Heres a HP2 project where the tank that comes with the textured flat finish is getting painted to compliment the rest of the plastics that were done in silver awhile back. .. also a flyscreen going silver with a no glare flat towards the rider.

The textured finish is blocked down level with 180 useing the texture itself as a guide..
Only clean these with Ajax and hot water as solvent cleaners can/will hide in the pourus surface and cause real problems ..

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A skim coat of *Thin-Iceing flex filler designed for plastics will level the 2 critical upper surfaces that had a couple of lows that didn't show with the texture finish. Up close is a look at the surface ...

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...the instrument side of the wind screen is to be flat trim black to control glare

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PPG's 2 part NCP 280/285 self leveling epoxy primer is key...



Straight on there with no adhesion promoter or flex additives.
needs to cure at 70 degrees for 18 hours before blocking/sanding ..

Here is the *elkamet brand site that shows how they are made and info... http://int.elkamet.de/index.shtml

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Here are some pics of the tank after a blockng and shaping with 180 before yet another insurance round of primer just to be sure we get everything super level with clean lines...

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Yet one more session of blocking wet with 400 grit.

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. ...one by one each plane is blocked level using a mist coat of a trim black as a guide coat to make sure no lows are missed..

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As the PPG DBC base color goes on this project it too can be checked and adjusted gently with 1000 grit dry and recoated to be sure everthing is a even satin apperance before final clearcoating with PPG's DCD35 clear with DFX-11 hardner and DT1875 reducer...

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and then to let the clear set up 20 hours before another sanding with 1000 grit to "open" up the surface so it can gas out another 24 hours before another sanding with 2000 grit wet prior to the buffing process..

If the clear isn't allowed to gas out between the 1000 grit and the 2000 grit what happens is the polishing will re-seal the surface and then later the gloss can appear to dry out or fade (die-back )as the solvents find their way out again .
This will make all the difference 6 months from now.

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Lastly two stages of polishing compounds and pads.

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