Painting your interrior Options

[sincerelyseb]

so ever since i got my celica ive wanted to paint my interrior plastic but everyone around me keeps detering me from doing so...now ill be soon be finishing the exterrior and itll be time to get the celica on the road, so i need to make but my mind, so if anyone could share their experiences with painting the interrior, any tips tricks or anything to help me make up my mind...
thanks everyone

[GriffGirl]

Okay, so the majority (not all) of the replies in this thread are completely useless. This kid wanted some tips and for us to share our experiences with painted plastics on our interior, not our opinions necessarily (unless they might lend themselves to being helpful). So with his permission, I'm posting the PMs between he and I, since he felt that he wasn't going to really get much help through this thread. My hope in doing so is that other people looking for similar help will see this thread and comb through the b.s. to get to the actual info.

since youre the only one thats replied to my post in a some what more positive way to painting plastic
i was wondering a few things
how long have you had your stuff painted? has it chipped or flaked?
i want to do my interrior black and white, most of my plastic is in bad shape
and with a new exterrior paint job coming, i want the interrior to match in shapeness

In what way are your plastics in bad shape? Like, paint-wise, or is it unpainted and the plastic has deep gashes in it? If it's just surface scratches, you can always lightly sand it before priming it. If it's deep gashes, truthfully, your best bet, in my opinion, will be to try to replace the damaged parts so you can start our fresh.

I've had mine painted for if I remember right, a little over a year now. I painted it silver before that, so I guess in all it's been closer to 2 years. The silver didn't hold up as well as the current bronze has, but I think that was due in part to me not using enough coats of the silver, and the quality of the paint wasn't that great to begin with. The bronze I've got on there now is holding up great though. I'm pretty careful not to scratch it or anything anyway, but there's maybe one spot where it got nicked by the clock. Otherwise, it's not faded, worn or scratched and looks really good.

I think you'll achieve the most success if you take your time and use the right materials. Buy Krylon paint and primer that's intended for plastic, it'll hold up the best. (My paint isn't for plastic but the primer was universal, including for plastics). Use light, even coats, let them dry in between, and use several coats. Don't over-do the clear coat if you opt to go that route. You could also buy matte finish clear coat if you feel you must clear coat but don't want it to be glossy.

With your permission, I'd like to copy and paste this PM into the thread. I know you were looking for some genuine help, and it's true that a lot of the responses weren't at all helpful. Maybe by posting our PMs into your thread, it'll be able to help someone else with similar questions as yours. Screw the haters - it's your car!

my plastc just has alot of surface scratches, and i know once you sand plastic even with a light grit you still get that white look, and also the guy who owned the car before me didnt remove the plastic to paint it blue so the clock and a few buttons are sloppy, and i got that adhesive promoter and some duplicolor vinyl and fabric paint, as for my clear coat im going to have to get a piece of plastic to test the look of it...and yes you can post this in the thread

Well since you're getting the exterior of your car painted, what I'd do in your place is remove everything that you're going to paint and/or that looks sloppy, and either replace it or clean it up. The clocks can be found on here for sale pretty easily, as can some of the plastics. As for the "white look" if you sand it, if you're going to paint it anyway, I wouldn't worry about it. Just be sure to clean the surface really well after you've sanded it, so you don't get debris in the paint. Just be sure to primer the surface - it really will make all the difference in the appearance and durability of your paint job. You could even get a thicker primer that's sandable, to help fill in some of the scratches if they can't be sanded out. Just be sure to spray light even coats with it, too; don't glob it on or else it'll look like sh1t when you're done.

Good luck and post pix up when you're all finished so we can see the final results!