Free is still wet. You will need to do this in sections.
Good luck,
This picture was taken in 2016. The SEM was applied in 2001. They have a nice satin look and have held up very well.
Last edited by SWinner; October 29th, 2018 at 09:05 PM.
I have refinished 2 sets of Cutlass inner fenders with SEM black and they have held up very well, one since 2001. Red should work well, but you will probably have to have it mixed at a SEM dealer. I used their Color Coat brand and Sand Free Adhesion Promoter for the primer for ABS plastic. Both in aerosol cans. I believe I used 1 can of Sand Free and 3 or 4 cans of Color Coat.
I have discovered that Easy Off in the yellow can is great for removing paint and grease, It contains Lye plus it’s cheap. Keep a water hose handy in case you get it on your skin. Oven cleaner and/or a pressure washer should be your first step to clean the inner fenders. Be careful with the pressure washer, it can cut into the ABS surface. Start with the bottom side in case your too aggressive, it won't show as much as the top. Rinse the oven cleaner with a water hose. If grease and paint are still there, repeat. You can use a brush with the over cleaner to help. Use Simple Green or Pine-Sol to finish cleaning.
Mine had some scratches in the surface. Wet sand with 1000 or finer paper. Don’t use anything coarser or you will scratch the surface.
Follow the instructions on the SEM site to the letter.
Good luck,
I appreciate the advise. Any pictures?
So the plan is, I will go with the easy off and simple green then scuff it with fine sand paper before I hit it with the Sand Free primer. The Flame red does come in the Color Coat cans so I’m good there too. Since I’m going from black to red do you think 4 cans will be enough? Has anybody else done a color change on the inner fenders?
So apparently my inner fenders have been painted at some point. It looks like they were painted while in the car so only the area visible has paint. The simple green, plastic scrapers and easy off works very good at removing everything down to the bare plastic, except the paint. Any recommendations on what to use to remove the paint without damaging the plastic. I’m not worried about discoloring because it looks like the plastic under the paint is already discolored, and I’m going to paint over it anyways. I plan on scuff the inner fenders before paint with green scotch bright pads, would that be too course? Should I use the scotch bright to remove the paint. The one thing I do not want to do is leave deep scratches that will be visible after paint.
4speed, Do you have any idea the type of paint? Aerosol can or automotive body paint? How much it there? Post a picture.
Easy off in the yellow can contains sodium hydroxide (lye - caustic soda). There are basically 3 types of paint remover available at most hardware stores. A caustic like lye, solvent based and biochemical. I would stay away from the solvent based on any plastic.
All strippers take time and a little scrubbing and scraping to get off the toughest and thickest. I would typically let the caustic stay on over night. You also don't want it to dry out, it needs to stay wet. Some will lay a film of plastic over the lye to keep it from drying out.
I remember reading on ROP a few years ago about painting black 70-72 plastic inner fenders red with SEM paint to look like w30 inner fenders. Of course that info was lost many crashes ago. If I remember it was Flame Red. I have a nice set of black inner fenders that I was planning on doing this too. I just wanted to check if anybody has had success with this. I have heard of using oven cleaner to clean the plastic. I’m just not sure if that would be a good way to prep before paint. Also if I’m painting with SEM paint should I sand out any scratches before paint? I’m hoping somebody else has done this before and can give me some advise.
I tried changing colors on my inners from black to red. Put a lot of time effort and money trying to do so. I sanded them down first with 600 wet and then used epoxy primer on them. I let them dry overnite and then I used the Sem Flame paint about 3 cans on each inner. Yes it looked good but any bump or scrape is going to flake that paint off. I never put them on the car because in just handling them the paint was scratching. Just a waste of time in my opinion. I ended up buying a set from The Parts Place. These were for my 68. I put a lot of hours in trying to change the color on those inner fender wells but it just was not worth it. Maybe you can have better luck than I did. Good luck
I tried changing colors on my inners from black to red. Put a lot of time effort and money trying to do so. I sanded them down first with 600 wet and then used epoxy primer on them. I let them dry overnite and then I used the Sem Flame paint about 3 cans on each inner. Yes it looked good but any bump or scrape is going to flake that paint off. I never put them on the car because in just handling them the paint was scratching. Just a waste of time in my opinion. I ended up buying a set from The Parts Place. These were for my 68. I put a lot of hours in trying to change the color on those inner fender wells but it just was not worth it. Maybe you can have better luck than I did. Good luck
I've been thinking about painting mine too. You just made my mind up to by a repro set.
Thanks!
I tried changing colors on my inners from black to red. Put a lot of time effort and money trying to do so. I sanded them down first with 600 wet and then used epoxy primer on them. I let them dry overnite and then I used the Sem Flame paint about 3 cans on each inner.
4speed, Follow the SEM instructions on there web site. Color Coat doesnot adhere to epoxy. Color Coat must be applied while the Sand Free Adhesion Promoter is still WET.
Follow the instructions to the letter and you will be fine. I did mine 19 years ago and they look perfect. I also did the same to my console, lower dash and lower arm rest with the same results.
Don't give up. SEM products are the very best for plastics.
Give SEM a call. There number is in the links.
There is an aerosol “bumper stripper” available from auto body suppliers that will likely remove paint from your liners. It might even be a SEM product but can’t remember. The paint that is on there is most likely from a spray bomb & should come off pretty easily. You might even be able to wash it off w/ lacquer thinner or even brake clean, maybe help yourself with a very fine (white) scotch bright pad to help get it off without leaving visible scratches.
4speed, Follow the SEM instructions on there web site. Color Coat doesnot adhere to epoxy. Color Coat must be applied while the Sand Free Adhesion Promoter is still WET.
Follow the instructions to the letter and you will be fine. I did mine 19 years ago and they look perfect. I also did the same to my console, lower dash and lower arm rest with the same results.
Don't give up. SEM products are the very best for plastics.
Give SEM a call. There number is in the links.
THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I painted mine Red 5 plus years ago following this procedure. Still looks great.
Any pictures? How many cans did it take to cover the black?
As I remember it only took a couple cans of paint. I also wet sanded with 800-1500 sand paper to get rid of any orange peal and to degoss a bit. This car is a driver with 5'years and 15k miles since I did these. Not perfect but they have held up pretty good. I should also note that I left the underside black so not sure how the paint would hold up to rock chips from the tires.
As I remember it only took a couple cans of paint. I also wet sanded with 800-1500 sand paper to get rid of any orange peal and to degoss a bit. This car is a driver with 5'years and 15k miles since I did these. Not perfect but they have held up pretty good. I should also note that I left the underside black so not sure how the paint would hold up to rock chips from the tires.
Thanks for the pics Sampson, those look great! Looks like a I will be going ahead with this project. $100 in material and some elbow grease will give me the same look as the $500 reproduction inner fenders. Seeing how my car is not really a W machine or even a 442 for that matter I think this will be good enough.
If one already has the real red inner fenders but the red is faded and a little worn. Can you clean them up, degrease them, and then spray it with SEM #15373 Flame Red?
October 28th, 2018, 07:24 PM
