How not to paint a bow tie (and how to salvage it if you do)

[withac]

Okay, so I painted my bow tie. This is long but I’ll tell you what an idiot I was and maybe somebody can learn from my mistakes and how it turned out okay. The instructions I had for painting the bow tie said to get Heavy Duty Easy Off oven cleaner, not the fume free kind, said it wouldn’t clean everything off the plastic. The grocery store only had one kind, MAX, fume free. Okay, it’s the fume free kind but is also MAX strength so I figure it might work, plus I’m impatient and want to do it right then and that’s the only grocery store in town. I buy it, give it a shot, and yes, it is removing some of the foil and paint and stuff from the back of the bow tie but it’s VERY slow and I’m impatient. So now I do something stupid, I knew better but did it anyway. I got the wife’s acetone free nail polish remover and tried it, I figured if it was acetone free it might not damage the plastic. If I had kept it on the back side I might have been okay but some ended up soaking on the front. THEN, to continue my stupidity, I tried some carb cleaner. It pains me to admit what an idiot I was but hey, if I can save someone else some hassle I’ll take the bullet. So anyway I get the back side clean and when it dries there are white marks and crap on the front, great. PLUS, I couldn’t get all the black off the ridge of the outline on the back side. At that point I decide a black outline might be nice so I mask the front and back middle leaving just the back edge exposed. I paint that black to fill in the spots I had removed. I lightly sand and paint the back side. It looks good but the front is cloudy. If anyone noticed, I posted a question on how to polish plastic, said the bow tie looked like someone had tried to polish it with steel wool. I know that because I was the one that did it, yep, one more stupid move in a long line of stupid moves. BUT all was not lost. On the polishing plastic thread someone suggested 1000 grit sand paper followed by a polishing compound. I took some 1000 grit wet/dry and sanded it smooth. Next I took some Meguiar’s #83 Dual Action Cleaner/Polisher, put it on the bow tie, and worked that on my random orbit car buffer. I did this several times then put on a coat of the Meguiar’s NXT Tech Wax. I’d say it looks damned good considering how bad I screwed up. Too bad I didn’t take any before pics to compare.

[yellowdemon327]

eh, not too shabby

[withac]

eh, not too shabby

Thanks. When you look at the middle pic you can see it has some reflection in it. Maybe not show room new but definitely not out of place on an 8 year old ride.

[Riceeater]

You could also use some very fine steel wool and clear coat it thats how I did my tail lights. But it dose look pretty good considering