I just bought a used lower fairing (the side plastic, not the windscreen) for my bike, and it has a few scratches on it. The scratches are in the white (base color) plastic area, not the decal area. It looks OK as is, but I figure why not sand out the scratches and spray some white paint on it. It may not look perfect, but should pass the 50/50 test (50 feet/50 mph).
Problem is, I’ve never painted plastic before and wonder if there is anything I need to know. I know getting paint to stick to plastic can be a pain, but I’ve never had any first hand experience. What kind of sandpaper would be best? Do I need special paint and/or primer? Any other advice so I don’t wind up making it look worse?
The area to be rapired is fairly small, only about 3" x 3". As near as I can tell, the plastic is white (ie there is no paint on it, just decals on white plastic). Bike is a 96 CBR 600 F3 if that matters to anyone.
It seems they both suggest using a product known as Plastic Adhesion Promoter to get the paint to stick.
As for sanding I would start with a coarse paper and finish up with a high grit like 800 or finer, small scratches really show when you apply paint over them, if your scratches are really deep you might need to apply some filler first.
// blinx - CB400F with no expensive plastic parts.