So, I want to redo my interior. Having not enough money to buy each piece separate or together, I was thinking I might repaint /dye the interior to my liking. I have found that Duplicator and Fusion spray paint seem to work best on plastics and vinyl. Just wondering if anyone has tried this and can share some tips and tricks. I have a while before I get to this on my list of to-do's on the car, but want to get everything ready and may try to do it piece by piece at some point anyway.

So, any advice from anyone that has done this before?

 

Don't do it. I've never seen any painted interior parts that have lasted more than a couple months without cracking and looking like ****.

 

Wow really? Not even with Duplicator Vinyl and Fabric? Lots of prior cleaning? Multiple coats? Clear coat on top?

That sucks. Really thought that would be a good way to refresh the interior without dropping a lot of money I don't have.

 

Yup. You can try it, but it scratches off way too easily. It DOES work on fabric quite well, but can seep onto lighter clothing if you're not careful.

 

I just finished converting my 1986 300zx from red to black. I used the ColorBond products and I could not be happier with the results. A friend of mine used this stuff a couple years ago on a truck of his and the stuff still looks like brand new, and he is not easy on his stuff. The trick, as I have been told from guys that have had great results with this stuff is all in the prep work. It has to be clean, and I mean clean. they make a cleaner and it is so inexpensive, I highly recommend it. On mine, I started with cleaning it at least two or three times with the cleaner, then wiped it down with liquor thinner to remove any residual contaminants. I then used the bonding agent on hard plastic panels and then applied the dye as the directions states. Light thin coats are key.
My dash and panels all look like factory new. My car buds cannot believe that the dash in my car is the same one that came out of it. I will admit that it was in pretty good shape, no cracks, or tears, but was really dirty and faded when I took it out. When I put it back in, it looked so good that I have been continuing my restoration of the interior with new carpet and am now recovering the door panels. The only thing that it didn't work real well on was the "felt" type material on the visors, but they were really in very bad shape anyway. I hit them with a coat of flat black automotive paint for now and am looking for a better set to replace them with.

 

Yeah, I went ahead and sprayed the door panels black just to see how it would look. It definitely looks way better than how it was. I forgot to take pics of them before, but when I got the car, whoever repainted it red (it was maroon with maroon interior) tried to paint some of the interior red too and did a horrible job at it.

Here are some pics I just took of some of the interior I haven't replaced or did anything about yet...





That is how the whole door panel looked on both ends. They were complete eye sores and I had had enough. You can see a little of the door after the repaint in the second picture.

They looked way better but like mentioned before, chipped off easily. So I plan to sand them down (meaning not just my new paint but getting all the red paint off as well ) and then putting a couple coats of primer and then a couple coats of the paint on and see how that works.

I did that with the door sills



The one on the top is how they both looked before (and how the door panels looked before) and the one on bottom is after I scrubbed the red paint off.

Here they both are after sanding, two coats of primer, and two coats of gloss auto interior paint.



They get a pretty good bit of action, it was a few weeks ago when I did that, and they still look new! (Aside from the broken one that will obviously need replacing at some point)

So that gives me hope for the door panels. Some of the other pieces, like the kick panel and glove box door you see in the pics are pieces I took from an 88 Z in the junkyard.

 

i have a black interior and I'm planning on getting rid of all of my trunk plastics i would sell them if your kinda close

 

if done properly you can paint most interior pieces, I had a tan interior in my 84 na, I bought a black dash that was badly faded, and I resprayed it black and looked really good, the rest of the interior I used duplicolor vinyl and fabric gloss black and it turned out really nice, now the interior was painted for over a year of me owning the vehicle, and the only problems places I faced was the arm rest on the driver door as I used it constantly, and a couple nicks around the trunk from hitting it with stuff in the trunk, I ended up selling the car and it looked really nice and got a lot of compliment on it compared to what it was before.

 

I've seen some very good turnout's using SEM brand. Just do the prep work well and it'll last.

 

Just plasti dip it man, if it looks bad, it can peel off and it lasts for a few years then you just have to do another layer.

 

Never tried that stuff. Do you have to primer the plastic with that method?

 

no you clean the surface and the spray it on, if you don't like it, you can peel it right off, do not primer as that will not come off, like I said I painted my interior all black minus the dashboard and it looks awesome and is still holding up, I already sold the car but its still good.