Painting the bottom plastic trim

I've seen it somewhere on here before but I don't know what it was called. I have seen people paint the plastic trim along the bottom of the car on the green and maroon versions of the Riviera, but has anyone done it with a pearl white Riviera? I am considering doing this but I want to see how it would look if someone else happened to have already done it (which seems likely).

In case by chance someone doesn't know what I mean, I'm talking about all this black along the bottom:


EDIT: I searched for awhile on Car domain and found one - wow it looks good:











^ This was my biggest fear of looking bad but it still looks good and I think it would look okay even without that custom Riviera script in there - although this guy's Riviera looks awesome. Why is he not a member?

A closeup:

Mr. Riviera(Matt) i think repainted his rear gray trim. but i think just the same color with a clearcoat on it.

Painting the grey plastic body color looks awesome. It should have came that way. You can leave off the port holes, extra symbols, the big Riviera script on the back . . . Sorry but throwing the JC Whitney catalog at a car is not the best way to make it look good. Tasteful restraint FTW.

Indeed, but to be honest I don't think his Riviera looks too overdone. I think portholes in general are too much but the little Rivera script on the back is kind of cool looking and it looks like it lights up with the tail lights. So to paint the trim a matching color would I just go to a body shop and ask for them to mix a can of paint to match the pearl white of my Riv, tape it off and paint it with that (no prep work like sanding or anything required?) and then spray on some clear coat gloss? The more I look at this sweet white Riv the more I want to do this to my car soon!

To properly paint the bottom trim it will consist of sanding the surface's smooth, priming and painting to color match.
Have thought about doing that, more correctly having the body shop do it or just cleaning the existing surface, repainting OEM color and clearcoating it.

that does look nice...i think that would prolly only look good on the white and maybe black. it makes the car looks fuller - more whole

I don't know i think it would look good to color match any color. I may be wrong though. It's hard to tell until you see it.
Snowdog has mentioned doing it to his car at his fathers shop this year.
If he does, then we'll get to see what it looks like with the light green color he has.
He also wants to modify the rear section a bit to provide cut outs for exhaust tips, again that will be interesting to see how that looks.

This exact pearl white riviera was on craigslist about a week ago, its in california if i remember correctly. When i saw it took me a few minutes to realize what was different about it. I have to say it looks really good. especially on the pearl.

the only thing i am interested in is how good it looks on black since i am going to have to meet a paint booth sooner or later


There are also a few other details on this car that are not factory. that look good imo. like the R logo on the c pillar. And to my knowledge the shark fin on the roof didnt ever come on our cars.

didnt even notice the roof. not sure if i like that or not lol hmmmm

If it has Onstar I can live with the shark fin, but I've never heard of aftermarket Onstar.

im pretty sure that thing is cosmetic...

but onstar i think was a Dealer installed option..some people still have the bolt holes on the passanger side of the center console. it was a huge lookin phone. lol

I went by the paint shop, thinking it'd be $30 for a can of this stuff and around $8-$10 for a can of clearcoat. Oh no, triple diamond tricoat requires a base paint of white, then a pearl luster to go ontop then clearcoat. So basically $70 to do it, not $40. It's not too much, but more than I can spend right now. I really want to do it though, it's on my to-do list for the car now. Will be a pain having to apply so many layers of paint though and god forbid if I run out before finishing it - then it could really get pricey.

What are you painting it with? Not doing any filling or sanding?

If it could be done for under $200, I'd have had it done by now. Even if I had to pull all the pieces myself and rough finish them.

it looks great. very full. makes the car look totally different. i also like the sunroof delete. if you paint the trim dont forget to use adhesion promoter. it goes on before the primer. also ,very important,add flex to the clear. so it wont spider crack. imo, its not necessary to sand smooth the trim. absolutly degrease the trim,then sand with 180 or 220 then degrease again. add adhesion promoter,prime,color, clear with flez additive. i wonder if the guy glassed in the sunroof,or had a piece welded in?

Wasn't the moon roof an option, for early years anyway?

dont know? i thought the riv only came in 2 trims. s/c and no s/c. i wonder how much a sunroof weighs with all the hardware and motor. honestly i hardly use it.

Sunroof was an option on all years. Except the 99 Silver Arrow, then it was standard equipment.

Why are the pictures squished horizontally?

Jack the R wrote:

Why are the pictures squished horizontally?

Because someone is insistent on resizing every picture posted even if it makes them look worse...

The guy's Riviera is a also a '99...

"Don't be so full of yourself, I am not grateful of anything you provide because you provide nothing by childish behavior. Hurah for AA being a child! I know 15 year olds more mature than you AA and that's sad for a 32 year old..."

It doesn't bode well for you to be posting such words. Does it?

And as such I changed it for once. But please watch as both my signature and avatar are edited with no input from me again...cute little system on the side there. Merit and integrity. Wow it means what? Nada, that's what...

I painted them same color also

Did you sand the textured finish smooth before painting?
Is that a GPS antenna on the rear roof?
I can't tell from the photo.
The more of them i see painted this way, the more i like it.
How do you like it now that it's done?

Rick i did sand it smooth antenna is xm radio

i revoke my previous comment on that it only would look good on white and black...
but will stick with the comment that it looks like a fuller more complete car when its done.