Colour coding your GTi Splitter
Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 4:30 pm
This is my first DIY guide so feel free add anything that i have missed,
Right, first the tools you will need...
1)Sandpaper
2)wet&dry (50p a sheet)
3)Plastics primer (around£5)
4)Paint(around £5)
5)Lacquer(Around £5)
You need to start with some quite harsh sandpaper to get rid of the texture on the splitter, this took a lot of time and patience (really started to p*** me off after a while). Once all of the texture is gone what you need to do is make it really smooth, your aim is to get it almost as smooth as the 2 bits that stick out at the bottom of the splitter. I done this using Wet&dry 1200 dry, then i used 1000 dry, then i used 1200 wet and finally 1000 wet. Once youv'e finished sanding do a quick check to make sure that you havn't missed any bits. Give your spltter a good clean and then your ready to use some plastic primer, this takes a bit of practice, you need to try and get a nice even coat without any of it running off. The plastic primer dries in about 10-15 minutes so once you got a good coat you can do another one after about 10-15mins. If some of the plastic primer starts to run wait 4-6 hours for it to thouroughly dry then you can sand bits down to get it smooth again. I done about three coats of plastic primer, you shouldn't be able to see any black plastic after that, it should look like this
After leaving it to dry for 12 hours sand it down lightly with wet&dry 1000 wet, to make it smooth again
All you need to do now is the same with the paint, but you need to be much more careful as any mistakes on this coat will show up. Any Mistakes you make you can sand down slightly but not too much. It is best to do light coats from a distance of about 10-15cm, this way you won't get any paint running. Once you've got a decent coat of paint and your happy with it,leave it to dry again for 12 hours and sand it down lightly with wet&dry 1000 wet, don't worry if the sanding starts showing up on the paint, because once you do a coat lacquer all those marks will dissappear as long as you did it lightly. You do exactly the same with the lacquer, do 2/3 light coats and leave it to dry for 12 hours and you should have something that looks like this...
Now just fit it to your polo and enjoy
Right, first the tools you will need...
1)Sandpaper
2)wet&dry (50p a sheet)
3)Plastics primer (around£5)
4)Paint(around £5)
5)Lacquer(Around £5)
You need to start with some quite harsh sandpaper to get rid of the texture on the splitter, this took a lot of time and patience (really started to p*** me off after a while). Once all of the texture is gone what you need to do is make it really smooth, your aim is to get it almost as smooth as the 2 bits that stick out at the bottom of the splitter. I done this using Wet&dry 1200 dry, then i used 1000 dry, then i used 1200 wet and finally 1000 wet. Once youv'e finished sanding do a quick check to make sure that you havn't missed any bits. Give your spltter a good clean and then your ready to use some plastic primer, this takes a bit of practice, you need to try and get a nice even coat without any of it running off. The plastic primer dries in about 10-15 minutes so once you got a good coat you can do another one after about 10-15mins. If some of the plastic primer starts to run wait 4-6 hours for it to thouroughly dry then you can sand bits down to get it smooth again. I done about three coats of plastic primer, you shouldn't be able to see any black plastic after that, it should look like this
After leaving it to dry for 12 hours sand it down lightly with wet&dry 1000 wet, to make it smooth again
All you need to do now is the same with the paint, but you need to be much more careful as any mistakes on this coat will show up. Any Mistakes you make you can sand down slightly but not too much. It is best to do light coats from a distance of about 10-15cm, this way you won't get any paint running. Once you've got a decent coat of paint and your happy with it,leave it to dry again for 12 hours and sand it down lightly with wet&dry 1000 wet, don't worry if the sanding starts showing up on the paint, because once you do a coat lacquer all those marks will dissappear as long as you did it lightly. You do exactly the same with the lacquer, do 2/3 light coats and leave it to dry for 12 hours and you should have something that looks like this...
Now just fit it to your polo and enjoy
