Anyone paint there own Esky roof end caps

[drecoop757]

I picked up a brand new esky roof rail set for my Tahoe. Im waiting to install being that the end caps provided are just flat black and my truck is dark gray. Anyone every painted their own at home or is it best to just let a shop do it?

 

[Fosscore]

I just painted my Esky end caps this weekend. Thx to Young28 for the Esky rack.

Going from metallic orange to metallic blue, I had no issues as you will see from the pics.

1. Wiped down the end caps with denatured alcohol first so as to not sand in any dirt or grease.
2. Sanded the end caps with 220 grit to scuff up and even out any high/low spots.
3. Washed the end caps with soap and water and let dry.
4. Wiped down with denatured alcohol again.
5. I taped the edges that will clip into the chrome rack so that they stayed clean.
6. Spray on 4-5 coats of grey high build sandable primer in approximately 5-10 minute intervals until an even and level coverage was obtained.
7. Wet sanded with 600 grit lightly to scuff up the primer. Not too ******* the rounded edge on top. I chose to wet sand at this stage so that I could just go ahead and wash all the end caps with soap and water again to get rid of any impurities in preparation for top coat.
8. Wiped down the end caps with denatured alcohol.
9. Sprayed 4-5 light coats in 10 minute intervals or until all areas had an even coverage over the primer. With the darker metallic colors, the recommendation is to go with light coats so that the paint does not appear too dark. The base coat will appear dull and not much metallic properties if you have that type of paint. The Gloss Clear Coat is what brings it all together.
10. I waited 30 minutes for the base coat to dry and repeated the process with the Gloss Clear Coat.
11. Sprayed 4-5 wet coats of the Gloss Clear Coat going back and forth over the top coat to give it that high gloss shine. You will notice when you spray the Gloss Clear Coat over the OEM base coat, that the immediate result will appear a bit milky. This is normal. Let that coat dry and you will see the gloss and metallic come through.

You can see from the picture the result was achieved for a couple of hours work and less than $50.

Here is my materials list:

I used automoticetouchup.com for my exact OEM color from the paint code in my glove box.

One spray can of base coat OEM paint is $19.95.
One spray can of Gloss clear coat is $7.95.
One spray can of Easy sanding automotive primer is $7.95.

I chose to buy all from them and see how it went. Very happy with the results. I ended up using almost the entire cans of the base coat, sandable primer and clear coat. I am acutally ordering more of the OEM base coat for some other color matching projects. They ship via UPS Ground from Louisiana and comes within one week.

IMO, this is a small project you can easily accomplish yourself. If you have a painter friend who can hook you up, that is an option too.

Hope that helps you out. Get em painted and let's see the results.

 

[Ben]

Hot damn good job!

 

[tojo152]

Indeed!

 

[joshcarl]

what are the P/Ns of the paints?

 

[Fosscore]

Here is a link to one of the pages that shows the aerosol cans.

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/spray_paint.asp

Your OEM paint code is located in your glove box on the lower right corner of that sticker. When you click on the topcoat spray can it will ask your make, model and year and then you enter the code.

Based on the 3 specifics given above the drop down menu will automatically know which paints were issued for that year and model. You pick which color based on your paint code and then choose what additional items you want. Their site is pretty user friendly and has plenty of additional application info as well.

Hope this helps a bit further.

My package arrived UPS ground in less than a week. You can see the final results of the end caps from the pics. The key is all in the proper prep and cleaning in between steps. Good luck.

 

[joshcarl]

awesome, thanks!

 

[Brooklyn hoe]

Yup its cheaper if you do it yourself I did mine a while back and had enough paint to do my bow tie, bought the paint from the same website. Just take your time no need to rush.

 

[Fosscore]

Nice work Brooklyn hoe.

 

[sbubbaklein]

tried to do mine summit white however too many shades all with the same code. Used spray cans and also mixed bulk and both times too yellow. Ended up having body shop paint them when they did side skirts and front bumper. They weren't too happy since they didn't know what was under everything.

I tried to use duplicolor and something else at O'Reilys. The key to this is that link to" Automotive Touch Up" for a good color match.