painting my dashboard

Hey,

Was wondering what I can paint my dashboard with, is spraypaint sweet? Ive done it before with another car and it was all good but didnt know if it was actually a-ok to do (cos i was young n all).

And also what would I use to paint the areas surrounding the stereo, a/c etc...., would model paint be sweet?

Cheers
Brendon

I would suggest you use interior vinyl/carpet dye's , they are designed to permanently fuse to the vinyl or carpet/fabric and does not chip off. I love to do these kinds of projects , I use SEM , PlastiKote and Hi-Tec Vinyl/carpet Spray dye's the most permanent and best quality I used was SEM and used about 20 bomb coats per piece. Make sure your surface is clean and dry do not need to sand cus it bonds to the vinyl chemicaly nor do you need a primer.

hey cheers mate, much thanks for the input.

Is VHT or FOLA-TEC any good?.. and what exactly are bomb coats?

Im not sure of the products you described sorry stealth , however bomb coats , you know how most folks use a spray can by holding there finger firmly on the trigger and goin back and forth , bombing is each stroke you press and release the button quickly pro's call that bombing. Its smart way to coat something without drips plus it makes naptha and acetone work a lil slower in the vinyl for melting the surface and allowing the dye to bleed into it. If you go to fast the piece could get soft and warp to the touch like play dough.

So its like mist sprays?.. and say i have one piece of vinyl.. an i wanted to do half black..and half white.. an the original piece is black.. how would i go about doing this?

well just mask it off what you want to stay black and bomb the other half white , cheapest route

id like to redo the black also.. its a little faded.being that its a 91.. would the color bleed into the other? the vinyl is a little padded with a texture

OK some dye bomb products bond some coat , my SEM vinyl carpet dye bleeds in the vinyl and becomes the same texture pliability and solidity of the vinyl rubber or carpets and fabrics and is PERMANENT. It will bond no problem to your faded vinyl as long as it is degreased and dry. Make sure the faded vinyl isnt peeling or chiping if it is you gotta rouf it up with fine steel wool in circular motions clock and counter clock wise , dont rub to hard so you dont wear down the texture of the vinyl this is to find and remove loose cheap vinyl coating that is peeling. When the surface is clean and dry you can mist bomb it each piece gets a coat every minute very fine about 20 coats. dont touch the piece for a few hours. After a day and a half you can give it vinyl protectant. Not hard but screw up and find out how tricky it is to fix. Now coatings can be fixed easy but dont truly stick unless surface is cleaned and sanded bummer cus its a hell of alot cheaper. You can expect to pay 12-15 dollars for SEM dyes and 3-7 dollars for coatings.

Where do u get SEM dyes? and all the vinyl in my car is in great condition, just a little bit faded.. almost a dark grey.. but i want it black...so i would just use a decreaser on the vinyl before i spray it? or is there a certan kind of decreaser for vinyl?.. this is gonna be somethin fun to do :( i would have to strip everything out of my car.. cuz everything is gonna be dyed.. but as far as doing vents.. it seems like that is gonna be the hardest thing to do because of all the crannies and trying to spray dye throuh the sides of it an all...but another question is... say if i have a black button, that i want to change it to white.. and it is one of those that when u turn the lights on it will have a light that lights up.. it will look like a door window.. and the other is a key.. i dont think it would be possible to tap over that and do it white...what do u think?

Very good question "say if i have a black button, that i want to change it to white.. and it is one of those that when u turn the lights on it will have a light that lights up.. it will look like a door window.. and the other is a key.. i dont think it would be possible to tap over that and do it white..."
The dye isnt like paint , it coats but has the abillity to allow light through it still , although the key and the window will be almost invisible during the day at night youll have a button thats white with key and window lights on the button could even look like the ring on lord of the rings were all the writing on the ring glows like magic , cool idea man right on.

SEM is hard for me to find , i get from a detail supply truck , the company is called Production or ProDetail Supply

Whats a good dye that i can actually get?

Try looking around for the sem dyes at napa or you could give a try at napa and use there plastikote vinyl carpet dyes they work almost as well also napa may be able to find the sem and the hitech vinyl carpet dyes as well. Whats your location , perhaps I could find a Pro Detail or Production Supplier for you.

I have a NAPA dealer about 20-25 mins away from my house.. but i live right near hopewell, virginia

Ya try the Napa Plastikote products they work great as a coating and has good adhesion properties also plastikote has the widest variety of colors i ever seen.

Coatings are great cus there alot simpler to fix if buggered.

I was talkin to a guy the other day and he said that dying the vinyl is the best way.. he said Dupont had a dye out that was pretty good..do u know anything about this?

i just went to the local automotive supply store and said i need vinyl dye and they had cans of it and could mix it also for me. The cans were real pricey at $10 a pop :/

ive seen them at 20 a pop :) .. but how many cans would it take to do a whole interior?

Ahhhh the good question came up finally , "how much dye is needed?" I am redoing the grey portions of vinyl in my grand am the dash took 3 cans itself each door takes a can each seat took 2 cans the headliner will take 2 cans and I need 2 cans for the rest of the trim. Then my small trim pieces need different colors and will in total take 4 more cans. So 12 or so cans for my project. If your doing only portions then it will take less. I am using SEM dyes and they cost around 20 a can at the moment.

I am using SEM dyes and they cost around 20 a can at the moment.


OUCH! why dont you jsut have small amounts mixed for you? For such a large project, it would be cheaper.

I got my mda breakdown , each can works out to be 12 bucks when I buy it by the case. It works out to be 144 bucks for the whole trim I did.