Scionxa180

I tried painting last night, a little too hasty and excited...long story short I ended up getting the results I deserved. Dupli-Color was what I used.

Anyone know how to paint the engine cover? Also what paints should I be using?

StxArOne

Depending on the color, so like if you want lighter colors, spray on a base coat of white, darker colors and metallic (in my opnion) look better over black.

You prolly don't have to use high temp paint most people will say, but that's what I used. It's called VHT engine paint, it's a spray. I got it from Advance Auto Parts, but you can get it just about any parts shop and online.

If you want the Toyota logo and the VVT-I to be in silver, get a can of paint remover, and dab the cornor of a shop towel in it. Scrub the paint off the lettering till the silver turns up. It won't damage as the silver bit I don't think is bare plastic, but a thin layre of something (informative right??)


So the first thing to do, to make it really look good, is mask off the lettering like this. (Optional -- Only if you want silver lettering)



Then with a sharp tin tipped cutter, slowly and gently cut around the lettering. You'll see soon where I screwed up and slipped, cutting the cover. I've got horribly shakey hands, and for one moment there neglected to be mindful of it.



Now for painting, defiantly want to take your time. Keep a good distance, take the time to really mix the paint shaking it up really well. With mine I wanted to do a sort of dry brushing, so I did two coats, at quite a distance, painting with the dust.

Closer the spray, the thicker and runnier it will be. Further way, dustier. After a light coat, leave out in the sun for 20-30min then come and do your second coat.

The longer you take, the better the results.




After drying and giving an even further away spray, to darken it down a bit, but kept the black slightly visible. Then dry again in the direct warm sun, peel the tape off, and I got this.



Oh and the 4 nuts you took off to remove the cover, you can do a light spray over them in silver or whatever color you want, adds a great contrasting effect. Just lay them thread side facing down, so standing straight!

I don't know if I'm very clear enough, so if any of it needs clarification let me know and I'll do my best to help!

Scionxa180

How would I get the Black Cherry Pearl color with that? My color is hard to find in these engine paints. I tried in the past and failed horribly...

StxArOne

Have you tried Amazon?

Duplicolor does pretty close matches in cans. If you can't find the exact one you can look for a substitute that will match up. As long as it's not on a body panel it'll match in terms of looking good so on your engine cover yeah.

Or you can have a body shop do it! That code would be "3P2"

Orrrrrr give this a shot:

Scionxa180

I just love that specific color that's why i'm so scrutinizing in the results, I literally got the color perfect, but it was the wrong paint and it cracked around certain curves and lines and now is to be redone.

My last attempt was with Dupli-Color Perfect Match...however I was unaware that's to be used on body pieces and not any kind of plastic. Go figure.

So now I have to revisit it again. I'll post pics tomorrow morning

StxArOne

Try using a plastic primer on it maybe first. That might help it hold and not crack.

Scionxa180

What kind of plastic primer can I get ahold of that's in a can?

StxArOne

Do you have Autozone or Advance Auto, O'Rileys, ect in your area? They carry all kinds of paints. From sandable primer for body stuff, plastic primers, ect.

If you don't you can go on Amazon and look up stuff like "Dupli-Color Plastic Primer" you'll get:

Amazon.com: Dupli-Color CP199 Clear Adhesion Promoter Primer - 11 oz.: Automotive

Amazon.com: Dupli-Color CP199 Clear Adhesion Promoter Primer - 11 oz.: Automotive

I wonder what caused it to crack tho. How many coats did you do? What was the tempture outside when you were painting? Did you wait 10min between each coat? The trick is to do light coats, several of them. But then again the cracking could be because the paint you used just didn't stick, so the primer would be handy but yeah all things to consider.

Scionxa180

I have two of the three stores relatively close to me.

The problem was I bought the wrong kind of paint for the job so it would heat up and expand and then shrink back when it would cool down, thus causing it to crack. I sanded it down, cleaned it with some grease remover and then I applied 3 coats of primer, base coat and 2 of clear. The primer and clear were made for plastics so it was the base coat that was wrong.

So if I have all three that are meant for plastic, I'm thinking it'll work perfectly. The color is what I'm worried about since I want the color match.

Scionxa180

Here's what it currently looks like