painting chequer plate

decided that shiny chequer plate looks lame and tacky on my metallic red 90, so ive decided to spray paint it black, the only problem is its riveted on.
would just masking off the surounding area with tape and newspaper work well, or will the paint go through onto the bodywork?
also whats the best chip resistant paint for the job?

cheers

flash

take it off, spray it with some wilkos enamel then rivet it back on

ok then, whats the best way of removing the rivets.
also my mate reckons the body panels underneath the plate will rot like a sod. is this true?

Drill em out

dont like the sound of that

If you dont fancy drilling them out just mask them up , take your time and it should be ok,any overspray should come off with a bit of t-cut

how difficult is it to drill the rivots out? would be a safer job then masking the panels, also a better job i reckon.

Not unless yer utterly **** wiv a drill!

well............ do i just drill down the center and it will fall out?

By drilling out they dont mean drill all the way through...just drill off the head of the rivet and the rivet will fall out (or with a bit of a tap it will). Downside is that you will need a rivet gun and rivets to replace them with....and the rivets will of course be silver on your nice painted black panels.

If you are using spray whilst on the vehicle then I would suggest you mask off a much bigger area than just around the panels - esp if it is a bit if a breezy day (wouldnt want your shiney 90 having little spots of black everywhere!)

the shiny rivots i can sort out with some of the paint dabbed on with a brush.
think it would look alot smarter with black on red, rather then silver on red.

flash42 said:

well............ do i just drill down the center and it will fall out?

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Do a couple, you'll soon find the best depth to drill for the top to drop orf! I use a slightly larger bit than it would appear to need. Then the shoulders of the bit do the work & the worst damage you're goin g to do is coutersink the 'ole a bit.

You soon get the hang of it.........have you a variable speed or at least soft start drill?

have you recently put the plate on yourself, if not it is possible that the panels may have already started to rot.

they were already on it when i bought it, i dont think i would have put them on it if they werent already on it.

we use an air drill for ours at college lol. they soon come out one speed only

Taking them off may reveal more problems than you might want to tackle all at once .
In my experience you start one job and it often escalates into two or three more that need sorting before you can complete the first job.

depends on how bothered about appearances you are and wether or not the bottoms of your panels are rotting or not

is there anyway of checking the panels from inside the engine bay?
im guess i could just have a butchers under the wings.

flash42 said:

is there anyway of checking the panels from inside the engine bay?
im guess i could just have a butchers under the wings.

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Depends how old the car is and how bad the rot is ( if there is any )
Chances are the panels are fine on your wings, its the ones at the bottom of your doors to worry about. Most doors rot at the bottom and that's normally why some people put plate on , to hide it.

the only chequer plate is on the wings, the sills under the doors, and on the back of the chassis, dont need to worry about the chassis as its galvanised.

Think I'd probably start drilling out the ones on yer sills first, any rot could be sorted or just replace yer sills.
do you still want the plate on yer landy, nice set of jackable sills would go down well.