i wanna redo my interior, right now its the ugly grey and i want it to be black, i wanna paint the door panels and the dash and the trim peices above the door, the carpet and all that good stuff, ive tried reading as much as i can from searching but what would you recomend for paint on vinyl, and then pain on the plastic stuff, and finally how to die the carpet and roof carpet, any response is appreiciated, thanks a lot

-MaG

I just finished, for the most part, doing this to my interior only my headliner is white and so are the door inserts but everything else is black. It was a major pain, took about 2 months to do. Heres what I did:
Pulled the dash and painted it with vinyl paint from pep boys, had to do twice because the first time it didn't stick
For all the plastic pieces I use Krylon Fusion form advanced auto, worked great for me doesnt scratch off even when I try to.
For the carpet I bought it molded off of JC Whitney, its not cut or anything though so be ready for fun if you go this route.
The headliner I bought off of a company that sells the headliner material and adhesive spray in a kit, search for headliner kit on google that's where I found mine.
For the most part it went pretty well the only thing that you MUST remember is prep. work, if you don't do it then it's going to scratch off. I went over the pieces, just before painting with plastic cleaner like you use for outdoor lawn chairs, then I wiped that off; Once that was dry I used alcohol and let that air dry, once it dried I painted it.
When painting also remember LIGHT coats that way it doesn't run and you dont get fish eyes. I did it in three light coats.
Hope this helps, if you need anymore info on what I did just pm me

madatgravity said:

i wanna redo my interior, right now its the ugly grey and i want it to be black, i wanna paint the door panels and the dash and the trim peices above the door, the carpet and all that good stuff, ive tried reading as much as i can from searching but what would you recomend for paint on vinyl, and then pain on the plastic stuff, and finally how to die the carpet and roof carpet, any response is appreiciated, thanks a lot

-MaG

Click to expand...

I have/ had the same dilema. My 96 gs was all grey and is now 97% done in black...i just gotta figure out what to do with the dash and seats. I had the panels painted back. for the carpet and the headliner, i took them to a local apolstry place and had them done. I wouldnt die them, it would be a lot easier to buy carpet for your car and have it installed, its a lot easier

As stated above, PREP IS KEY!!! If you don't clean all your shit good enough you're going to have major probs. Be patient, too. Don't expect it to be done in a week. (Unless you have nothing else at all to do)

I'm in the process of painting my interior right now, house of kolor kandy coat cobalt blue (bought from wall mart) The base coat is such a nice color I use it as an accent paint for such. I'll take pics and show ya in a day or so when I get further along. But anyway, this is how I'm preping/painting.


Step 1. Wash what you're going to paint with soap and water.
Step 2. Let it dry, then sand off the clear coat that's on it. Yes, there's a small layer on alot of the plastic in the car. Sand it off, wash it again.
Step 3. Apply 2 *mist* coats of base. Allow about 5 minutes between each coat. Then apply heavier coats allowing 5-10 minutes between each coat.
Step 4. Let dry for 30min-hour depending upon temperature and heaviness of paint.
Step 5. Apply 2 *mist* coats of color. etc. etc. etc...
Step 6. Same as Step 4.
Step 7. 2 mist coats of clear coat. 5 minutes between coats. I usually apply 3-4 full coats of clear.
Step 8. When you're finished let it dry for a good 24 hours. Can never been to safe.


The most important thing to remember when painting is prep. Prepare the surface you're painting and don't rush it. It'll turn out pretty nice.

I know all about prepping and not doing it and the problems that are associated with it. When I had my old eclipse I was painting some of the interior pieaces, they came out ok, but some of the others in my new eclipse came out bad after not prepping. The car looks like it has fish eyes in them or little holes showing a differnt color.

Always wash the pieaces with some kind of cleaner that wont destroy it of course then apply your paint. Never can stress that enough, dont screw up like I did on accident.

Oh yeah, speaking of fish eyes. If you happen to spray too much to fast fish eyes will appear. Easiest way to get rid of them is to let the paint dry 30min-hour and sand it done and start over. If you're doing a 3 step paint then if you're careful you won't have to start from the beginning. Sand lightly and get the fish eyes out without removing the bottom coat and it'll come out fine.

hmm ok I will take that into consideration, I was thinking of sanding but taken off to much paint and screwing the whole thing up.

could i use the armoral wipes as a cleaner or should i go a different route? thanks again

-MaG

I wouldn't use armorall wipes as a cleaner because it is a protectant and will make it harder to paint, I would recommend alcohol cleaner, the dealership I work at has a lady that comes around and fixes our interiors and she uses alcohol wipes to clean.

Off topic but she also said never to use anything with silicone on the interior as it makes the plastics brittle over time.

Plastics over time become brittle simply because it's plastic. Sili whatever it's spelled..... does speed up the process a bit.

No, don't use any kind of car product for cleaning. When it comes to painting Soap and Water or Alcohol (I don't mean some JD or SoCo.... Rubbing Alcohol )

alright thanks for the info, today when i get home from work ima start on some trunk peice just to start out, you know, get the hang of it , what would be a good recomondation for painting hte vinyl peice? thanks again, i appreciate the help

-MaG

Vinyl paint

I'm using Kandy Koat paint from House of Kolor for majority of my car just to test it out. Might have to repaint it in a year or two, but there's really no way to tell unless I do it

Oh well, I'm sure a year from now, my car will blow up again for some reason and I'll be waiting for parts to get in like I am now. *shrug*

Let us know how it goes

i did some peices in my trunk and the first one was pretty ugly (kind figuered it would be tho <<newb) but then i did two more small peices and they came out really good, on the first peice tho i used the kylon fusion and then a clear coat, but teh clear coat was just regular krylon, not the fusion, and it looked kinda ugly and got scratched in the process of putting it back in...so i guess ill have to sand it down and restart tomorrow.

i was just wonderen whats the best way to do my seats? ive read somewhere on here the best thing to do is too scrub them down, let them dry and then use duplicolor spray on them? is this a good idea? any suggestions or responses would be appreciated, thanks again

-MaG

Dye them. There's a spary on dye made by duplicolor. Or buy new seats.

if i buy new seats then ima have to start a forum called, newb question--buyen new seats, , i like the apc seats on andys auto sports but i dont even know where to begin with the right kind of brackets and crap, and im not sure if its a good idea putten sports seat in as 1g lazer N/T but if anyone could help a man out id appreciate it, thanks, later

-MaG

Learn to fool with upholstery.

I was almost done with my painted interior until I realized everything is still cheap stock plastic in a different color, so I started recovering things in vinyl and am not going to do a mix between vinyl and suede or completely suede.

Doing the plastic pieces in vinyl or suede also makes the car a lot quieter, with softer surfaces that make it more difficult for sound to reflect itself.