I'm in the process of a full body restoration of my '76 El Camino. I'm changing the color of the car from tan to red. My question at the moment is this: how do I paint the plastic pieces?

For example, there are plastic covers on the hinges to the tailgate, and rubberish-plastic pieces that go between the bumper and the pot metal light assemblies. Does anyone have a detailed process for painting these two types of plastic, or other similar types?

I think I can handle this one for you(my father has owned and operated an upholstery shop here for the last 29 years) buy new ones. Since that most likely wouldn't happen spend your time in the prep area. lighly sand with a fine sand paper where you can(if area is textured ?) Buy a good quality plastic paint. Try to stay away from auto parts store interior paint. If your city has some upholstery shops find one of their supliers if possible. They will have the best plastic paint that will match any factory colors. If you you want something bright krylon has some new plastic only paints out but I have never used it. before you start spraying paint clean the surface with alchol or something like that(as long as it dosen't damage the plastic). I almost forgot if your plastic is aged badly(falls apart) try to sand some of it some times it will come out alright sometimes you keep sanding until nothing is left. Let me know how it turns out. I am about to start on mine in a few more weeks.

I have used a spray called "plastic prep" with good results. Clean, clean, clean & lighty sand first.

I have done a number of repaints on plastic parts and as indicated above the use of quality material is critical. If you go to an automotive paint supply store they can mix up what ever color you need. What they have is a vinyl resin paint designed for plastic and vinyl surfaces. It comes premixed and is not reduced for spraying. The secret is that the part needs to be very clean I don't even touch the part with my bare hands after final wipe, down use latex gloves. spray at low pressure and very light coats. The ones I have used are by Dupont. This is the same way body shops do it since most replacement parts dash door panels only come in one color usually gray. I painted my dash four years ago and it still looks like the day I did it. Good luck
Harald K

Exterior "plastic" parts are not the same as interior plastic parts. The bumper inserts and hinge covers are urethane plastic. Go to the auto body paint and supply store and talk to them. There are some strippers available for urethane and there are flex agents that you can add to your body paint so that you can use it on these parts and get a perfect match. You may be able to get away with simply sanding, but be careful at all stages because the old urethane parts like those on 4th gens get brittle as they age, particularly if the truck spent any time in the South.

Thanks, everyone. I've begun sanding on the urethane pieces. There's no brittleness, but thanks for the heads up. I used 220 grit sand paper, which - with a little elbow grease - managed to clean them up pretty well. Thanks, again, and good luck to anyone else in need of similar work.

The Eastwood Company (http://eastwoodco.com) has a kit that includes a cleaner, softner and dye that works very well. I even used the product to change the color of a steering wheel rim from black to white and it worked out well.

krylon has a new paint out called fusion that adhears to plastic very good
i have used it with good results