I need to know if when I paint the headlight pockets satin, flat, or matte black. What do I do about the clearcoat. If I put clear on it, wont that turn my satin into a gloss? Or do I have to spend more money and buy a flattening agent just to spray the pockets?

 

If it was my car I would paint the car, clear it and then scuff it up the headlight buckets with some scotch bright pads spray with SEM Black Primer (which is flat) and then Trim Black spray paint which is a semi-gloss... It would look great...

BTW, AFAIK Black cars did not have Semi-gloss black headlight buckets, they had shine...

John

 

Thanks John I will have to think about that. I assume the scotch pad wont leave scratch marks. Or the primer will fill them.

 

John, you are incorrect. It has already been proven a few times that black cars have the same headlight bucket finish as every other car.

 

Yup, the color was semi-gloss on all of the models that recieved the black headlight recesses regardless of color.

 

So... I stand corrected...

I thought someone was saying they were not, but so-be-it.

The scotch pads are for scuffing paint, they do not leave deep scratches. It is to help the paint get some teeth into it... Your talking about a 320 or 400 or so grit sandpaper equivalent.

There are two types, the Gray and the Red... One is more coarse than the other...

There was actually another brand that I preferred for scuffing paint, it worked 2x better than the Scotch pads... I forget their name, want to think it starts with an M, but its hard to come by.

If I were to do it I would probably be inclined to mask the area then scuff... Pull up the paint to remove the shavings and then reapply masking Prime-Paint Done. Honestly I have used the SEM trim paint on things and it has lasted 10 years without primer... It sticks pretty well on its own, but the primer just makes it a touch better....

John

 

Thanks for the info guys, you all saved me about $60.00.

 

I hope this isn't considered a new thread, but it would have same title. My 89 Iroc black headlight bucket is starting to peel/flake along forward edge only. Do I have to pull up all the paint? Or could I remove enough, feather it, and then spot paint??? I am a rookie, never even done a scratch repair. Just need quick fix for upcoming show. Also....could I fake it with peelable paint until I can get a pro to help? A step by step would be helpful. Thx in advance

 

feather and scuff the rest that isnt flaking I used the sem trim and its still holding up 4yrs later.

 

Thx Dustytrix. We'll give it a go.

 

I did mine with satin black enamel rattle can paint, prepped as posted above and had excellent results. They looked very good for 15 years until I had the entire bumper cover re-done. This time the body shop did it for me. I had to remind them that it was satin, he was about to use gloss.

 

Gloss! Ouch! The SEM trim is like a satin matte finish, from what I read. Ordered from Amazon, should get Monday. No show tomorrow, after all. Threw code 36, we cleaned the maf sensor. No SES light anymre, yay! But.......we noticed the pcv valve just laying there. It "melted" off!! What the heck! Never heard of that. So parts won't be in til Monday, also. Maybe I'll show my 2010 instead thx for your input.