snowmobile painting

[sw engineering]

I'm painting a '03 Arctic Cat F7 in HOK Glamour Metallic and then ghost flaming it with a kandy.
Which HOK adhesion promoter do you use on snowmobile plastic? AP01 which is for Polypropylene and just about everything else or AP02 which is for Polyethylene only? Last time I ordered paint I ran this question by one of the guys at Coast AB that knows his sh*t and he says he uses AP01 for everything. I have no problem with that but I thought snowmobile plastic, atv’s,dirt bike, or any plastic where the color is all the way thru is Polyethylene.
This is the first time I ever painted something with this type of plastic so I have no clue. I called the HOK tech. line but they never called back.
Also, if anybody has ever painted a sled how does the paint hold up with all the engine heat/cold/vibration that goes with a snowmobile? any excessive chipping,cracking or other problems?

 

[rex]

Can't help you much with this one buddy.The only thing I can suggest is try to keep material as thin as posisble due to the drastic and rapid temperature swing.Might want to use intensifier in the candy to use fewer coats.

 

[ezrider]

I am going to take it that the sled is already painted ( factory paint ) if so no adhesion promoter is necesary, plastic adhesion promoters are for bare plastics only ( not paint or primer).as far as durability urethane is the best it should hold up the best. a little advice i have certian customers who need repairs a couple times a year on their sleds so make sure the paint job can be duplicated ( repaired )at a latter time.

 

[sw engineering]

thanks guys

ez- do you use any flex agents or shoot straight out of the can?

one other problem too... the sled is red, i'm going to match the HOK Glamour Metallic base to Acrtic Cat green. HOK BC's cover pretty good but it still is going to take a few coats. Is there going to be a problem with thickness like rex said?

 

[ezrider]

SW, i dont use any flex agents. the uro system is pretty flexible. as far as thickness goes , you will be fine on some of the sleds i work on i have multiple spot ins with multiple clear coats. if it gets hit hard enough to crack the paint you will be doing plastic repair also

 

[sw engineering]

just an update-
I talked to HOK today and they said pretty much what ez said. AP01 is used on all materials except polyethylene. HOK said AP02 was actually created when a shop in the upper central US was painting sleds right out of the factory that had polyethylene side panel/covers.

So end of story is there is nothing special about painting a snowmobile. Scuff,prime and shoot just like anything else.

thanks ez & rex

 

[rex]

The thanx go to EZ on this