This is my first time doing a DIY so please go easy on me.
So, I wanted to get some painted reflectors but found the 60-80 bucks I usually see online for them a bit too excessive and decided to experiment a little with some spare reflectors. I got myself some orange reflectors on here relatively cheap and ended up spending about 40 bucks all in, also had quite a bit of AW paint left over
Here are the materials I used:- 500-600 Grit sandpaper
- 1000 Grit sandpaper
- 2000 Grit Sandpaper (optional)
- Flexible bumper coat
- A spray can paint (mine was mixed at a local shop which was about 20 bucks)
- Clear coat (I recommend you get a good two stage clear as I did not and could have gotten better results)
- something to paint on (I used a shoebox and a bigger box behind)
- Painter's tape
On to the steps:
1st step - Sand down the pieces, first with the 500-600 grit and then with the 1000, make sure you do this right because it will affect the final outcome. Make sure to remove the lettering on the reflector with the sandpaper.
2nd step - After cleaning the reflectors, set them up with painter's tape on the surface you chose to paint them in, as vertical as possible
3rd step - Spray 2-3 coats of the bumper coat (primer)
Should look something like this
4th step - Now proceed to lay down 3-4 light coats of paint and let dry, then give another 2-3 coats of clear coat to get good reflection and shine (You can polish if you want to get an even better finish but remember to wait until it is fine to do so)
Here is the part after white paint and the clear:
Finally, after letting them dry enough so that the paint is not fragile, you can put them on using
this tutorial
Final Result
Notes:
-Rember to leave enough time to dry between each coat of paint and some additional time when switching from one paint to the other
-It is a good idea to mask the parts of the reflector that hold it together with the car as the paint might give it more volume and it miht end up not fitting as well as it should. If you didn't mask then I reccomend you take the paint off those parts
-Before doing this you might want to calculate how much you will spend, I did not spend that much because I already had most of the materials, but if you have to buy everything you are probably better off simply buying painted reflectors
-You might also want to Vinyl wrap them if you don't mind the finish being somewhat off and want to spend even less
Hopefully I've been of help to some
Thanks to user
AyooooJay for selling me his reflectors and user
GregW / Oregon for the reflector install instructions