Painting Interior Plastic/Accents

I pulled out my vents last week, and painted them with a silver (my civic is silver) acrylic paint by FolkArt, which I bought at a craft store. My only problem is I already chipped it. It chips off really easily, and around the edges, I even wore off some spots when putting the vents back in. I did the painting over about 3 days, with a total of 3 coats on each of them. How can I keep this from chipping off? Should I be using another kind of paint, or is there some product I can put on over the paint to help seal it onto the plastic? I'd appreciate some advice from anyone who has had success painting the plastic parts of their interior.

:confused::confused::confused:

be sure to clean the surface completely before you begin painting and I recommend Testor's model paint.

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Clean really well... The oils from the dash cleaners will do it. Sometimes its very hard to get all the cleaner of and can require some very very fine sandpaper. The oil will seep deep into the plastic sometimes making it seem almost impossible to get out. Good Luck.

use rubbing alcohol to remove any oils on the surface. roughen the surface with fine grit sandpaper to promote adhesiveness. reclean the part with more alcohol.

use an enamel based paint... it's a solvent base that will be virtually indestructable once it dries. Krylon would be a good brand.

use very light coats... and use about 3 coats, waiting at least 1 hour between coats to ensure the previous coat has dried. enamel tends to "resoften" itself, so dont shoot layers within 10 minutes of each other... can cause running or "orange peel".

hold the can at least 16" away to prevent running, and never start or stop wile adding paint to the surface... use a sweeping motion and start spraying before you sweep over the part, then stop spraying after you've swept past it. this will ensure uniform coating and prevent blotches.

Here was a post a friend of mine made a good 6 months ago. I helped him do all this, and his vents still look great.

Any one out there want to jazz up there interior and only spend about 10 bucks in the process? Here is the easiest way. Go to your local hardware store pick up a can of spray paint that matches your cars color, a can of clearcoat, and finally a few sheets of 600 grit wet and dry sand paper. Next pull your air conditioning vents out, you can do this to other interior parts as well (face guard around cd player, defrost vents, door cranks, whatever knock yourself out) Then disasemble the vents completely, everthing! Soak all of your parts in a sink of hot soapy water for about an hour or so. Next sand the texture of of the vent faces, dont worry about the interior parts of the vents dont color then they wont look good and your vents wont work right either. Sand the vents down and let dry. Next spray the vent faces with the paint with about 5 good light coats. Next spray the vents with a couple of coats of clearcoat, and viola! You have a custom look in your car for around ten bucks! Make sure you give the vents at least 24 hours to dry so that they will assemble properly. You can customize your once plain interior without buying 400 dollar seats, and not wasting your dough on carbon fiber inserts. I will post a a pic of my vents in a few days so everyone can see just how good they look. And if anyone has any questions or comments feel free to email me and ask anything, I would be glad to answer any questions any of you have.