Wheel wells

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Tuffregal83

G-Body Guru
Mar 30, 2016
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Has any one tried to restore or get close to getting the plastic wheel wells to look better. Would you use black trim paint or low gloss black engine enamel with ceramic paint. I just don't want paint it and have it peel and flake and look like crap in a few months or years.
 
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superbon54

G-Body Guru
Apr 15, 2014
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In a past life we would use this on nasty looking injection molded parts. The website says it’s a coating, but in my experience it’s not like paint at all. They make different formulations for different plastics - not sure off the top of my head what the inner fenders are.....
1586254040420.jpeg
 

JAMCAR223

Royal Smart Person
Jun 6, 2014
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Hoping Injectedcutty chimes in with his method. The finish he put down on his inner fenders look great
 
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Injectedcutty

G body LS mafia
Nov 24, 2014
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So, my wheelwells are pretty heavily modified to remove the mounting bosses and smooth them as much as possible, but that doesn't change the paint I used during the process.

I've really become a fan of SEM products since I have to use aerosols. Their sh*t ain't cheap, but the quality is top notch! During the bodywork phase I used their high build primer which block sands really nice.
For the final paint I actually used a basecoat clearcoat to be more durable. They have a line called "factory pack" which is designed for production type shops that need to do touchups or cut ins, but after talking to their engineer I felt comfortable to use it for the wheelwells. The base is GM black, and the clear is their 1K high solids semi gloss clear. I laid down 3 coats of base, 3 coats of clear and just let it cure all the way!!!!
Here are a few pics, I will post more if needed, just let me know.
IMG_20200402_161050_077.jpg
IMG_20200402_161050_076.jpg
IMG_20200404_004217_903.jpg
IMG_20200404_004217_905.jpg
IMG_20200404_004217_908.jpg
 
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Tuffregal83

G-Body Guru
Mar 30, 2016
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Holy crap those look awesome I'll need your address so I can ship mine right over lol.
 
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Injectedcutty

G body LS mafia
Nov 24, 2014
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Holy crap those look awesome I'll need your address so I can ship mine right over lol.
Haha, no thanks! I'm glad to be done with em, waaaaay too many hours invested.

Here are a couple comparison pics of stock Cutlass wheelwells (the left pics are from the junkyard last year, but shows all the stuff on them) vs mine....
IMG_20200402_164655_586.jpg
IMG_20200402_164655_583.jpg
 
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L92 OLDS

Comic Book Super Hero
Mar 30, 2012
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Be aware, the inner wheel wells are made of polypropylene which has low surface energy. In manufacturing, polypropylene cannot be painted without a surface treatment. We typically use flame treatment or the corona arc process to change the parts surface tension but there are adhesion promoters that chemically etch the surface to improve mechanical bonding of paint. You can do flame treatment at home with a propane torch and get good results as long as you take care not to melt the plastic. As noted SEM makes some good stuff. Make sure you follow the instructions to a T. Adding a flex agent would also be a good idea.
 
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Motor City Monte

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Mar 2, 2015
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Don,t know about under the hood ,but the wheelwell side I used POR-15.Gloss Black. Looks good to me, but to each his own.
Ain't cheap either,about 50.00 a gt.
 
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