Mountain Man Tim

I much prefer the black to the white, it does look great, but i had to go with the red in the end, the interior has a ton of black already, I think the red is gonna POP

Trujillp090868

Has anyone painted white the top on the outside? If so what can you say about the heat?


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Mountain Man Tim

i think i might have a jeep modification syndrome, while waiting for my top interior paint kit to arrive, totally randomly i googled "dyeing leather seat stitching" and found a sharpie does an awesome accurate job, so now i want to turn the "Rubicon" on my front bucket seats red, to match the the interior trim i did red and my new red inside of hard top once i paint it...... apparently im insatiable.

Mountain Man Tim

well i flubbed a little, i ordered a 6 pack of paint, turns out i need 8-9 to get enough coats on the back to make it pretty, will order 3 more cans, or maybe a 6 pack because it might be cheaper lol, this paint has to be applied every 15-60 mins or let to dry for 7 days before more coats so no pics till after next week when i can finish coating the back of the hardtop, i have to say its looking pretty sweet so far, i like the color, i think i got it thick enough of the freedom tops, i just have a couple spots you cant see with them installed i want to touch up on the freedoms and another coat or 2 will have the big chunk lookin fabulous i may never get all the paint off my finger nails or shoes but meh so worth it.

Ive also invested 25$ in a master craft driver and set of torx sockets, so when I go to do the final coats to get it blingalicious i can actually take the damn top off and cut my prep time from all day to a couple hours. it was a PITA painting the inside of the hard top, with it on the jeep...... ya i actually did that..... you wouldnt believe how much i ache from all the odd positions i had to shimmy into, and it aint easy to shimmy when you are old and fat.

njrhino

Looks really nice! What paint did you use ? Also, did you do any special prep ?

roscoj

Thanks. That's my 2009. I will do the same with my 2014.
It's been painted since 2009 so I can't remember the paint brand but I think krylon in semi flat.

I took off the top and laid it on my lawn upside down. scuffed the inside with a scouring pad. Wiped the whole inside down with a rag and isopropyl alcohol. Taped around everything really well and sprayed. I think I did 5 coats.

It still hasn't come off the top under the black top latches or anything.

Mountain Man Tim

krylon fusion for plastic sticks really nice, only prep is alcohol wipe to make sure theres nothing on the plastic surface to cause the paint to want to come off later, I found that the texture on the top already seems scuffy enough and it stuck fine, i did wash the freedom tops with dawn dish detergent and a brillo spunge cause i had some greasy finger prints on them, but it seemed like over kill, but then its an easy step too as long as you dont mind waiting for the big top piece to dry after you rinse it.

and ya, tape really well so you dont get paint where you dont want it, and peel the tape about an hour after you finish the last coat, the paint will still be soft enough not to tear with the tape in chunks, but hard enough not to run on to the taped places if it might otherwise, ild give it a few hours before putting back together, with the fusion it takes 7 full days for full chipping resistance, but as long as you are carefull i dont see issues putting it back together after a few hours after the last coat goes on. the cans say 25 square feet coverage for the spray on, but i went though 6 cans and ordered another 6 because its more of a 5-6 coat paint then a 3 coat to look its best over white when useing a color other then black at least.

Mountain Man Tim

got my new cheap little digital camera so i snapped a couple shots of the red:

http://oi62.tinypic.com/2vhyjw1.jpg pretty good shot from the rear cargo area of the top and rollbars (remember, this started out dayglow bright white!)

http://oi59.tinypic.com/xcso5z.jpg good shot from the driver side with some freedom panel and roof over rear seat

http://oi62.tinypic.com/fei5ud.jpg freedom panels from the driver side.

all in all i really like how it turned out even with a camera flash with interior lights on at night its almost an exact match to the body color, kyrlon fusion is not the easiest spray paint to use, but it does stick to plastic without using etching primer first, didnt have to sand anything, only prep was taking top off and washing it with some dawn dish detergent to degrease, and after rinsing a wipe down with some disinfectant grade rubbing alc to make sure nothing but plastic and paint touched each other ended up using 10 12 oz cans to get good coverage (5 full coats, 2 cans per coat roughly, 9 ish cans and the 10th was just touching up spots that needed it).

the paint comes in alot of colors Fusion for Plastic® - | Krylon you can match most of the jeep outter colors up pretty easy, and they make a clear coat if you think you might ding it taking it on and off alot, its supposed to be super chip resistant after a week of cure time, 1 hour to handle it, 15-20 minutes between coats.

zstairlessone

That came out great!!

Mountain Man Tim

thanks, i feel a bit accomplished after it came out like this. and anyone else that wants to do it, its very easy once you have the top upside down on the grass/work table. the paint comes in a couple dozen diff colors and you only need to make sure the surface is really clean for it to stick. now i just need to finish my red stitches project...... why do these seats have so many stitches?!