I have never painted the interior of a vehicle before.. But I have just acquired a 93 civic sedan for free that I am cleaning up for the daughters to drive... We spent a good part of today stripping the car and cleaning everything , from the dashboard to the trunk carpeting, its all out.. I think I want to darken things up from the stock grey that is in there.. the car has 295,000 miles but is in remarkable shape..

I just want a charcoal finish , that will not crack, peal, bubble, or scratch off to easy. no ricer colors or any of that ..

I know how to prep parts, I have done plenty of body work for a number of years , but I have never dealt with interior painting , esp. something that I want to last more than 6 months of teenage abuse

what is the best brand that you guys have used ?

basically looking for
- durability
- no smell

is there a carpet dye? I might go that route even ... if I don't like how the shampoo comes out..


here is some pics mid process..the only thing left in the car when we got done was the carpet and headliner its a norther car that has been in fl about 6 years. super clean now . the girls got EVERY piece of dirt out of it. still waiting to shampoo the carpet and seats . then the headliner is coming out and getting redone .. trying to teach them how to work on cars. might as well use a free one

 

"Painting" interior parts never comes out well. The hard plastic pieces will paint ok with the proper prep but the softer vinyl should be dyed or just redone. Anything can be ghetto'd but to do it right is not a fast/cheap proposition.

 

I don't plan on doing any of the vinyl.. I don't think there is any vinyl in the car honestly..

I just want to paint the hard plastic, and maybe dye the carpet.. If they want more of a project to do, I'll remove the fabric from the doors and have them recover that and perhaps the headliner. I know the doors involves melting the plastic to remove them. nothing better for them to learn on than a free car though.

 

I treat the interior panels just like the out side, and use the same materials, just make sure they panels are super clean, soap and water, wax and grease, and i even wipe them down with laquer thinner before i even start sanding, sand with 180, unless u want to smooth out the texture then i will start with 80 sparringly ( too much makes the plastic felty) esp if it is a polyolefin plastic. Then i prime it and sand with 400+ then apply the base clear, if u dont want a shinny finish u can use a matte clear, or even go with some type of interior rattle can, but i would still prep the same. -Mike

 

Painting is still painting - its just a topcoat over plastic. And you're gonna end up getting chips in it sooner or later.

With that said, just try to get the best prepwork done on it you can, and use SEM ColorCoat paint, I think its called. They make a clearcoat you can use, too, but I've found their clearcoat somewhat tricky to apply and still get a perfect look (I'm using their black paint). Then again, I'm no professional painter. I'm barely even an amateur.

 

cool. I have never worked a soft plastic and thought it might get fuzzy on me. I would like to keep some texture on it.

thanks for the info fellas.

I might start out with just the faded center console.. if that holds up with what I do, I'll branch out from there and do some more on the car.. if not , Ill just get another used console and leave it or try something different. wade into this slowly instead of having a nightmare on my hands possibly.