The interior of my XE is just so boring to look at and I thought it might look better if I dressed it up a little bit. I have always liked the look of the 01 SEs with the “titanium” colored dash pieces and I had though about getting the parts and swapping mine out but then I decided to be different and paint them a different color, maybe the same as the exterior color.

Not going to make it too ricey, I just want to do the parts seen in silver in this pic ( the surround around the AC controls and driver side AC vent) the radio surround, as well as maybe the door ledges where all the widow switches are in the front.



Any suggestions on what type of paint to use? I saw someone posted about Krylon fusion , has anyone used that on their interior?

Stick with a paint made for plastic. The most important part is to make sure your parts are CLEAN before you paint. I mean clean as in no Armoral on them... no chemicals what so ever on them. That is where you will run into trouble.

Please don't rice it out.

Where'd you get a leather wrapped steering wheel in an XE ?

I didn't.... thats a picture depicting what the SE looks like with the silver trim...

If you decide to paint the plastic parts here is a way to 'test' if you've got the plastic clean enuf. Judge the force needed to pull a piece of masking tape off the surface. Compare with an area of like plastic that was never detailed. The underside of the glovebox, ashtray or console lid come to mind.
When you think it is clean enuf, clean it again. Use more than one type of cleaner.

dave and xtoy - left as is

Take each piece off and wash it with dish soap or something to get rid of the armor all or whatever protectant that you put on your interior. After it dries, scuff it up with some fine grade sand paper. When you touch it, it should be rough feeling..but don't put any gouges in the plastic. Then you are going to need Plasti-kote paint. Spray with the plasti-kote, make sure you keep the spray can far enough away so you don't put too much paint on. Use 10 gradual coats if you have to! Let it dry and spray some plasti-kote high temp clear over it. Let that dry and you are good to go. I did the interior of my 240sx this way and have spread it around and I have found it to be the best way. The important things are to make sure it is throughly cleaned and degreased, and also to make sure you don't spray too much paint at one time on it. Good luck...post some pics

Go get the new Krylon Fusion , the stuff is awesome. I used some of it last weekend to paint a old plastic bike helmet I had and it came out perfectly. I didn't have to sand of prime or anything. All you need to do is clean the plastic a bit with some amonia based cleaner. I put on a couple (3,4) light coats or gloss black and it came out perfect, no bubbles or anything.

I have a dash kit that is pretty much what you are looking for. I was hoping for a bright silver, but in reality it matches the lightest part of the little pattern in the seats in that pic. I paid $50 for it. You get the piece for the HVAC controls over to the vent on the left, the radio surround and two pieces for the front doors by the window controls. It is a molded kit, not a flat one, so the pieces are 3-d. If you are interested, let me know.

Ugg! I can stand Armour all! I never use the stuff. It smells bad and leaves a greasy sticky film on surfaces. Never in my X

so what do you use for interio cleaning?? sorry this if this gets off thread.

so what do you use for interio cleaning?? sorry this if this gets off thread.[/QUOTE]

Umm I don't really… Right now I have dried mud splatter (dirt) from TN early this month all over my Driver side air vent, gauge cover, steering column and steering wheel.

f I really do want to clean it up I use a Swiffer cloth sometimes.

When I do have my truck washed the place I take it to runs it through the tunnel, spot cleans the things the tunnel missed, dries it, vacuums it, cleans the dash and windows in side and out for a whole $13 they always ask if I want Armour all and I tell them “no” every time.

Well I started the painting today and had a few disappointments.

I bought a can of “pepper red” Krylon Fusion and got to work. Went to pull the 2 panels off the dash and quickly found that the 2 parts of the dash I wanted to paint were not actually separate pieces. The whole area of the dash from the driver door to past the AC controls is actually one big piece! Sat there looking at for a while thinking about what a bitch it was going to be to mask it all off, decide to go ahead with since it might make a good project. So after wrestling all of the clips loose and unplugging the 3 switches I had it out and took it along with the trim piece around the radio inside.

Took my time cleaning it up and masking it all off before going outside to paint. Gave it 2 coats then left it out in the air for about an hour ( can says 15 minutes). Went out side and found disappointment #1 part of the drop cloth was blown over onto the wet paint of the radio surround/ ashtray so it had a nice blemish. But the large dash piece looked great! Brought it in and started removing the masking tape, couple of runs though the masking tape and a little over spray through the paper but nothing a little goo gone didn't fix. But then when I was removing some of the masking tape it stuck to part of the painted surface and pulled the paint right off! Used some goo gone to thin the paint out and smooth it out to be repainted, will try again tomorrow!

I had to drive to work tonight with out a dashboard… looked strange! I also found out that our turn signals don't work if the hazard switch is unplugged! Luckily I had it in the cup holder so I just plugged it in and left it dangling.

Keep us updated, Brian... And a few pics would be schnazzy too...

- Air B

Glad to hear that the Krylon Fusion worked out well. I also would like to see some pictures of how your dash came out.

do you have some pics? does it look painted? and does it look like paint will hold?

thank you,
sergei

Was the Krylon still semi-wet when the tape pulled it off? If not, that is crap. When I used Plasti-kote with the high temp clear, I never had any chipping/flaking problems at all. Did you ruff up the plastic at all with sandpaper?