For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

How's it holding up? Do you have before/after pics?

The idea of painting plastic panels doesn't set well with me (should be the color it is when it is mixed/melted IMO), but people to do it.

And what type of plastic are the door panels/kickpanels/whatnot made of? I have to repair mine; I'm sure aftermarket is crap.

(damaged interior panel pic below)

Thanks.


IM

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

I did all of mine and it's holding up just fine, it's been a year or less on some parts. I used Buford's Aerosol Vinyl Dye. I went from the burgundy interior to a graphite grey. It was easy an affordable.

Here's before, during & after on the door panels

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

And then the dash panel

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

I really don't have any pics of the interior before, but it was all burgundy. I also recovered the headliner.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

Can't find a blue replacement part?
I have never dyed plastic, but I have bought rigs that were dyed, and it always flaked off, eventually.
Should be easy to find in a wrecking yard, Craigslist, etc. Sometimes I get parts from a local tow yard.
I don't know what part of ID you're in, but there is no shortage of square-body parts trucks around here.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

Heres my blue interior . The dash is a oem dash that has been painted for years . The rest is oem parts that has been painted . I sprayed the whole interior . I went to a local paint shop and had them mix me a quart and did the whole interior when I did the resto . Worked great for me . If you prep correctly it will work fine . Just remember to clean clean clean and then clean some more . Its all about prep .

You are correct that aftermarket is crap . I orderd a couple pieces when I was doing mine and said nope . I sent them back and found oem stuff and repaired if needed . It looked so much better .

Sorry , No before pictures. Every thing you see has been painted .

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

This is a short howto article on identifying interior plastics.
http://www.urethanesupply.com/identify.php
I'd almost be willing to bet the interior on our trucks pre-dates the requirement for Recycling ID marks but there are other ways outlined in the article.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

What piece are you looking for, as I have some extra blue interior trim sitting around.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

Original interior plastics can be painted. The key to success is 90% in the prep.

Aftermarket interior pieces can be plastic or poly based. Very difficult to get anything to adhere properly to poly items. Some mfr's even put disclaimers up & recommend not painting.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

yeah, i too was real sceptical about painting door panels, but availability & price made painting the answer for me.
scrub the bejeezus out of them, i used tsp, it is a good cleaner, & adhesion promoter before you spray.
the front panels in my crew, painted the arm rest too
Attachment 1374074Attachment 1374075
the rear doors
Attachment 1374076
did my sunvisors as well
Attachment 1374077Attachment 1374081
i painted mine about 2 yrs ago with all SEM stuff, holding up fine even with my 10 yr old & his friends beating the snot out of the back. only spots so far is if you lift up the window crank washers, some of the paint is wore off behind them

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

SEM worked good for me. The surface texture was shot on the door panels so I wet sanded them and used adhesion promoter and a slightly darker color. If you texture is worn away I don't think you can bring it back. In my case, I did not care.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

I don't have pics I used SEM the thing is tho you can paint it with anything and it wont be worth a hoot if you don't prep it right I cleaned twice with prepsol then I used the plastic primer stuff ( activator or whatever they call it) they sell at the auto body supply store

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

The piece that are cracked at the ones pictured bellow.

I. Squeezes in between the dashpad and the door; Rright.
II. Covers the back pillar; Left.
III. Covers the back pillar; Right.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

Those type of repairs would be noticed. I doubt you could fuse the pieces together & manipulate the texture to hide the repairs.

I would hit the wrecking yards or look for someone parting a similar truck out. Search the classifieds on here & your local craigslist. The OE pieces from another truck can be died/painted to match. It might require painting all the trim for color consistency though or you possibly could find blue pieces & just swap them in place.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

I just purchased the part for right and left sides you have listed in your first pic from LMC, $9.95 a piece plus shipping and they fit perfectly for my 86 C10. The other parts are available from them too.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

after. i will look for before. dash was red. door panels were dark grey. SEM and followed all directions. seems to hold up to anything but a direct hit with something sharp

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

I redid my interior exactly 2 years ago.
The trim pieces that I painted where originally blue covered easily but like said above prep is very important.
I washed my pieces several times, then cleaned them with TSP cleaner, then used SEM adhesion promoter, then used SEM Landau Black.
It has held up well. And touches up well too... (I scratched a kick panel)

Attachment 1375308

I even cleaned and painted the shelf for behind the rear set that was grey tweed. It covered well too & it gets some use.

Attachment 1375309

I did buy my door panels aftermarket which came black so I'm not sure how those would hold probably getting touched and used the most. But I like the SEM stuff enough that I'd love to get some GM door panels and try it.

P.S. I ordered some aftermarket pillar trim pieces in the beginning and they were junk... flimsy & didn't fit right.... they got tossed.

Here's my final result...

Attachment 1375310

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

Like dog claws? :)

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

Like everyone states prep is the key to dyeing plastic. I am in the middle of an interior refurbish.

I used bumper repair kit to repair broken pieces and to fill the holes in my original door panels where the map pockets once lived.

http://www.amazon.com/Bondo-280-Bumper-Repair-Syri...

On the parts that had dead plastic, I cleaned them real good. Then used a red scotch bright pad to clean off the remaining dead plastic. Cleaned them again, shot some SEM plastic adhesion promoter, then sprayed them with some Rustolumen truck bed liner to give them a uniformed texture. I let the bed coating dry for a week and then went back with a scotch bright pad and took the sharpness off the coating and got the texture to my liking. Sprayed them the color I wanted, let them sit for 24 hours and sprayed them with a plastic clear. I am going Torch red so I used dye from a corvette supplier.

http://www.semproducts.com/automotiv...esion-promoter

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/rl...FUoV7AodEWwATw

http://www.mamotorworks.com/Corvette...lding-601950-1

http://www.mamotorworks.com/Corvette...-12oz-106135-1

Pics of the results so far:

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

what year is your truck? And is that the stock bench seat? I've been looking for a bench like that for mine.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

Deisel , My truck is a 82 model . The seat is from a 91 chevy truck . I think they were in the early to mid 90's chevy trucks . Being that old they are getting harder to find in good shape .These seats can not be recovered because of there design. If you find one you will have to use your track that came with the truck and adapt them to the seat. This seat works well for me because I am long legged and tall . The seat is not as thick as the oem seat and moves me farther back and down for a better fit for me .

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

It's all in the prep. Mines still doing great. Also covered my headliner in suede.

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

Cool headliner!

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

Thanks. I also wrapped the cloth inserts in the door panels with the same material. It's the little things that make a truck different. I don't think it turned out to terrible for my first time on both the doors and headliner

Re: For those of you that painted interior plastic..
 

Nice job on panels as well as the headliner.