Clear coat over Adpro

'68 Coronet R/T

'68 Coronet R/T

Oldtimer
I am wanting to apply a coat of clear over my wood grain interior plastic trim.
Existing Trim Color.jpg


This application will be on 55 year old trim pieces.
I have some 700 cleaner on hand. My question is do I need to I sand this first?
One piece was broken and has been glued back together so I am hoping to make the joint as invisible as possible.
Broken End Piece Glued.jpg


I was thinking a grey Scotchbrite pad to lightly scuff the surface should work but a bit nervous working on these parts.
Looking for advise as I have not used SPI adhesion promoter yet.
 
Personally I would not. Clean it extremely well. Dawn bath and scrub with a toothbrush or similar, then W&G remover. Ad-Pro then whatever topcoat you are planning on.
 
Hope it works out well. Try one piece and see how it does. I would do that before doing all the pieces you are planning on doing. Keep your coats fairly light. Maybe reduce a bit more if using clear. Are you just planning on clearing the pieces?
 
I didn't see this, or I might have recommended a 3M 7745 gold pad. It's extremely gentle, yet leaves a little bite for paint to hang on.
 
Chris_Hamilton said:
Hope it works out well. Try one piece and see how it does. I would do that before doing all the pieces you are planning on doing. Keep your coats fairly light. Maybe reduce a bit more if using clear. Are you just planning on clearing the pieces?
Click to expand...
Yes, I am hoping some depth might help hide the color differences. Plus make the pieces look better.
 
At the risk of being too obvious, you should try it on a really small area first. I have no idea what is laying on that panel. I do remember you saying that at least some of the woodgrain effect comes from the color of the backside, which I found very interesting! Probably avoid touching the chrome at all...
 
It appears that they started with a molded clear piece of plastic and then applied the woodgrain to the back side. The chrome lettering and borders are basically channels in the plastic.
It doesn't act like a vinyl overlay because it can wear through in spots but no peeling edges are evident. Plus lacquer thinner removes everything down to the plastic surface. Makes me think that they painted the lettering, the black woodgrain and then covered the rest in a brown color.

Woodgrain trim badly faded 50%.jpg


All I did to fix this part was apply a brown wood stain to the back. It's not perfect but better than paying $300 for a better looking used one.
Woodgrain Restored 50%.jpg
 
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So the outside is just plain plastic? Have you tried putting clear on a piece you don't need to use? I don't think you use anything but slow products, but just so everyone knows, it's best to avoid fast on plastic because acetone can cause cloudiness in plastic.
 
There was a guy who wanted to reproduce these parts. He used aluminum as a backer and then duplicated the woodgrain look.
He sent me this piece for me to apply clear coat to, so he could see if he liked the look.

All I did was clean it, spray one light coat Bulldog Adhesion promoter and then two coats of clear. Didn't realize this was such a lousy picture until now. I still have the piece so I can get a better pic.
Sprayed with Clear.JPG
 
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