Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior painted dome light housing

Hey, i know this is a small project, but someone was asking on here about how to do a body-shop style paint job, so I thought I'd show some pics of my progress. If anyone wanted, I could be convinced to do an actual paint-guide with my next project. Let me know...

Anyway, here's the first set of pics. I have sanded the texture off the dome light housing, and primed it with Krylon Fusion black. I like the way the Fusion bonds to the plastic, but I'm not crazy about the finish of it, so I'm not using it for the main color coat. After I sprayed the Fusion, I took the housing to my sink, and sanded it smooth with 2000 grit sandpaper, until it felt as smooth as glass.

This pic is after the first coat of my main color coat. I'm using Duplicolor auto body paint (available at almost any auto parts store in spray cans). After this coat, i repeated my wet sanding until it was smooth again.

I'll continue posting pics as I work on this project today.

and a close-up...

keep the pics comin

here's another...
I just sprayed my next color coat. I haven't wet sanded it yet, so it looks a little rough.

Here it is, finished product... still taken apart, but the paint is done!

and, assembled...

here it is installed...

Nice.

neat!

sweeet! how did ya manage to remove the housing?

take the lens off by prying down on it with a THIN flathead screwdriver (be careful not to damage it), and you'll find two screws that hold it up, take them out, and you're in business

looks really good!

the install really came out well. two thumbs up

thanks all, i'll post some more pics when I finish my headliner project... (black suede and black dome) It'll be hot

nice cant wait to see it done

sweet

i have a question, do you really have to sand it b4 painting?

wut do you mean by wet sanding? do you really mean it sanding it during wet? or do you wait for a minute or something? and do you do this over and over to make it better, shinier or something?
sorry, dont know nothing about this

Nice job!!!
How long did the whole thing take & how much were the supplies?

Nice job

Bat-

Looks nice!

nice

Yes, at least a light scuff sanding will help the paint (even Krylon fusion) adhere to the surface better.

alright~
i might go paint mine in silver when i got time~ still got some paint left after painting the AEM lisence plate frame

After you spray the paint on the surface, let it dry really well, then turn on your kitchen or bathroom sink, and use 1500 or 2000 grit sandpaper and lightly, using circular strokes, sand the surface until it looks completely uniform (you'll have to let it dry to be able to tell if you've sanded enough). Be sure that your piece is completely dry again before spraying the next coat. It's ok if end up sanding through your first couple of coats, the only thing that's important is that you use thin coats of paint, and get the paint really smooth with your wet sanding. You want to do this with EVERY coat of paint, even your final clear coat. My usual paint sequence is:

primer: Krylon Fusion (bonds well to plastic, but I don't like the finish
wet sand
color coat: Duplicolor paint, available at most auto parts stores
wet sand
continue adding color coats, sanding after each until you don't see any of the primer through them anywhere
wet sand
clear coat: I use two or three clear coats, and I wet sand between each

Wet sand after your final clear coat. I know this will dull the surface, but it's worth it later. Next, buff the paint with 3M brand Body Repair Rubbing Compund. I use the Fine Cut variety, and it produces a wonderful finish by removing the 2000 grit scratches from the wet sanding.

Finish by rubbing the paint surface with your favorite paint polish (Meguiar's Deep Crystal works wonders)

Hope this helps!

Jon

Took about three hours (with a lot of down time while paint dried)

And cost about $20 for all the material, which I still have plenty of to do other projects

looks awsome .. how many cans of paint/clearcoat did you use?

I used about a quarter of a can of Duplicolor black, about half a can of Duplicolor clear, and a very small amount of Krylon Fusion

here's a finished pic with the dome light set on my new suede headliner...

That's the best damn step by step I've seen.
I know what I doing after work.

Thanks! If you need any other hinst or have any questions put up a post, or drop me a PM. I'll be checking back all day while I repaint my center console (it got scratched by a clumsy passenger in my car).

reupholstered your car with purple suede? Why not Gucci?

the suede is black, with a little bit of a blue tint to it

I don't know why, but in some lights, it looks blue