Ragingfish's "custom painted" interior...

[jnak]

Hey Dan, did you ever have problems with your painted parts peeling/cracking/chipping etc?

[ragingfish]

Thanks everyone for the compliments!!! I'm really happy with how it turned out...

for high-wear items, like the shift knob, door trims, and hvac/radio buttons i put about 4-5 extra coats of clear and blue (total, not each lol) to give it extra strength. I also gave each coat about 18-24 hours to dry. I'm *hoping* this will all work together to increase durability. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things pan out in the long term!

To answer a question above, the reason the left-most vent is in the cupholder is because when I broke one of the vent trim rings last night, I yanked the whole vent assembly to get the part number so I could order the replacement. I apparently forgot to put it back before I went photo shooting. LOL!

Currently, I have the 3 remaining unbroken vent rings and both door handles in thge mid-paint process. They should all be done by monday. I'm going to do some searching on here now for that thread on getting those trim pieces off the steering wheel, and then I can start them too!

I hope to have the *whole* interior done by mid next week, of course, minus the one broken vent. DOH!!!

[Interfire]

Looks awesome, very nice work.

[beitodesstrafe]

I think it looks friggin' amazing! Excelletn job!

[LoJac963]

I've always held back from painting my interior but the more poeple I see doing it with great results makes me want to do it more and more. Maybe when the warms up here I'll give it a go.

[ragingfish]

I've always held back from painting my interior but the more poeple I see doing it with great results makes me want to do it more and more. Maybe when the warms up here I'll give it a go.

I say this with complete honesty. 99.99% of projects I tackle never turn out well. But this really was that easy. The key to it all: very THIN coats, adequate drying time, sufficent number of coats of both color and clear, and of course, being gentle and taking the time to pay attention to detail. In the end, it's worth it. And of course, you have to get the plastics out. That can be tricky. Took me a good 20 minutes to get the stupid SIR module out of the steering wheel. Had trouble separating the door handles from the rest of their assembly as well, but managed to do so eventually.

My proudest achievement: managing to NOT paint the black divider between the window switches on the driver door to maintain that "factory painted" look:



Btw everyone, more pictures beyond what I posted can be seen here:

http://photos.ragingfish.com/06G6-trim_painting

[ragingfish]

For anyone who's amused, here are some shots of the remaining parts in my makeshift "paint booth" undergoing their transformation...

You can sorta make out here the two door handles on the wood blocks on the left, one of the 3 hvac vent trim rings in the middle (needed to be repainted due to additional paint chipping ARGH), and the two steering wheel covers on the far right are currently in the priming phase.



Two of the remaining hvac vent rings, and the joint between the p-brake handle and boot, but these guys are getting clear-coated. You just can't tell from this pic. lol.



Primed steering wheel parts again:



Driver door handle - half painted, half stock (top and back are blue, but the front is still silver):

[jnak]

Awesome! How hard was it to pull the bezels off the steering wheel?

[ragingfish]

Awesome! How hard was it to pull the bezels off the steering wheel?

Hardest part was popping off the SIR module -- and it only was hard because I stuck the pins in but couldn't find the stinking spring clips...then it's just one torx screw each, and they slide right out...

[LoJac963]

I love the makeshift paint booth Parts do look great though-good work once again!

[Tin_Indian_G6]

Hey Dan, did you ever have problems with your painted parts peeling/cracking/chipping etc?

Nope, they are holding up amazingly well. In fact a buddy who had not been in my car since right after I painted the parts got in yesterday and remarked that it looked incredible, and that it was like I just painted them.
No scratches, no dulling or fading, and definately no chips. Every time I bring the car in for service, the mechanics all complement me on how much they like it.

The key is to wetsand, prime with plastic primer, then paint several color coats, then several coats of clearcoat. If you wetsand between every application, the paint just lasts and lasts because it binds so well. I couldn't be happier with mine.

[ragingfish]

What IS wetsanding? How do you do it?

I'm still having issues with paint chipping on the vent rings, so I'd like to try the wetsanding trick you mentioned...

[bristol16]

What IS wetsanding? How do you do it?

I'm still having issues with paint chipping on the vent rings, so I'd like to try the wetsanding trick you mentioned...

there are different ways to do it, if the piece is small enough i usually just sand it in the sink with the water running, or you can do it outside under a garden hose. the whole purpose is for the water to wash away the particles that have been sanded off so that they do not scratch or embed into your work. you can also just soak the sandpaper or i think they also make "sanding sponge" type of things too.

[ragingfish]

What IS wetsanding? How do you do it?

I'm still having issues with paint chipping on the vent rings, so I'd like to try the wetsanding trick you mentioned...

there are different ways to do it, if the piece is small enough i usually just sand it in the sink with the water running, or you can do it outside under a garden hose. the whole purpose is for the water to wash away the particles that have been sanded off so that they do not scratch or embed into your work. you can also just soak the sandpaper or i think they also make "sanding sponge" type of things too.

do you need special sandpaper or do you just use traditional stuff?

[kilcher]

Looks good. I'd really miss the chrome around the gauges though. I would have left that.