Painting Interior Pieces

[millelu]

Awhile ago I painted my valve cover red with white lettering, not realizing that it doesn't match a single thing on my car so I am going to re-paint it black with silver lettering. Since you get more paint than you need, I want to paint some things inside silver also.

The question I have is on the plastic pieces is there a way make it really look good, like as good as new paint on the outside of the car would look? I'm more of a computer geek than a car guy and I've seen where people who paint their cases paint, then wetsand, repeat however much, clearcoat and whatnot, and then buff to a beautiful shine. Is there something like that I could do? I'm assuming the sanding would just screw up the plastic, but maybe you guys know something else I could do?

Thanks.

[240silvia]

Well... take it from me. When I had my first 240.... I did the whole... painting the interior thing. And, 2 months down the road... I found my self in the shed again painting the pieces back black. Trust me... don't do it.

But... if you must do it. Just get some "plasti-kote" (sp) paint and go to town.

[millelu]

Well I was only going to do the speaker grilles and the piece around the shifter. Hmmm, you may be right though. I am at least going to do the speaker grilles, I don't know what it is, but they're covered in some type of rust-like substance. Like it looks like rust, but it's not eating away, it's like it's gunked on. Are they made of metal, maybe I'll soak 'em in Coca-Cola :p.

[MakotoS13]

nothing looks better than an all black interior. black is SEX. black with a touch of silver here and there is what i like.

[silviaz]

I have to see some pictures of a black painted interior. Because mine is brown, but I want it black ... but the problem is I got a HUD and they are damn rare in black!!!!

[MakotoS13]

http://www.makotoseven.com/240/level2/int2.jpg

http://www.makotoseven.com/240/level2/openL.jpg

[silviaz]

it looks perfect! In person, can u see the difference between a real black interior and a painted one ?
I don't know if It's a good idea...

You guys need to convince me!

-makotos13, I guess you painted every interior pieces ? (dash, door panel...)

Oh and what did you do ? Sanded + spay paint ?

[jdm538]

just leave it black, if you paint it, it will chip and you will regret it.

[infinitexsound]

yep........... and it would look gay....... leave it how it is...

[dannyboi]

They guy I bought my corolla off of painted the interior pieces red (including the glove compartment, center console, the gauge cluster, some vinyl trim all around the car doors, and just about every plastic piece you can find). Its black and red (with a red exterior), and I don't like it one bit. Some of the plastic pieces are chipping, and when you tamper with some of the dash, parts are gonna rattle (becuase you can't secure them as well as when they were untouched).

I am going to buy an interior paint kit to paint it all black. :rawk:

[SilviaDriver]

painted interior pieces? ricers still do this?

[Xracer]

i just painted my center peice flat black, it look alot better than the shiny plastic.

http://img3.picsplace.to/img3/2231/4_004.jpg

to this
http://img3.picsplace.to/img3/2231/18.jpg
it looks really good if you slap some armorall on it.

[chlatboy]

It does look clean. NOthin better than black. ANything else reminds me of THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS!!!! LETS BLOW THE WELDS OF OUR INTAKES GUYS!

[Xracer]

i was going to post up a pic of what it looks like now but sombody decided to hide the dame camera cable form me. this is the best i can do for now...

http://img1.picsplace.to/img1/2111/gf6.jpg

took that last week.

[silviaz]

yeah looks like new but... I have to paint the dash and the door panel.
It will looks gay or not ?

[24Zero]

i have a friend that painted his car sunset and did some custom work to the interior and painted it sunset as well. it atcully looks nice. i had a picture some where. if i can find it i will post it for you to see.

[Xracer]

dont even think about painting teh dash and door panals. its not hard plastic, its like a foam. any normal paint that dries hard will crack and chip if you press on it. if your interior is that bad, buy new parts. there are people parting out their car all the time.

[MakotoS13]

dont even think about painting teh dash and door panals. its not hard plastic, its like a foam. any normal paint that dries hard will crack and chip if you press on it. if your interior is that bad, buy new parts. there are people parting out their car all the time.

thats why you buy special dye paint to take care of that. its what i did. every piece in my car aside from the carpet and seats used to be blue.

my camera is a 4.0 megapixel canon so it doesn't hide much. people think its new stuff.

[TheSnail]

thats why you buy special dye paint to take care of that. its what i did. every piece in my car aside from the carpet and seats used to be blue.

my camera is a 4.0 megapixel canon so it doesn't hide much. people think its new stuff.


Damn. I never thought of that. the car I just bought is blue interior. I was going to just swap out the interior, but yours lools great. Does any of the dye come off when you wash it with something. Does it permenetly change it to black as if it was real black interior? Looks sweet

[MakotoS13]

so far its held up nice.

[reefer1114]

how long have you had that for makoto?

[MELLO*SOS]

Yeah I've painted a few interiors before. Painting plastic sucks because it will always scratch or chip in time. The vinyl dye I've used before (VHT brand iirc) worked very well though.

Here are two pics of the center console bezel that I recently painted metallic charcoal... It's just rattle can wetsand and Novus plastic polish/buffed to a glossy finish.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/mello88/dsc05649.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/mello88/dsc05666.jpg


GL with whatever you choose to do I hope it turns out how you expect!

[MakotoS13]

how long have you had that for makoto?

since last summer. the car isn't a daily driver and doesn't sit in the sun so i can't speak for how truly durable it is BUt i do clean it regularly and it doesn't come off.

[papershot]

http://img178.echo.cx/img178/9290/interior9dv.jpg

ohno theres ghosts in my picture.

painted all the plastic like a year ago with some rattle can interior trim paint I bought at autozone, still holdin up and matched the original color nicely.

[MakotoS13]

its called SPRAY PAINT FOR GOD'S SAKE! freaking spray paint. not rattle can paint. spray paint.


get it right.

[millelu]

Oooh, you guys are right, that flat black is dead sexy, I do believe that's what I'll go with.

BTW, I hope you weren't referring to me as a ricer. My plans for the car go much deeper that intake and exhaust plus giant spoiler. Perhaps this was a bit of a ricery thought though, but hey it passed once I thought it through with some sound advice. I'm all about clean, non-flashy sleepers, I don't know what I was thinking with painting the interior shiny silver. :doh:

[Gjohnson7]

I thought about painting, but it seemed like to much trouble over the brown. So, I just went to the junkyard and did some shopping.

Old

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/292000-292999/292700_95_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/292000-292999/292700_96_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/292000-292999/292700_93_full.jpg

Now
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/292000-292999/292700_125_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/292000-292999/292700_128_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/292000-292999/292700_129_full.jpg

[dannyboi]

That brown was hideous.

[millelu]

Good lord, that was the factory color :eek:? Thank goodness you found a replacement interior.

[Gjohnson7]

Man, It was horrible and it all smelled like Mildew. I wasn't too mad since the car only cost $400. But just imagine, it was even worse in person.