Hi all, got some replacement arches from Minispares in the post this week and need to get them painted.

As they are a small item, is it worth my while getting a (or some) pressure pack spray cans made up and try to paint them myself?

What would be involved in painting such an item?

I've not painted anything on the car before so have no experience of wet sanding or whatever you have to do to acheive a finish.

Not fussed about it looking concours, just want to get them looking decent enough.

I also have a rear number plate light cowl that i need to paint in body colour, so would be aiming to do that at the same time.

Any thoughts, suggestions? Or do I just take it to a spray painter and pay up?

They shouldn't cost you all that much to get done properly by a paint shop.
If you don't know what ur doing you might stuff them up a few times and end up spending close to that ammount doing it yourself and still have a poor quality result.

I'd just save up and get them done by a spraypainter... But i'm biased as I am one.

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Tim
Dusk Blue
1964 850

Thanks. I'm in that odd position of being keen to give it a go, even if i fail and just taking it back to where i got my half-cut trailer done.

Had my trailer done locally back in Feb and they removed the number plate light housing and missed painting it with the rest of the trailer (much to my annoyance) so might go back there and see if they can do it for me and do the arches at the same time.

The other thing i'm curious about is how different paint mixes can be. I supplied the code to them and the colour looks pretty good but in the sunlight it's clear that the colour of my trailer is a much bluer green than the original paint on the car. Starting to think i gave them the wrong code but everything i can find tells me it's correct, could it just come down to the paint manufacturer or a tiny variance when they mix it up??

I'd think it's pretty safe to give it a go. Are they fiberglass, hard or soft plastic? There's a 'plastic adhesion' primer which is like etch primer for plastic and works well. Rattle cans work okay, but do some reading. It's mainly all in the prep and cleanliness.

Regards the paint mix: I've had pretty good success with getting a specialist auto body supplier to mix by eye, rather than paint code. Yours sounds like it might be one o f those tricky colours, but arches are clearly a separate part of the car so there's a larger margin of error if the paint is a little off.

There are so many things that could cause variances. If it looks close, your paint code is fine. Its just different paint manufacturers, paint age, tinter variances.etc.
like angusdog said, its always better if you get a paint shop to mix it up, then match it by eye.

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Tim
Dusk Blue
1964 850