Any tips for painting the dashboard?

[jackaleks]

spent an hour or so tearing the centre console, clock surround and door trim off as i want to paint it over the weekend. i was going to go with:

sand and fill
clean
primer
paint
lacquer

has anybody done this and got a nice durable finish? i\'m a bit worried about the paint cracking or flaking if the plastic gets knocked...

thanks,

[Gavin_RX8]

I\'ve made my own boost gauge pillar pods in the past and you do have to be carefull that you dont let it flex too much on refitting or it will crack. Just make sure you key the surfaces well and use fibreglass filler on some of the areas if you think they need reinforcing. With plenty of lacquer the finish should be hard enough to withstand a few knocks/scuffs.

[logicalChimp]

Hi

I did this for my interior last summer...

I had the old style plastics (rubberised finished) which were an absolute pita to prep - you have to sand it right down to the base plastic, removing every last trace of the silicon rubber - otherwise the paint starts to bubble (or so I was told)

As to the finish - i used two coats of primer, 4 coats of paint, and 4 coats of laquer (iirc).  Used the car quite a lot, and then drove it backwards into a tree at xmas.  despite all that, the interior stuff is still in top notch condition!

If you have a hunt back through the forum, you should find the posts I made at the time (with more detail in them) and links to the guides that I followed...

hth

[jackaleks]

cheers guys,

exactly what i need in your old posts logical, thanks!