I don't remember,....

I don't remember if some one had previously posted this before, but I had a question about painting my side skirts myself... I read that I could spray them, but I really don't know the process.
A) should I sand them down, or leave them the stock finish, and the primer, paint, clear coat,....
What should I do,...

I'm new at this, so I was hoping someone could help,....

Brian:help:

Maybe this can help

1. tape and newspaper the side of the car.
2.was the moldings with dish soap to get rid of oils.
3. dry and wipe moldings off with alcohol
4. sand with 800 then 1200 grit sand paper.
5. wipe off and clean with more alcohol let dry.
6. srayed Bulldog adhesive promotor to make paint stick.
( you can get it at Pepboys works better then primer cause primer make paint fade.)
7. two light coats of Bulldog then let dry fo 15 min.
8. then I used Krylon high gloss Banner red(color of my car Roma Red) and spayed 5 light coats of that in about a hour time span drys in 12 minutes.
9. then spayed 3 light coats a Krylon high gloss cherry red to
have perfect match.
10. Then used Krylon high gloss clear coat and sprayed about 4 light coats


I got this how to from the old PH.com but I don't remember who posted it.

I 've done some DIY painting on my car (but I used Motip paint), and they came out good, but not 100% perfect. You'll always notice that it is painted with a spray can and not by a pro. But you'll only notice when you look at it from really close. The paint also has a different reflection then the rest of the car. You can have a look at the pics how they came out...

pic of the mirror I did myself
http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/394454mirror.jpg

and my doorhandle

http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/220147klink1.jpg

BTW: you can also remove the parts instead of taping the rest of the car with newspaper...

yeah, krylon is good ,haha, but anyways, i noticed for the average do-it-yourself'er, dupli-color makes it even simpler by creating rattle cans that are color coded to your car. and skip the masking part, if you paint anything on your car that can be removed (moldings, handles, kits, body panels), then remove them and then paint, it will save you the extra masking effort not to mention it will help out with reducing the possibility of peeling or chipping... also you can go down to your local paint shop (not home depot) and they can mix up a rattle can with your precise paint code mix...

So then lets say I want to paint my SIDE SKIRTS (stock). I would first take them off, But do I HAVE to sand them, cause the stock skirts dont seem like they want to be sanded to me.
Then I would use Bulldog, or should I just go with a primer...
(I know that my car is a Clover Green 98' civic, cause Honda changed the color for 99') I'm kinda confused because I think Goose is talking about the side MOLDINGS,....
I just want to color my skirts to match the Clover Green color of my car...

Thanks you guys for your help,
Brian

So I have recieved a few coments, but still haven't been able to paint my skirts. I am not sure, but my 98' handa is Clover Green I believe, I went to AutoZone, and the color they had was almost Identical, but not quite the same. Please help me, I don't like that all of my car is green except for the Bottom skirts, now I was told by an earlier post that I may need to sand, but I was thinking of just primerring, painting, then clearcoating,.... If ANYONE HAS DONE THIS TO THEIR 98' HONDA CIVIC, please help me out, I would greatly appreciate it if you could;
-give me a step by step guide,
-suggest the best paint to use (so it wont chip in 6 months)
-post pics of any paint jobs you have done

Thanks,
Brian