Paint Tupperware?

[TimberGuy]

Planning a cosmetic overhaul of my 97 RT next winter. You folks may recognize "Marlene Dietrich" as a long standing object of questions on this site - thanks Doc Levine. Tupperware is a bit beat up and I'm wondering if practical to consider repainting it all. Never really liked the Glacier Green anyway. Not interested in a 'hope-for-the-best can of farm paint" solution.

 

Anyone have experience with proper prep & painting of these plastic parts? Any known "thou shalts" or "don't evers"? Will be asking the local paint shop gurus as well, and report. I have a couple extra parts that I can experiment on. Thanks in advance.

[realshelby]

No reason to do anything special. Automotive products readily available will do the job. I do highly recommend the two part primer sealers. Top coat with any basecoat/clearcoat you want. Not enough flex in these panels that the "flex agent" is necessary.

[KDeline]

No reason to do anything special. Automotive products readily available will do the job. I do highly recommend the two part primer sealers. Top coat with any basecoat/clearcoat you want. Not enough flex in these panels that the "flex agent" is necessary.

 

 

One hundred percent disagree. Had my wife's RT painted by a professional automotive painter and after a few months the paint started flaking off, parts of it in sheets. He repainted again and it did the same thing. He was never able to figure out why, we got our money back but of course the finish was ruined. No other painter would touch it after that.

[upflying]

I had mine painted a few years by an auto body shop. I removed all the plastic and prepped it by sanding and smoothing the imperfections. I brought the pieces ready to paint to the shop and the painter squirted the Tupperware on his day off. The color is from a Nissan Sentra. $500 "cash under the table". Base coat/clear coat acrylic urethane. No chipping, peeling or flaking and not sure if the painter used a flex agent. Still looks like new today. 90% of a good paint job is in the prep. If it peels off, the prep was bad.

here is a pic of my scooter.

[realshelby]

 

 

One hundred percent disagree. Had my wife's RT painted by a professional automotive painter and after a few months the paint started flaking off, parts of it in sheets. He repainted again and it did the same thing. He was never able to figure out why, we got our money back but of course the finish was ruined. No other painter would touch it after that.

 

I would question how professional the painter was. It is still your right to disagree of course. Not rocket science, many cars today use the exact type of materials used to form the "tupperware" on the BMW motorcycles. Was it the clear coat that came off or the color also? Paint just does not come off in sheets if the surface is properly prepared and primer, basecoat, topcoat directions and common sense are followed.

[KDeline]

Paint came off the plastic. Why would 3 other painters not try after the failure of the first? One look and their anwser was no. One even went as far as to call the first, said he could do nothing else different.

[realshelby]

Paint came off the plastic. Why would 3 other painters not try after the failure of the first? One look and their anwser was no. One even went as far as to call the first, said he could do nothing else different.

 

I would not want to take on the responsibility of trying to figure out what the previous painter had done wrong. The complete finish would have to be stripped and that means no chemical strippers in this case. That is reason enough to refuse the job. Plus it is a small job, not much money in it but a real chance to lose money with all the work it takes to do it right. For instance, saying the paint came off the plastic is surprising. First of all that means that the factory paint came off-which is improbable. Secondly, it means the painter stripped the factory paint to the plastic. That is generally considered a Don't do also on plastics. Bare plastic does require some extra steps. Really hard to say what went wrong, but others (including me) have had no problems at all with painting BMW Tupperware.

[philbytx]

Re-painting BMW "Tupperware" is really not any different to re-painting most of the modern ABS plastics used for auto bumpers.

 

Just like all repair facilities, there are body shops and there are body shops!!

[KDeline]

The funny thing is it only came off of the front that is exposed to wind, rocks, etc. Did not come off of sides or the tail. Wish I would have had this information back then.

[Mark_Turner]

That color looks sweet! I worked in a motorcycle paint shop back in the late 70's there in Brea, Ca and a good paint job is all in the prep! I was a candy color scuffer specialist!

[bmw_rider]

Didn't the painter tell you the paint job came with a speed limit? How dare you go that fast as to ruin all his hard work?

 

[boatzo]

Never really liked the Glacier Green anyway.

 

I love my Glacier Green and you don't see many of them. FWIW

[Jerry Johnston]

I had my 96RT painted by an Auto body-shop in 99 and it still looks good except for a few small chips where rocks have hit it.

I took all the fairing off logged and id it so I wouldn't lose any parts. I left it with them thru winter and it had cost $1k. The color I had them put on was Miden Silver Pearl, a Chrysler color.