Three things sparked my desire to undertake this project. (1) Pontiac's lame decision to apparently NOT release an interior trim kit for coupes. (2) Even if they DID release the kit, the blue seemed far too dark to nicely match the electric blue color on the exterior. (3) pictures of other owners' custom jobs on this site.
Oh. And being unemployed gives me the time to think up more things like this to do. =P
So I went to home depot, a bottle of electric blue metallic (or as the bottle curiously labels itself, arrival blue metallic), and spent some timie in the paint section. After a little while, I found my winners!
I used rust-oleum plastic primer for the plastic parts. My color coat was rust-oleum metallics cobalt blue metallic, and then i used rust-oleum painter's touch clear gloss for a "clearcoat"-type clear protection top layer.
Took me about a week or so to do everything, as I did it in stages. I started with the radio/hvac knob trim, then started the shift knob accent, shift knob set screw cover, p-brake handle trim, then brought in the vent trims, the gauge trim, and finally, i'm still working on the door handles.
i have to say, i'm REALLY shocked at just HOW close a match this paint is to the exterior color! definitely seems to me closer to it than any other paints i've seen.
unfortunately, i did have a few casualties in the process. i accidentally snapped one vent trim ring (ordered a new one since, awaiting it's arrival), and the other 3 rings got scraped paint while i tried to reinstall them, so they're being repainted...the cluster trim bezel broke a snap and now doesn't snap closed properly so there's a gap between it and the lower steering column trim, and when i attempted to reglue the trim rings to the cluster lens (they don't remove easily unfortunately), a bit of glue got on the painted rings, and screwed the paint job up, and a little bit got on the black surround, and now there's a white mark. I'm going to see if I can track down JUST the lens to the cluster and get a replacement so i can try painting again, but it's looking like these flawes are just one of those things i'll notice more than anyone else, so i'll see about it once i finally get a job.
Anyway, here are the pics as of now. Remember, the hvac vent trim rings, ebrake chrome ring, and passenger door handle are still in the "paint shop," but this gives you an idea about what i've completed so far!
And this is a closeup of the passenger door trim and driver door trim sitting on the hood. It was an effort to help you compare the factory paint color to the paint color from this project. Unfortunately, the flash makes the trim pieces look brighter than they really are, so it isn't a great comparison, so i'll see if i can't get a better shot when it's all said and done...
Oh. And being unemployed gives me the time to think up more things like this to do. =P
So I went to home depot, a bottle of electric blue metallic (or as the bottle curiously labels itself, arrival blue metallic), and spent some timie in the paint section. After a little while, I found my winners!
I used rust-oleum plastic primer for the plastic parts. My color coat was rust-oleum metallics cobalt blue metallic, and then i used rust-oleum painter's touch clear gloss for a "clearcoat"-type clear protection top layer.
Took me about a week or so to do everything, as I did it in stages. I started with the radio/hvac knob trim, then started the shift knob accent, shift knob set screw cover, p-brake handle trim, then brought in the vent trims, the gauge trim, and finally, i'm still working on the door handles.
i have to say, i'm REALLY shocked at just HOW close a match this paint is to the exterior color! definitely seems to me closer to it than any other paints i've seen.
unfortunately, i did have a few casualties in the process. i accidentally snapped one vent trim ring (ordered a new one since, awaiting it's arrival), and the other 3 rings got scraped paint while i tried to reinstall them, so they're being repainted...the cluster trim bezel broke a snap and now doesn't snap closed properly so there's a gap between it and the lower steering column trim, and when i attempted to reglue the trim rings to the cluster lens (they don't remove easily unfortunately), a bit of glue got on the painted rings, and screwed the paint job up, and a little bit got on the black surround, and now there's a white mark. I'm going to see if I can track down JUST the lens to the cluster and get a replacement so i can try painting again, but it's looking like these flawes are just one of those things i'll notice more than anyone else, so i'll see about it once i finally get a job.
Anyway, here are the pics as of now. Remember, the hvac vent trim rings, ebrake chrome ring, and passenger door handle are still in the "paint shop," but this gives you an idea about what i've completed so far!
And this is a closeup of the passenger door trim and driver door trim sitting on the hood. It was an effort to help you compare the factory paint color to the paint color from this project. Unfortunately, the flash makes the trim pieces look brighter than they really are, so it isn't a great comparison, so i'll see if i can't get a better shot when it's all said and done...
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