Wow bro you can't even tell it was cracked. What did you use to do this??? Looks amazing.
What paint did you use?
Thanks,
I started with a light wet sanding of 400 grit paper. Had to stabilize the crack first. Not easy to do as the plastic on these are vinyl based and have oil in them and nothing sticks to it well. Still trying to find the right process for that? What you see in the picture is actually still cracked somewhat. I think it will need a thin strip on the back and heat welded to really stabilize this.
The process:
I used Tamiya plastic model White spot putty to fill (# TAM87095). wet sand with a 400grit paper and refill and sand until it is smooth. clean with alcohol.
Then I sprayed Testors Silver 1830 Diamond Dust Lacquer rattle can ( it is designed for plastic). Must be shaken well. Also very light coats from about 13 inches away, any closer and it will run. Add about 4 to 5 coats, let dry between each (about 15mins) It will nib up somewhat
DO NOT SAND COLOR COAT If the nibs are a problem use a paper towel dry to knock them off it has the abrasive quality of about 30K grit.
Then I spayed Tamiya Semi Gloss Lacquer for plastic models #TAM85079. This you can spray a little heavier but be careful. Allow to dry like the color coat. I used about 3 coats. This morning it is cured up nicely and after about a week should be as good if not better than the original finish.
Now the metalflake in this is slightly larger than the original finish if you look close but from a foot away or farther there is no discernable difference. If I were to choose to to do as remove scratches I would most likely do the entire areas so they would definitely match. But I'm ocd abiout stuff like that.
my only real gripe is I cannot get this in large enough quantity at a reasonable cost to use my spray rig. as I hate using rattle cans. I would have better control of my pattern and coverage.
Mike
edited to add: I tried the heat weld using a 30 watt soldering iron with a small backer strip of plastic. Worked fine. just have to be careful not to burn through.