Anybody ever had any luck painting atv plastic?

[fastfredracing]

Bought my kid a little 80 cc 2 cycle suzuki quad. Not running condition ,craigslist find. Brought it home, drained and filled the tank,, jumped it off my jeep, cranked for 10-15 seconds, and it lit right up. I checked the oil, aired up the tires, and spun it around the yard for the last 45 minutes. Fun little thing. Needs some front tires, and sand paddle tires suck on Pa terrain, this was previously mostly ridden at the beach.
I wanna give it a good service, and clean it up a little, and even though new, or used plastic is cheap, I am just looking for a quick and dirty. I want to paint the same color , so it should not look as bad when it scratches. Know of any good products , that will adhere, and not crack ? All the ones I ever saw painted looked pretty bad in short order.
Maybe I should try to dip it. I saw cans of white at Lowe's last week.
My last one, I just bought an aftermarket graphics set, and buried all the scratches and gouges.
This is my second cheapo quad project, sort of fun, takes me back to my youth, and a heck of a lot cheaper than the p cars.

A quick pic for reference.

[OffCamber00]

Dip it.

[Arizona 911]

Krylon fusion is made for plastic and is available in many colors. I painted my Honda XR650L about 1 month ago and it's holding up great so far. I went from Honda red to a flat desert khaki. I commute on it every day. I took everything off, scuffed it with 400 grit paper, wipe down with alchohol and applied 2 coats. Let it cure for 24 hours and put everything back on. I think the 108 degree Arizona sun helped also. I will post pictures when I get to my computer.

[Don Plumley]

I would think many of the paints for flexible automotive plastics could work - I've used SEM, Wurth also makes good stuff. Go to any local autobody paint shop (as opposed to chain auto parts stores) and they could set you up.

[Arizona 911]

[jyl]

Nice job!

[T77911S]

there is also a plastic primer out there.

i just painted the front end of my mercedes. the guy at the paint shop had some stuff you put in the paint for plastic bumbers so it will not crack......i forgot to put it in my paint.

oh well, my bumber is not felxiable anyway.

[bkreigsr]

Fred, I painted a piece of Delrin with Rustoleum 7777 matte black.
I didn't think it would hold, but it's been good for about 3,000 trailer miles.
I made a license plate holder/backer for my trailer that sits just aft of the wheels - so it gets a lot of abuse. I used some 220 grit to give it some bite.
Bill K

[matt711]

use an adhesion promoter and you will get good results. I did our yamaha golf cart body and it worked great.

[xlchsports]

Believe it or not, I had some excellent results from a canned plastic paint from Rust -O- Lium plastic paint no primer and it was Black turned out great,painted a little dirt bike for my grand son,was very impressed with results Dennis

[gr8fl4porsche]

I've painted a few with decent results using various types of paint.

I have used water based exterior house paint products and automotive type bumper products.

The problem area is the crease in the fenders.

When the fenders get loaded up with mud they really flex cracking the paint.

The problem was on bigger bikes which get launched off jumps and ridden very hard.

The 80 might not get the same use.

[bpu699]

What year is that ?

I just bought my kids a 1983 suzuki 125 quad... They love the thing.

It is so simple... No suspension. No battery. Pull start. Cheap as dirt.

I love the thing, there is nothing to break!!!

Bo

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by matt711

use an adhesion promoter and you will get good results. I did our yamaha golf cart body and it worked great.

Depending on the year, those were made from TPO, (thermoplastic olefin), which is classified as a non paintable substrate. So it needs an adhesion promoter. OP, if you're going cheap yes any of the spray bombs made for plastic should suffice.

[romad]

You'll have no luck on any parts that can flex. Also depends on the plastic. Your cheapest is the fusion paints and roughing up the surface with a 800+ grit...but for a used ATV a kid will beat and scratch up anyway....is it really worth the effort?

[porsche4life]

Doesn't look that bad in the pics.... Let him ride it as is... I guarantee you he won't care about the scratches....

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Arizona 911

Krylon fusion is made for plastic and is available in many colors. I painted my Honda XR650L

This^^^^

I painted my XL500 Ford blue