Spray painting plexi?

[pboreham]

I'm going to be getting a big sheet of plexi/lexan for the front of the cab and I think I am going to spray a bezel onto it as some of you have done.

Is this a sound idea - and if so, what should I use to spray?

Also, I have the Top Guns, which need the sensor bars either side of the monitor, so I assume I need to mask off areas for them too.

[Timoe]

I dont know anything about the top guns but I spray paint plexi about once a week.  Just use the regular spray paint you get at home depot.

Mask off the inside real good with a high tack tape. Cover everything you dont want painted with paper and tape off real good.

Spray two very light coats a few minutes apart.  The first coat does NOT need to cover completely, you will fill in with the second coat a few minutes later.

Set it aside for like 3-5 minutes and then pull off your masking carefully while the paint is still sorta wet.

Set aside to dry in a dust free environment.


oooh one good note - if the tape leaves any residue from the adhesive you can remove it with a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol.  It should be strong enough to cut through the adhesive but it will leave the paint alone.  Then clean everything off with Windex

[pboreham]

Lovely, thanks Timoe!

I'm in the UK, so I assume you mean by 'normal spray paint' the kinda paint you use to spray cars??

[Timoe]

I dont even know what I mean by "normal" spray paint. 

I just know that you dont need any of the weird stuff like "spray paint for plastic" or "spray paint for metal" or one of the other specialty sprays.

[TOK]

There is a paint made for R/C car bodies that you spray from the back. It goes on flat, but has a nice shine created from the plexi. Here is a panel I did using black, yellow red and orange to try and integrate my home made CP with the original cabinet art.

Edit to add... that blue button way out on the lower right was just a placeholder for a Groovy Game Gear spinner that I added later.

[Pac-Fan]

Use Fusion (paint made for plastics) --  It actually works. Tough to get it to flake off because it seems to soften the plastic after it sprays and becomes part of it when it dries, comprared with normal spray paint that eventually peels or easily scrapes off.

[brock.sampson]

This is the paint made for rc car bodies http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCY13&P=ML.  Pactra makes a lot of different colors as well.  I have used this a lot and works very well but as others said spray from the backside and use a good tape to mask off so you don't get paint bleeding under.  For the top guns you should only need to mask off spots for the led lights not the whole bar.  I have a plastic bezel and just made holes for the leds and stuck it to the back of the bezel with automotive trim tape.

[Level42]

I can tell you it'll work, because my Star Wars Cockpit bezel was spray-painted (probably in the factory) by accident !!!

And I have no clue how to remove it after it's been on there for some 25 years...

[The 80s Man]

Star Wars Cockpit bezel was spray-painted
And I have no clue how to remove it after it's been on there for some 25 years...

I would use Easy Off Oven cleaner to remove paint from plastic. I've done it before and it works very well but it does take some effort. I used Easy Off to remove the green paint from an Xbox jewl with no scratches at all and I've also use Easy Off to strip the paint off of an old 20 year old plastic model car so I could repaint it and it didn't harm the plastic at all.