Painting roof rails

[helston90]

Having just bought a 406 estate off someone using it as a painter decorator I've begin to notice how scratched up the roof rails are now that the rest of it's looking good, looks like he took the bars on and off a lot- has anyone ever painted them? Is it worth removing them to do the job or just masking the car with layers of cardboard in case of drips?

I plan to be surfing with it a hard wearing paint that anyone's used that'd be useful!?

Cheers,

[FarmerPug]

If i ever go to paint parts of the car and they are easily taken off i take them off because with them aerosols the spray can go anywhere else you don't want it to, i did the rear door window bar with black paint when i got the car, masked off the area around it but still overspray happened and i spent the rest of the day t cutting like mad to get rid of it, so on the other side i took it off and sprayed it away from the car.

As for what type of paint to use, don't use back to black it just flakes off, hammerite high temperature paint might be good but then its glossy.

[DaiRees]

I think we looked at this years ago when someone sparked up the idea of painting the rails silver (I still like the sound of that.... ). IIRC we decided that you can't get the rails off without dropping the headlining, and the first step in dropping the headlining is to remove the rear side windows... and that's as far as that idea went...

[waue1978]

I've got a set in the shed from Omega's broken Rapier & he said they weren't too bad to take off. When weather (& time) permits, they'll be getting the silver paint treatment. Reckon I'll probably want a few coats of lacquer on top to protect the finish.