Thinking of painting my airlid, airlid base and manifold on 4th gen, What do I need to make it smooth. High build primer and plastic promoter, both, either one or what? Anyone that has done this could you post some pictures? And yes I have searched for this but can't find anything. Any help greatly appriciated.

 

I just finished getting my lid and base painted and back on the car. Waiting till I have like $250-$300 saved up to get an LS6 manifold and paint it.

For the lid/base I simply bought a couple cans of duplicolor stuff (if you have a gun to paint with that would be best..) but if not $35 will get you more than enough stuff you need.

I washed both parts, the lower base was filthy thanks to the K&N I had in there and have since thrown out.. Degrease the parts if need be.

I had the SLP lid with logo and I wanted to and that off, so with 400 wet paper I sanded it off till it was gone, and went over the whole face of the lid with 1000wet before cleaning off again. Then I shot 3 coats of adhesion promoter, 3 shots of filler primer followed by sanding with 1000 wet paper again, to get it nice and smooth especially where the SLP logo was.

I shot 4 coats of black over this the next day, and 6 (yes 6) coats of clear, I did 6 because this paint sucks.. and anything less I always seem to sand through when wet sanding.

The wet sanding is up to you but if you do decide to do a clear coat then it will be orange pealed.. so you should wet sand it. I do 1500/2000/2500 then buff it with 3m rubbing compound, Mezerna SIP, and tropicare swirl remover.. Seal/Glave, then wax.

Alot of overkill, but I think it came out nice




Oh and when you scratch it putting it back together... dont get to angry, I tried real hard and it only scratched where the clips go, and in the back where the lid slides in. Going to touch them up when its warmer.

Good luck and let's see how it goes when you try it!

 

Thanks I am in the process right now. I got the promoter and filler primer down along with one coat of NBM. Couldn't get the texturing smooth on my whisper lid. Going to clear it and wet sand when I am done so I will post some pics when its done.