Reclaim: Paint and Repair Yakima Car Top Box

A little Paint goes a long ways!

After!

We had been "going to" put struts in our Yakima box for about 5 years to hold it open.  Well it was windy at the mountain last week and its difficult to hold yourself up there whole holding box top up and putting skis in....the wind grabbed the lid and a hinge broke :(

Before: tried everything to remove paint

We have another, larger box that had a crack in the back and Loads of paint all over it.  But it has hinges! So here is the repair tutorial! We started by trying everything to remove the paint.  The magic sponges helped, but could not get into the depths of the textured surface and left a smooth haziness anyways.  Also tried citrus based paint remover, that was not happening either, and the chemical based were not so nice to plastic.

1. Fix crack
2. Make it appear passable
Warning: you need a lot of space and ventilation to use spray paint inside.

Crack: epoxy has been applied and sanded ready for paint

To fix the crack  I am going to use loctite epoxy.  This is a 2 part epoxy for use on plastic, a lot of epoxy doesn't work, even when it says that it will.

Before using the epoxy sand the area and use a degreaser to clean it. I sanded and cleans the whole exterior of the box because it needs to be done for the painting part.

With this epoxy I only waited about two hours to paint.  Now you can see the crack will still be visible if you're looking for it. If I cared, I would wait until tomorrow for the first epoxy to fully cure and then use a 2 part epoxy putty.  I would put this putty over the edges of the crack, wait ANOTHER day, and then I could sand it smooth so the crack would not show.  But as this will be high up on my van, and I want this huge box out of my house, and I want to be skiing, I am just going for decent and water tight.

If you want to keep your Logos you will need to tape over them.  we chose to keep them, they were in good shape, and did not want to have to worry about covering them.  Cutting nice scquare edges on the masking tape made it appear that we had applied Logo stickers!  I suggest using blue painting masking tape and remove as soon as you have finished painting!!  This will give crisp edges.  I was too lazy to go to my sewing room for the blue painters tape and used regular masking tape.  You cannot really notice in the pictures, but a few flecks of the Logo paint were removed with the tape, so just grab a roll at the dollar store.

So now on to painting. I hate VOCs but love spray. The family is freezing right now, as we have all the Windows open.

I used the paint shown below, and it has a primer in it.  I prefer it separate, but I just want this done. Time will tell how it holds up. On the whole I have been very happy with Rustoleum's claims, so charged ahead.

I did a couple thin coats with the first can all the way around twice. Then waited 15 minutes, and put on a few more coats.  One can would have done it off it weren't for that bright paint, so I did about 6 light coats with 2 cans of paint.

I really enjoyed using this paint.  I had one complaint, one out of the two cans and an issue with having a dribble build up as I was spraying.  When it first happened i was above the box and it dripped onto the box, 3  spray layers later I could still see the drip marks.  In this case I am fine with it, I am not looking for perfection, but there are times that would have really irked me.  And i really didn't need to sport black paint on my fingers.

                         

I will let it cure for another day and  then it goes on the van!!!!

After!!!