Painting advice

[TommyVTss]

howdy guys,

i am about to paint the centre console and dash plastic in my vt the same colour as my car.

it has been painted before (poorly) so i am going to get it sand blasted then rough it up with a bit of sand paper pretty fine stuff what should i use?

question is what primer and paint should i use?

any help and advice would be appreciated.

cheers tom

[PBoB]

Personally I would use some really fine stuff like wet and dry, but then again my knowledge of sandpaper is limited.

Paint however I can help you with, there is a particular plastic paint you can buy from super cheap and its pretty good, but is holds on better if you use prepsol on the plastic before hand (to rid it of any oils or dirt), a thin coat of undercoat and then use plastic clear coat afterwards. I would put a few coats of the colour on (ensuring not to fill in any detail or gaps) and then a few of the clear once the colour is dry to ensure even coverage and a nice deep finish.

[theVman]

I dont know if you would be able to sand blast something like that. Depending on how bad the finish is, you should be able to scuff it back using a course paper then high fill which can be rubbed down to provide a nice smooth surface for painting.

It may be easier to buy second hand items from the wreckers and such which havent already been modified. This will give you a good base to start with. Asssuming its a VT, they have a factory paint finish so you dont want to take it back to the plastic. You can simply give a quick going over with wet and dry or scotch bright which will enable new paint to be applied.

[PBoB]

I dont know if you would be able to sand blast something like that.

You can, there's a small tool you can attach to a sandblaster, similar to a little compressed air blower gun, for blasting plastic.

[VNV8]

i had mine done professionally in gloss black with a gold pearl, and it looks absolutely awesome. like yours someone had attempted to paint it before and it looked like utter shit, the painter stripped this off for me and the whole deal cost me $70, not bad when you consider the price of a new/monaro/VX SS one, plus the type of paint used.

[Y55-7UT]

im a painter....well so i like to think so, and common sense when i sprayed my dash surround and air vents, i rubbed them down a little with wet and dry about 800grit or more, and wiped it down with thinners then plastic primmed it (Pressure pack), thenhave it a very light sand and a coat of black for undercoat then few coats of the squirts charcoal metallic i used then some gloss on top and looks good, been there for few months and no probs with peeling but got some crap on the dash surround when wet so will do it again one day.....in my spare hothouse

[TommyVTss]

thanks for the reply's guys, i think ill give it a go at rubbing it back myself instead of getting it sand blasted (although it would have saved me a few hours in labour but im not getting paid for it so who cares!

ill let you know how it goes and post up some pics when its done.


cheers tom

[ADMRIT]

use a viynal paint. works better than normal paint because of the texture of the console

[VNV8]

hes talking about the dash fascia mate, theyre plastic. by console he means the grey plastic piece around the window switches and shifter assembly.