[Shop-talk] Painting Plastic/Bakelite

[Jim Stone]

I am trying to paint the Bakelite steering wheel surround on my 1966 Alpine, but not having much luck.  The surround is in good shape, just weathered from 43 years in the sun. I wet sanded it with 400 grit paper and got a nice smooth surface that should have taken appropriate paint well.  The first one I tried was Rust-oleum Universal.  In theory, that should have been perfect, but it produced an awful, very thick, almost hammered finish.  I stripped this off (using CitruStrip, which seems to work very well on the old plastic) and tried again, this time with Valspar Plastic paint.  I got almost the same result (and I suspect it is almost the same paint), but not quite as bad.  Back to the  Citrustrip, and then one more try with the Valspar, trying to be very light with the paint.  It was little better than the first two attempts, but far from acceptable.  Before I try again with a third brand, can anyone recommend either a good technique for using the Universal or Valspar paint, or a paint that will produce a nice smooth durable finish on Bakelite?

Thanks.

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