How not to paint your bow tie (and how to salvage it if you do)

[withac]

Okay, so I painted my bow tie. Here’s a link with the instructions I was following. http://www.gmfullsize.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94524 This is long but I’ll tell you what an idiot I was and maybe somebody can learn from my mistakes and how it turned out okay. The instructions said to get Heavy Duty Easy Off oven cleaner, not the fume free kind, said it wouldn’t clean everything off the plastic. The grocery store only had one kind, MAX, fume free. Okay, it’s the fume free kind but is also MAX strength so I figure it might work, plus I’m impatient and want to do it right then and that’s the only grocery store in town. I buy it, give it a shot, and yes, it is removing some of the foil and paint and stuff from the back of the bow tie but it’s VERY slow and I’m impatient. So now I do something stupid, I knew better but did it anyway. I got the wife’s acetone free nail polish remover and tried it, I figured if it was acetone free it might not damage the plastic. If I had kept it on the back side I might have been okay but some ended up soaking on the front. THEN, to continue my stupidity, I tried some carb cleaner. It pains me to admit what an idiot I was but hey, if I can save someone else some hassle I’ll take the bullet. So anyway I get the back side clean and when it dries there are white marks and crap on the front, great. PLUS, I couldn’t get all the black off the ridge of the outline on the back side. At that point I decide a black outline might be nice so I mask the front and back middle leaving just the back edge exposed. I paint that black to fill in the spots I had removed. I lightly sand and paint the back side. It looks good but the front is cloudy. On another forum I asked how to polish plastic that had been buffed with steal wool, yep, I tried that, one more item on my list of stupid moves. Someone suggested 1000 grit sand paper followed by a polishing compound. I took some 1000 grit wet/dry and sanded it smooth. Next I took some Meguiar’s #83 Dual Action Cleaner/Polisher, put it on the bow tie, and worked that on my random orbit car buffer. I did this several times then put on a coat of the Meguiar’s NXT Tech Wax. I’d say it looks damned good considering how bad I screwed up. Too bad I didn’t take any before pics to compare.

 

[Yuke2K]

Hey man, that turned out looking fantastic! All things considered, you did a great job! Looks awesome color matched, too.

Glad the sanding and polishing idea worked out for you. :thumbsup:

 

[withac]

Hey man, that turned out looking fantastic! All things considered, you did a great job! Looks awesome color matched, too.

Glad the sanding and polishing idea worked out for you. :thumbsup:

Thanks.

 

[HitandRunDriver]

For all the hell that bow tie went through, i'd say it turned out nice. I rarely see any red hoes out anymore, is your paint metallic or not? I cant tell from the pic

 

[withac]

For all the hell that bow tie went through, i'd say it turned out nice. I rarely see any red hoes out anymore, is your paint metallic or not? I cant tell from the pic

Thanks man. Nope, not metallic. Maybe it's a regional thang, I live in a town of just over 3K and there are at least three red ones in town, one just down the street two blocks from me and is almost identical to mine right down to the chrome, although he's got some sweet rims and I don't. I've seen a few black bow ties and maybe a blue one or two but don't think I've seen any red ones. I have a friend with a red Suburban, after he sees mine maybe he'll want to paint his, of course if he does we'll do it right.