HOW TO: Paint The Interior Parts of Your Car.

Ok guys some may already know how to do this, but a lot don't know what to use. PATIENCE and PREP is the key to great interior paint jobs.

Read Entire Post For Best Results (Pix coming soon!)

Note: SEM Products was recommended to me by my friend and the in house Painter who works on MILLION Dollar Original Shelby Cobras this interior paint. He has also used it on Ferrari's and Lamborghini's. Here in So Cal it cost about 11.29 per can before taxes at Finish Masters. They said the Krylon and Dupli-Color stuff was nothing compared to this and was worth the investment. (This post is not sponsored by SEM Products)

1st... Remove the interior parts your going to paint. Remember to Tag and Bag.
2nd... Go down to your local paint store...i.e. Sherwinn Williams, Finish Masters, etc (NOT HOME DEPOT or LOWES). And buy cans of SEM Product Color-Coat Aerosol...in the color of your choice.

I chose Landau Black(15013) THIS IS THE COLOR YOU WANT IF YOU ARE PAINTING YOUR GREY AND OR WHATEVER COLOR PARTS BLACK! Landau Black has the perfect amount of gloss in it to get a great color match to your black vinyl door panels if you have them in black.

http://semproducts.com/Catalog.asp?prod=190 <---(Color-Coat Aerosol)

3rd... Now go to home depot get a small thing (about a quart or so) of Extra Strength Acetone. And a scotch brite pad( Green or Purple will work)

4th... Scuff and clean with acetone your interior parts do this repeatedly for best results 3-5 times for each piece this will result in better adhesion.

5th... Now get to painting...IMPORTANT: SHAKE THAT CAN! Read your can label, FLASH TIME IS 5-7 Minutes. Hold the can 6-12 inches from surface of interior part. Make long even sweeps side to side slightly overlapping upon your previous sweep. 2-3 coats should suffice. Repeat with remaining interior pieces

IMPORTANT: Painting the headliner will take a steady hand and keen eye...and most of your paint... do not attempt this unless you believe you can paint the headliner with out leaving streaks, high or low spots. My experience with the paint so far is that it shows very evenly. But I have not yet painted the Headliner.

IMPORTANT: LET FINISHED INTERIOR PARTS SIT FOR MINIMAL TWO(2)TWO DAYS TO CURE PROPERLY. Your Patience will be awarded.

Please post your interior painting experience with pictures and products you may have used. And give a quick detailing for why you chose the product and color you chose.

 

Acetone should be replaced with wax and grease remover and the standard scotch-brite pad should be replaced with a red or grey scuff pad from Norton/3M/Mirka etc. You can even get 3M red scuff pads at Advance Auto Parts. As far as technique goes - definitely clean the part inside and out thoroughly with the wax and grease remover first before scuffing... especially on an interior panel that has been dressed with a silicone based Armor All type of shine product. That stuff is the evil enemy of paint. If you scuff with the wax and grease remover, there's a slight chance that some of the contaminants on the surface might be 'scuffed into' the surface, which will cause fisheyes and lifting later on or even as soon as you spray it. I've seen it happen, but not often. With paint though it's good to take every possible precaution. Clean first, then scuff the dry part, then clean again. Standard operating procedure in all shops.

Most importantly, you should never paint directly over plastic even if the product's information sheet (or back of the can lol) says you can. SEM is all great stuff, but you should always use an adhesion promoter over bare plastic. The best option would be a product from a paint manufacturer, but a third party product like Bulldog (http://www.repaintsupply.com/pd-bull...n_promoter.cfm) is awesome stuff. If you don't want to buy a whole can of the good stuff, at least buy the cheap Dupli-color aerosol adhesion promoter. You want something to bite into the plastic before you put on the non-etching topcoat... i.e. - the color.

The thing that you have to remember is that while Home Depot/Lowes does carry similar materials it's always best to use industry standard materials if at all possible. Since you're already recommending Finish Master or a Sherwin (automotive of course) paint store, why not just get the scuff pads, wax and grease remover, and adhesion promoter from one place? There's really no need to go to a hardware store when everything is readily available from your local paint jobber. You'll get better, automotive painting specific materials at nearly the same cost, if not sometimes cheaper (the scuff pads especially).

Other than some nit-picking and specifics, I say good write up.

 

Thank you for the additions DC2... Please if anyone has any added knowledge to provide please do so. I still wanna see some pix of your painted interiors! My first write up sort of...spontaneous!