I have 2 suxuki Lt50 Quads that I am planning on stripping and rebuilding for twin daughters' 4th birthday in January, 1 wants purple and the other wants pink What is the best thing to paint plastics with? I am assuming it needs to be flexible? I do not want something that peels/flakes off!

I'm no paint man but I work with quads a fair bit but we've never had plastics painted as they're viewed as a working machine, but I've seen one or two done & the results have been "mixed" to put it politely!
In the past couple of years Polaris have been painting the higher spec ones & I've only seen 1 have a real problem with flaking off. Many do get a fair few chips & marks in but with the work they do it's to be expected.

I had the bumpers & mirror casings done on my VW van & the lad did say it's more work to prep old plastic compared to new out the packing stuff but after over 3 years there's only a couple of bits that have flaked & they may have been encouraged!

You need to use a suitable plastic primer/adhesion promoter onto the plastic before any other paint.

[Edited on 24/10/10 by MikeRJ]

I painted some Gotcha masks in Camouflage some time ago, I used a product called "Promotor de Adherencia" Adhesion Promoter (Sp?) The plastic of the masks I have looks a lot like the plastic used on Quad fenders.
I painted my mask about 5 years ago and though it has some scratches, the paint is still very well attached and doesn´t peel.
HTH

Polycarbonate paint as used on clear model car shells wouldn't peel or flake as it's got acid etch in it.

You can literally screw a shell into a little ball and the paint won't come off, only problem is it will be matt finish as it's meant to go inside clear shells, then the clear plastic gives it its gloss.

I've used plastic etch primer before, you are meant to spray wet on wet so prime, then immediately paint, so the paint mixes with it and etches in. If you leave the primer dry, then the paint will stick to it mechanically but not so good chemically so may flake in the end.

The only problem is a lot of celly aerosols react with the plastic etch or so I've found. I'd be inclined to do a test piece now before spraying the actual bikes.

hth
Stott

What about sticking some vinyl to it? You won't get full coverage, but you'll be able to cover large sections, giving them the individual colours you're after. Plus, when the girls get bored of them, you can peel it all off and sell the quads as they were originally.

Didn't even occur to me ^^^

Good idea though and it's easy enough, here's a tank I wrapped in white for my mates missus. It was my first try at a vinyl wrap too, a bit of patience and a hot air gun are all that's needed.

You'll easily wrap all the arches with superb coverage, just don't do the tank as it will bubble due to the fuel vapour leaking through the plastic.

If they are all scratched up then sand em down and smooth with 400/600 wet before you put it on. It's cheap too.