Plastic scars really easily. Just clean gently, use very fine paper to take any sheen off, then prime and paint.

Personally, i just clean plastic parts and paint straight over on a warm day. Theyre just superficial really.

"Silly modern cars"

I will give you a short primer (pun intended) on painting plastic.

There are all sorts of lotions and potions brought onto the market since the widespread adoption of (flexible) plastic bumpers. These potions include antistatic Prepsol and Plastic Primers, along with Flex Additives.

You wont need any of these apart from a small amount of flex additive if you are really keen and have plenty of money. It is nice to have for painting any plastic but not really necessary for stiff plastics and is expensive.

Cleaning/Stripping:

Buy a nicely sized plastic tub from your hardware store that will fit your piece nicely. Some parts will like a tall bucket, others a short tub. Plastic bins, plastic buckets, storage tubs will all fit the bill. The white ones will last quite well after many stripping parties, the black ones will last best and the clear or coloured ones will only last for a few jobs before they become brittle and snap.

Warm up some water in a kettle or on a campfire or on the Mrs stove while she isnt looking. SLOWLY add some Caustic Soda or Drain Cleaner to a bucket of cold water and stir, then start adding hot water. (WARNING: I SAID SLOWLY ADD CAUSTIC SODA TO WATER). Get it a bit warm so its steaming a little bit while you stir it with a wooden stick if you are doing it on the stove, otherwise start adding boiling water.

Add the hot caustic solution to your bucket. Add your plastic part to your bucket. Swish things around. Attach a wire to your part so you can pull it out and hose it off occasionally, or use the wire to pull it up and down to swish it. If your bucket now looks like black soup you will need to start again with a clean solution and repeat the above process. Eventually your plastic will be clean and naked. If there are any really stubborn bits of gunk then use a green pot scourer (Scotchbrite) and dishwashing liquid to scrub it between hosings (or poke it with a stick). Sometimes you will need to pour all of your solution back into your mums best casserole dish and warm it up on the stove if you are taking too long, the paint/grease buildup is excessive, or you just want to annoy your mother and ruin all her cooking utensils.

Give it all a nice scrub with a scrubbing brush, scotchbrite and soap when you are finished.

Next Week we will go through the best way to lay on some paint/colour to your naked clean plastic.