Here you go... one day I will write a how too
Originally Posted by FIGAK
I was wondering if you could answer a few questions about SEM dye. What exactly do I need to buy to paint my dash, door panels and all the plastic peaces in my car? Which product do I use on which part and how do I prep it? How much of each product do I need to get, and where can i get it? I read about scuffing the plastic peaces and washing them with SEM soap. What do I do to prep the vinyl? What about the clear coat? I am pretty confused so if you could clear things up for me that would be great.
Thanks, Stan
Originally Posted by excidere
First off, what are you trying to accomplish? If you are restoring, like what I did then SEM is what you need. If you are doing a color change, then I would find an interior repair guy, who can mix up some one off dye. The reason is that sem is not really a dye per-say, so much as it is a flexible coating. It works GREAT on the restoration of plastics and vinyls. However if you do a color change, it can in-fact scratch/wear off so you will be redying every now and then depending on how rough you are with it.
Now on to your questions:
http://www.yourautotrim.com/semdye.html
Has the products that I used, I did not order from them, since my shop has a wholesale supplier, but you can see what products you need.
The 'nosand' is for hard plastics/dash etc, and the vinyl prep is for well vinyl prep. My process for prep work is: Scuff (usually with scotchbrite until the plastic looses its sheen), Clean with denatured alcohol, spray and wipe down with either no sand or prep spray, then shoot with adhesion promoter, then shoot with color, then clear. I use the low luster clear since I am a fan of the OE look, but you can use which ever clear you want. Clear is not actually needed, but it does help ALOT with sun fading and scratch resistance. And like I said the clear does not actually make the color super shiny, unless you get the high gloss.
Now as far as how much is needed. I used approx. 1 can of nosand, 1 can of adhesion promoter, 2 cans of color, and one and a half cans of clear. That is not doing the dash (I am rewrapping the dash in vinyl). I did do every other piece of plastic in the car, including seat shrouds.
I hope that answers your questions! One of these days I am going to write an article on this crap lol...
Originally Posted by FIGAK
Thanks for the info. I am doing pretty much what you are doing. I have black interior and want to make it look new again. I want to pain/dye all the interior plastic peaces, dash and door panels. So for the dash and other plastics I need to do the following: schotchbrite, alcohol then sandfree, then adhesion promoter then color then clear. Is that right? What do I use on the door panels? Are the door panels in our cars leather or vinyl? Do I just use the same process but substitute vinyl prep for sandfree? Also how many coats of sandfree, vinyl prep, color and clear should I spray?
Thanks for all the help,
Stan
Originally Posted by excidere
Yes that is the order I went in. You can use the same stuff on the door panels, they are vinyl. (I actually recovered mine) Yes use the vinyl spray on the vinyl portion of the doors, the rest use the no sand etc.
I did one coat of each... but one coat to me is
a light mist coat, wait till it flashes (5-10mins) then another... wait till it flashes, and another... till I got a good coverage. If you use a heat gun you can re mist coat in about a min, instead of waiting 5 or so... Once It was covered I stopped. Mainly because I did not want a thick build up that might not adhere well.
Lol I need to make this a sticky somewhere you are like the 4th person to ask me Hope that helps and good luck!
Paul
