Courtesy of TonyYank www.grandamgt.com
Process of painting the interior……..

First get in your car and figure out what pieces you want to paint. Then make sure that they are going to be removable. Some pieces just pry out, others are bolted or held by screws. Unscrew all screws and bolts first. Then grab it and slowly pull. If there is still no give, grab a flathead screw driver and then wrap a thin cloth around it. This way you won’t wreck any interior pieces not being removed. Insert the flathead behind the piece and push away from your body to bring the piece out.

After you have all of the pieces out that you want to paint. Wash everything very good with HOT soapy water. I would use a dial soap, to remove all the Armoral and grease that could be on it. Then let dry, or use a cloth towel to dry it off. Then you have to think about what you want the finish to look like. You can either have the bumpy feel it has to it now, or you can make it smooth. If you want to make it smooth. You need to get some sand paper. Sand it down so you get all of the textured feel out of it. Then wash it again after done sanding. Let it dry this time REALLY good!!! You will need a least 1 full can of spray paint, unless you are doing the whole interior. And a good amount of primer will be needed. Here are the painting steps.

1.Spray with light coat of Primer and let sit for 7-10 min or until not tacky.

2.Then give another light coat of Primer to it and wait 5 min to dry.

3.Then start with you first VERY LIGHT coat of the color you have selected.

4.Keep adding very light coats every 7-10 min. Letting each coat dry very good.

5.When you are at the point where you like the color. Let dry for 30min.

6.Then make sure you have covered all areas, too make sure you are ready for the clearcoat. If you have missed any areas fix before clearcoat.

7.Apply light coats of clear to surface about every 5min. I would do at least 6-7 coats of clear.

8.Before installing, I would let pieces dry for around 12-24 hours!! This way when you go to put them back in, you won’t smudge or smear the paint.

Sound like some pretty good instructions, got any pics of the final product?

here's a couple of pics after painting........

.......

do the vents still work? can they move? how did you paint on/around them? anyone else done this?

:D




lil more than the vents but you get the idea

can you still move your vents? direct air ya know? wouldnt the paint gunk all te moving parts up?

hey silent, how much work is involved in doin the whole dash and all the vents? how long did it take u approx? thanks

dash took me about a week wtih prep/primer and paint....the vents took a weekend


and yes everything iss till movable, you just have to completely dissasemble your vents if you want a perfect job and dont paint to heavy of a coat or else it builds up and itll get stuck...otherwise my vents move fine for now untill i get rid of em

<_< huh...a week eh...that blows...i drive this thing everyday...

another q...would i need primer for black?

After I have used plastic primer and done about 4 coats, can I choose any color paint or do I still need to stick to the plastic paints?

I used the krylon fusion paint about 6-8 months ago, I didnt primer or anything. Just sprayed a bunch of light coats on it. I Havent had a problem with crackin peeling or fading.

I tried that route and just didnt seem like a good enough paint job, seemed as if it looked too plastic and not trim material to me, thats why I wanna do a normal paint job on the trim pieces with a regular paint, just need to know I can use normal spray paint over the plastic primer.

i'm sure you can...i just used normal spray paint right onto the plastic and it turned out pretty good IMO...just gotta use super light coats or the paint will run

how hard is it to completly disassble the vents to that they still move good?? Also, my car is Ruby red, and has the tan interior.. How do you guys think it would look if i color matched the paint and painted all my interior pieces ruby red (vents, piece around cd player and gear slector, possibly the plastic on each door around the window and lock controls)??????

here is mine....

do you have anymore pics of your dash Naich?

Naich has got the classiest dash ive seen on an alero. very nice!

here is another

In case you are wondering, I found that using Testors spray paint from hobby shops works really well. I used about 5 coats of clear coat. When painting, make sure you use very thin coats or you will get runs in the paint. This whole project took 2 cans of testors "metallic burgandy" paint and 4 cans of testors clear coat. The paint has a nice texture to it... which is nice. Unlike some paints that dry so glossy and perfectly flat, the texture in this paint stands out a lot. After 2 years it still looks pretty good, although I chipped off part of the center console from taking it apart so many times. I'm going to repaint it this summer and do some more work on the interior (including making a vinyl-covered plastic bezel to hold my sirius radio controller)