Dash Painting

[zblackbeast]

Well, the time has come for me to do my black interior swap on the 94. I have done my HW so don't flame me.. Ive read about this SEM prep stuff.. I went to their website but cant find anything near me here as far a retail outlets.. SO, i need to go another direction as far as a good solvent for cleaning my dash and center console before painting/dying it. Now, i have painted A LOT of things in the past. Mainly metal and my prep consists of a good power washing with a good soap.. THEN i go over it by hand with soapy water (i use dawn dish soap) then just water. THEN i do a lot of sanding and repeat the cleaning before i actually apply any paint.. It works out very well, and the paint holds amazingly.. BUT i have never painted plastic or whatever material the dash is made out of.. So, i guess my question to you is, what steps should i take to prep my 2 pieces for a good solid, long lasting paint job? Thank you..

Yes, i would like to just swap the dashes out, but the 92 parts car has a beat to **** dash.. Soo thats out and i need to paint!

:thankyou::thankyou:

 

[firebat45]

I would not sand at all - both the console and the dash are textured and sanding will ruin that. I have used Duplicolor Vinyl+Leather Dye on a console, it worked fairly well but not perfectly. SEM Vinyl Dye is supposed to be better, and I know firstgen89sho just used it to paint his dash, with good results. He'll probably chime in here soon enough.

As for cleaning, I'd use Simple Green or some other plastic friendly cleaner/degreaser.

I'll be painting my dash soon, so I'll post with results when I get to it as well.

 

[95GOOSE]

Hey Clay -
I missed a great opportunity to paint my dash last year. I had my windshield replaced, and when the glass guy had taken out the old I realized that was the time to do it. Would have been much easier to mask-off and spray from the outside. Oh well.:nut
If you're planning on a windshield replacement in the future, you might wanna think about it.
As for sanding the dash and console - I would. A light sand is okay. You want to remove whatever gloss effect is on there. Your paint/dye will adhere MUCH better.
Funny story - I was selling my 68 Roadrunner. The interior needed some TLC, so I decided to spray it. Came out pretty good. When 3 guys came over to look at/test drive, I realized I hadn't removed all of the masking tape!! They never noticed. Never noticed the fresh paint smell either!!
Take care,
Bill

 

[SuperHO]

you could scuff it up with a green scrubby pad lightly. i've found some leather/vinyl dye at walmart and other parts places that did a wonderful job on the seats in my 92, but i can't remember what it was called...

 

[SHObill]

First a good wash with Simple Green & rinse with water/sponge. Then use lacquer thinner to remove any gloss/silicone=armor all! Then paint. Very light coats at first that barely cover anything. Build up from there, with a final coat as even and as wet as possible without a run.

 

[hawkeye18]

I used an ass-ton of isopropyl alcohol to clean the dash and all the other interior pieces from Michelle's 95. It worked well.

 

[zblackbeast]

thanks!! You guys rock! Ill probably attempt this early next week.. ill make a "how to" thread considering there is none and this question type is asked a lot!

 

[yamahaSHO]

I've done this before Clay. I can send you pics if you'd like.

 

[zblackbeast]

Jason, that would be awesome.. Im pretty confident in my painting skills. I have painted a lot of things in the past and all have held up well to the weather. But my dash is something i wanna get right.. The prep work for this material seemed different in my head for some reason. Thank you again for all you help..

For paint i found some vynal paint stuff!!

 

[Phoenix]

I cleaned mine then I used VHT paint (its a plastic dye)

It gave an excellant result.

Picture is ****** though.

 

[firstgen89sho]

I just did the dash and center console in my new 95, it was grey and painted it black, used the SEM paint, I installed OEM black pieces in the dash, and you would be hard pressed to tell that the dash was painted.

 

[SHORANGERBIRD]

- I cleaned mine good, used Ford interior primer, and sprayed it with Ford interiror black...after 11 years, has two spots that has flaked off in the lines on the passenger side, but still looks good.