Changing Dash Colour anyone done it?

[Adrogen]

I have a very ugly dark brown dash in my corolla and wish to change it to black.

has anyone done this before?, what did you use and what sort of results did you get?

also any step by step guides of winning idea's would be cool.

P.S. I wish to change the colour of the rest of the interior aswell ie. all the plastic around the doors and rear hatch area and kick panels... and glove box.

Cheers

[whyte]

the plastics can be painted, but the dash etc i would recommend getting it retrimmed. there are people who try and paint it and it is a cheaper way but after awhile it starts to peel off and look ugly.

[Lambolica]

I've painted the interiors of a few cars as I just can't stand the mid 80's blue that toyota had.

You can get a vinyl dye type paint that works well for dashes etc. you just have to make sure that the dash is VERY clean before you paint and any grease or finger print marks mean that the paint will flake on the first steamy day that comes along.

The vinyl dyes work well on dashed but not as well on heavly used parts like door handles and releases, but they are easy to touch up every 12 months or so when they start to flake.

Much better than Blue......

[BLUEWIRE]

Thats the only way that i had to make the Colour match in my RA40.
The hole dash and console was pained about 3 years ago and still looks like new.
When you paint your trim start with a light dry spray the leave it for about 20mins then do a thick coat spray to finish the job then let it dry for 24hrs...PS only paint on a warm day

[Stefan]

I'm still waiitng for a warm, non-humid day to spray my dash...

To add to the advise on making sure the parts to be painted are very clean - don't use detergent to do so. It's silicon based and paint doesn't like it. Any solvent suggestions from anyone? My idea is soapy water.

I've heard VHT vinyl dye recommended for car interiors before. I bought some satin black, did a very quick 1 coat on a test piece and am very pleased with the results. A high wear area, it has rubbed off some as expected, but the finish is very nice.A lot of people seem to use gloss; I much preffer the finish of satin.

[The Witzl]

here's the tricks....

• clean the plastic with THINNERS, and then again with prepsol. This removes all grease/oils so that the paint can stick
• If you want to use a paint normally for metals (ie, anything fancy coloured) then you will have to use a plastic primer. Bumper primer is good and readily available
• your other option is "Vinyl Paint". VHT vinyl colour dye is good, but can peel/flake with a few accidental scratches.
• Another option to protect your paint is to use a polyurethane clear coating paint (as used for the 2nd coat with fleckstone paints)

I used VHT vinyl colour dye and some of the clear coating stuff with my fleckstone paint in my RA28....

That's how i turned this:



Into THIS:

[peedman]

Fark mate that looks awesome. I wanna do the same with my door trims too but do you reckon they'll rub off? And where did u get stuff from too?

[Draven]

repco/autobarn etc.
some parts of the interior of my ma61 were also done with this, and it came up beautifully. the only part that wears slightly is the driver's door handle. As mentioned, this just needs a quick touch up once or twice a year

[18rc turbo]

as far as my experience goes viny spray is awesome value for money if you've got a little patience. I sprayed almost my whole interior over a year ago and have had bugger all problems with it. Its very easy to touch up if something happens. The most important thing is to start with very clean parts.


]

[mrshin]

I vote Witzl receives a public flogging for removing the spider gearknob and replacing it with something else!

[DQIKST]

hey karl,

noticed you had a black leather gearboot,

do you still have it i need one

also need the rubber one that sits below it

[barned01]

hey witz, it looks like the dash is cracked (above the charge/oil indicator light) in the first picture but not in the second.
Did you get that fixed up or is it a trick of light thing. if you did get it fixed, what was your process for it (i assume it was done before you painted it).

as for the leather boot, thing dqikst, have you thought of just grabbing some leather and making your own? they aren't be too hard, i made one out of fabric a while ago and it came out really good (don't have the car anymore so i can't get a picture ) but it wasn't hard

[river]

Hi,

hey karl,

noticed you had a black leather gearboot,

do you still have it i need one

also need the rubber one that sits below it

You can buy the leather TRD knobs which have the same shape/style as the TA22-RA28 Celica gear knob. However the thread is different. I have a helocoil set and bits that puts in the proper thread so it can screw onto your gear stick.

In regards to the rubber boot thing around the gear stick, I got a new leather one made by an upholsterer.

seeyuzz
river

[DQIKST]

river can you PM me his number because i asked several trimmers that i know and they are all too busy to make something like that.

also river do you know where i can get the rubber bit that sits under the leather to stop water and sh!t from coming up.

[Youngy]

One thing to look out for is that most interiors are made up of two types of plastic. ABS and PP (polyprop...) and I can't remember what ABS stands for, but you can google that.

ABS plastic can be sprayed with 'vinyl dye' where as PP does not really allow the vinyl dye types of paint to bite into them. Thus when you spray PP with a vinyl dye the paint will dry and then just peel off almost like ash!

You can paint PP types of plastic with a good flexi prime and then an enamel or acrylic paint. If prepared right the flexi prime will allow the final paint to flex and also it acts as a medium for the paint to stick to the plastic.

All the parts in a car will have a marking somewhere in the casting\molding that will allow you to know if it is PP or ABS plastic.