Painting parking sensors?

[Dani_B19]

So I have 3 parking sensors in the rear bumper that need painting.

Has anyone ever painted parking sensors them selfs? If so how easy is it? How many lays of primer, paint and lacquer did you use? Anything to watch out for?

Thanks.

 

[Dani_B19]

No one?

 

[TOM.S]

not a common thing to do, hence the lack of answers mate.
I think would be a wise thing to go thin with the layers, as we don't know sensitive them sensors are.

 

[Dani_B19]

Yeah u know mate, strange really, Google didn't chuck much up either. Thanks for the input though.

 

[Charlie Farley]

what colour are you new ones dani, two thoughts come to mind here, one is that if they are all the same base color then they must get sprayed to be able to match different color bumpers, or, they are color specific to start with, I tried to look on the parts database to see if it listed specific sensors in other colors , database wanst available so was not able to confirm that .
sorry cant be much more help i'm afraid .

 

[Dani_B19]

Black mate, from what I understand all sensors come unpainted then it's down to you to have them painted. To add though they arnt genuine sensors, well 2 arnt, 2 is but all 3 are identical in the colour etc.

 

[Charlie Farley]

why not try sticking a single layer of brown parcel tape of each one of the rears and then reverse, see what happens.
PDC or parking distance control sensors feature ultrasonic proximity detectors to measure the distances to nearby objects via sensors located in the front and/or rear bumper fascias or visually minimized within adjacent grills or recesses, so a thin layer of paint or tape for this test shouldn't have any effect on them , so no reason why they wont work as normal.

 

[RAF_S7]

Regular spray paint works just fine.

I did two coats and a clear top coat when I changed mine from grey to black (when I changed the grill)

If yours are new, a light primer coat is probably advisable.

There is a rubber ring around the Audi OEM ones, I removed that when painting, and replaced when dry.

 

[Dani_B19]

Regular spray paint works just fine.

I did two coats and a clear top coat when I changed mine from grey to black (when I changed the grill)

If yours are new, a light primer coat is probably advisable.

There is a rubber ring around the Audi OEM ones, I removed that when painting, and replaced when dry.

View attachment 90538

Sis you not use a primer before the top coats?

 

[carlcall]

I would give it a coat of primer Dani

 

[Dani_B19]

That's what I'm thinking Carl. Have some normal primer here so don't want to have to buy some plastic primer though.

 

[carlcall]

TBH Dani I think you'll get away with normal primer as they are only small pal!

 

[RAF_S7]

Sis you not use a primer before the top coats?

Mine were already primed and painted (grey) so l just cleaned them and painted black and put a clear topcoat on.

If new and unpainted, then yes l would prime first.

 

[A3-Lee]

Yes primer paint and lacquer is fine on these mate they are painted from factory

 

[Dani_B19]

Well I took one apart today, I really don't think a few layers of primer and paint will affect their working Haha.

 

[Dani_B19]

How

Yes primer paint and lacquer is fine on these mate they are painted from factory

How many layers would you do of each lee?

 

[A3-Lee]

As a rule one coat of primer 2 paint and 2 laquer I've painted a few at work and my own one on the a4 mate

 

[flat4matt]

I'll be doing the following on the cab as one of them has dropped out causing them all to fail...

Basically the same as painting any small part:

• Slight key with very fine wet and dry (I have some 2000 grit for paint correction)
• 2 light coats of primer, no need for plastic primer IMO as they're tiny, don't flex and you'll have enough of a key if you do the first step.
• 1 light dusting then one heavy coat of colour
• 1 light dusting then one heavy coat of clear

You don't want to end up with an inch of paint on them but at the same time you don't have to be THAT careful with how much you put on there as they're basically just ultrasonic transmitters with a plastic face

The lazy way it to whack some primer on, then a quick colour... That appears to be what Audi did to mine as they don't seem to be lacquered and therefore aren't a great match to the bumper! They're only small so you can go quick and dirty, it'll look ok too. For me though if you've gone to the trouble you may as well do it right!

 

[Dani_B19]

Well I took one apart Matt, there's over 1inch of solid foam inside the sensor and around 5mm or resisn so a few layers of paint in my eyes now that is isn't going to harm anything.

Snap on the lack of lacquer as well, I inspected my old ones at the same time as taking one of them apart and it looks like they have only painted them, no sign of lacquer, the paint wasn't the neatest either may I add.

 

[flat4matt]

They should look spot on (better than new) if done properly, like you say they ain't the best from the factory and you'll get them looking better than that easily

 

[Dani_B19]

Fingers crossed Matt, thanks for the input, appreciate it

 

[Dani_B19]

Guys what's the best way to prep the sensors before painting? I'd it ok to wipe them down with white spirits or do I need some thing else?

 

[dk1234]

So painting them don't cause any problems with the sensors readings I take it.