I'm seriously thinking about painting my stock gray interior black. This is the first time I'll be doing something like this, and so I was wondering if anyone knows of a how-to or wants to write one or just post some tips :)
A few questions I have are:
1) What kind of paint to use? Vinyl? Spray? (and what's the best paint) I read in a previous post that http://vinylpro.safeshopper.com/29/cat29.htm?275 is good.
2) How do I prep the pieces? Do I sand the vinyl and add primer? How many layers? and what grit? I'm assuming I'll have to take the pieces out.. which leads to my next question
3) How do you take out the center console piece/the dash/etc
4) Do you guys recommend painting the carpeting or just getting new carpeting? I want the carpeting black as well :)
5) What's the painting process? x layers of primer, y layers of paint, and let it dry?

Thx for the help

I'm ready to do the same thing but have it professionally done. He explained the process to me but wasn't specific about the TYPE of paint, just it's quality. I'm actually gonna help him out. He's gonna do EVERYTHING black matte. All I need now is some black rear seats and torinos man. He actually works with a guy that works for lowrider mag. His shit is so PRO man and he's hookin me up for $400. Ive seen his work. Beautiful, no cracks or anything, not sure what he uses but it bends in soft places like the dash and looks stock.
Stock Shifter Welded Short

that's a sweet deal. what color is your interior right now?

I have accent pieces painted, but not the whole thing. I did the bezel around my gauges, vent plastic (not the vents, what they go in) in the dash, radio/HVAC bezel, all the switch bezels on the dash, and the door handle bezels.

I used the color match paint at Autozone. 3 coats of plastic primer, 5 coats of paint, and 5 coats of clear (with about 45 minutes of drying time between, and 1 day between steps).

Unfortunately I didn't sand anything, and a couple of pieces flaked. So I'm gonna strip it all and sand first next time :thumbsup

Hmm I've heard that if I paint vinyl pieces like my dash the paint will crack after a year or so. It might be because it expands and contracts due to stuff like heat? Is this true? For anyone who'se had their stuff painted for over a year, how's the paint quality now?

I've had almost everything in my car painted for over a year now. All the paint is holding up fine, no chipping or cracking. I used regular spray paint and clear coat on all of it. The carpet is still fade free after 3 months. The only thing not painted are my door panels, and I'm doing those this weekend, but I'm using the vinyl spray paint. I know there are a bunch of people on here that have painted their whole interior.

i painted everything in my interior with SEM vinyl paint. its been almost a year now and everything looks the same as the day i sprayed it. i used about 5 coats of clear on all the plastic pieces, no clear on the dash and it hasnt cracked one bit. i recommend using that website to get your paint. get the aerosol plastic prep and use that as a primer for the plastic pieces. get "sand free" and use that before painting the vinyl pieces. they might now have it on the website, but call and ask them for it. its a bonding agent that helps the paint bond so it can flex with the vinyl. just make sure you clean everything really well and spray in light coats. you dont have to sand unless you want to get rid of the stock texture look. just scrub everything with a scotchbrite pad and some soapy water. hope this helped.

ok, it's realy not too hard to do all of this stuff...

first off i wouldn't buy any kind of expensive piant for it, i used gloss black krylon from wal-mart for the door pannels and dash. it's allot of money and regular paint worked fine for me... but if ya got the money to burn then go for it...

as for the trim pieces i went to an auto store and bought some chrome spray paint and used it on the trim.

the combonation looks real nice and clean.

as for the carpet there have been a few of us here to be brave enough to paint the carpet, but it's not too big of a deal.

i painted my carpet a year and a half ago and it's still holding up good. don't buy the fabric paint or any kinda special crap that don't work TRUST ME!

i used the dollar cans of flat black spray paint from wal-mart and it works great. i do touch ups when it needs it, mainly where people put the feet allot. not a big deal just spray it and it looks like new.

prepping the parts to paint is simple. for the dash i let the sun dry it out for a while, then used alchahol to clean the dust and grease off of it. then i primered it with with 2 cans of primer. then paint it. i used allot of paint on it cause i live in florida and the sun is a killer.

the pannels and anything that can be easly taken out of the car was taken out. i drove a stipped down car for about a month...

it's easy to take apart, it's just screws.

once i got it all out i washed the pieces let them dry and then cleaned them with alchahol. then put 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint.

the carpet was tricky... you have to take out the console seats seat belts and a few other parts(pretty much what ever is holding the carpet down. since my car is a 95 the carpet was dirty as hell!! so i used lots of cans of carpet cleaner and oxyclean and my hose... i ended up using a bleach/oxyclean mixture and a scrub bush to get all of the dirt out (soda, coffee, tea, all kinds of crap came out!!) but if it's not too dirty you could probably just use carpet cleaner and one of those preasure washers from the self serve car washes...

once i had it clean i let it dry then sprayed it and sprayed it and sprayed it some more... i'm not sure how much paint i used... i just made sure it was nice and black

... i'm not sure if there's anything else, but i hope this helped you

if you've got any questions hit me up on aim eclipticriderFL

peace



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How hard is it to take the dash out?


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