iv had my car for about a year now and the interior has been bothering me for some time now. I have a black balt. With the gray and tan-ish/light gray w/e they call it interior. I can't stand it! The dark gray is not bad but the tan bull **** sucks! It shows dirt so easy and jus is ugly! I have chevy seat covers on now that are black with chevy and the bowtie imbroidered red in there now. So I wanna black and red theme. I was thinking about re doing my head liner and the cover behind the back seats black but reupholstering them sounds like it won't work well. So I was thinking about dying it. As for like the tan pannels I wanted to paint them black but that means I have to do the doors too. Wich brings me to breaking it apart to reupholster that or try to dye it black. And the last thing do I want flat black or gloss? And should I leave the texture on or sand it off and go all out. And the big one how will it all come out? And how will it work or look with the dark gray then? Anyone with some advise, please help! Thanks chris

 

I want to do the same thing with mine but leave some of that nasty neutral color around as accent but i plan on painting/dying some of my panels as well. As far as the texture or not I am going to leave it only so that it matches the dash. I plan on going flat black only because i have seen some pics on here with gloss black and its why to shinny for my liking. I think VHT makes some special type of paint for plastic that is also like a dye and wont come off like paint would.

 

If you get a weekend, id suggest the following.

Redo your headliner, your door panels, your tan interior pieces, your radio trim.


You can literaly redo your entire interior, inside of a weekend, with about $50 and some hand tools.

 

Please tell me more details and what to use and do? Color? Brand? Leave or sand texture. I'm very interested

 

Ill second that! A black interior would look so much better with my red car

 

cant go wrong with the red and black theme. redoing the interior can be really cheap considering how much better it looks. check out my red and black balt:

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/appearance-48/check-out-my-new-interor-lots-pics-53315/

 

I like how u did that with the red. But I need to paint the actualy glove box. And door pannels. And trim and a pillars and b and c. That stuff. Seeing I have a 2 tone interior. I wanna get rid of the tan and go with black and gray not tan and gray. Anyone do this yet? My big propblem is if I sand the texture off stuff will it look dumb with the gray being textured still? Thanks chris

 

Wow that really looks awesome, diggin the touch screen too....Any tips as far as what products you used, what parts were and werent so easy to remove and paint? Ohh and about how much did you spend? Are you stopping there or do you plan on doing the entire interior black (pillars, seats, headliner, etc)

 

Just don't sand very hard if you want to avoid a totally smooth surface.

This is what you will need:
Fine grit sand paper
Alcohol or pre-paint cleaning solution
micro fiber
rubber gloves (just recommended)
painting mask (just recommended)
lots of news paper
Black primer spray paint (since you're doing a dark color)
Black spray paint (the shade you want, compare them)
Clear spray paint (Glossy to matte, pick which fits your idea best)
Someplace clean to paint

Remove all the parts you want to paint from the car. Give it a light sanding to help the paint stick with very fine sand paper. Clean it with the cloth and alcohol/solution, careful to make sure it doesn't pick up oils (rubber gloves help). Place it down on newspaper in your painting area (outside or very well ventilated). Starting with the primer, give it a nice even coat. You don't have to go to thick, just evenly coat it. Let dry for 30 minutes while you work on the next piece. You should be able to get all the parts you want to paint sprayed before the first drys.

Next, begin applying smooth even coats of color. Spray one at a time, smooth even coats, working down till they all have one coat. Giving each coat about 30 minutes to dry, continue adding light even coats till you get the level you want. ~3 should be fine. 30 minutes after the last coat, hit it with a smooth even clear coat. A second one of those and 30 minutes to dry and your done.

Shouldn't take you much more than 4 hours unless you have trouble with getting the pieces out and installing them in again. What ever you do, do not sand the dash smooth. If you do, sure as hell don't paint it a shiny color. Otherwise you will be totally blind. The rough texture of the dash is designed to scatter instead of reflect light.

There are lots of more fancy things you can do if you have a spray gun or are willing to brush it. For example:

Black primer coat
Metallic silver base coat
very light black ink wash
75/25% black to gloss clear coat
50/50% black to semi-gloss clear coat
25/75% black to matte clear coat
Armor clear coat

This will give a depth to the paint, with the other four layers having various degrees of clarity growing darker as you go in, with the deepest visible layer (only about 9% visible) having a silvery-black metallic gleam.

With different colors, ink washes, metallic coats, and mixes of clear you can produce a staggering variety of effects. Thats not even getting into adding metal flake or micro-prisms to the paint. A very light ink wash (something along the lines of 1:20 ink to water) between your first and second clear coat will add a nice tint.

 

What is this dye that everyone is talkin about instead of painting the pannels? Also I'm not doing the top of the dash I'm jus doin the lower half of everything. Wich is why I didn't know if I shoudld sand or not. But the big question is the top of my armrest is tan like everything else. But is like a rubber not hard plastic. What can I do to make this black with everything else?

 

I just popped off the lower panels of my dash and used krylon fusion paint. Its made for plastic. No prep work or nothin. The color is a close match and doesnt look to bad. I havent put a clear coat on and its still holding up. Another guy had done it and posted it in the how to section if ya need pics

 

Rubber doesn't take paint very well, since it has give which causes the paint to bend, crack, and flake. I haven't personally worked with them, but there are rubber dyes on the market which should do the job. For the plastic, just make sure you get acrylic primer, paint, and clear.

The reason you use primer is because it will make your colors consistent. Without primer, if you paint two things that are slightly different is starting color, they will have slight differences in painted color unless you pile on a lot of paint.

As for the ink, it has several uses. If your going to thin it, use distilled water. Uncut and applied on top of a matching color paint, it gives it a *VERY* shiny wet look with extremely rich tones. Thinned, it makes the color shinier and damp looking. Applied to an uneven surface when thinned, it pools in the depressions and groves, increasing the texture and can even produce a marbled pattern. For this you want to mix black ink with the color ink, very thin, and slop it on to the upper side. Always the upper, so you have to wait till that drys then roll it. Finally, you can ether mix a little with your clear (or brush a thin wash between coats if your using spray can clear) to tint the clear.

If it doesn't show, I've done a heck of a lot of painting.

 

So where can I buy this dye for the top of the arm rest? How much does it cost and what's it called. Like u said I didn't think paint would work, and yes I can tell u have had a lot of experience. Its like ur talkin chinese, I'm only good with stereos and some electrical. Lol painting is new to me. As for the rest I plan on leaving the texture and spray painting it. So what can I use for black color and clear that won't make it very shiny. I don't want it dull as **** but not like a waxed car

 

thanks man. i used sandable primer, duplicolor (same as victory red), and duplicolor clear coat )for cars or interior, can remember the name exactly). everything was fairly simply to remove except for the trim around the gagues. its a bitch to get the gauges out without taking off the entire panel including the airbag. once you get the gagues out of the car you can take the plastic trim off. i didnt realize the trim came off so i had to tape off the center of the gagues. i think i spent around 40$ painting the interior. that includes two cans of each type of paint, and the sand paper.

i plan on stopping where i am at now. since im going into college im starting to save my money. plus ill be leaving my car at home under a cover since i won't need it at Chico state.

 

rockstar, use a black primer, a glossy black spray, and a matte clear spray. I'll list two ways with spray, easy/ok looks and little harder/good looks. As for the rubber dye, do a quick search for that. There are massive amounts of choices for black, since it is often used in restoring classic cars.

Easy way
Give all the pieces a quick rough up sanding.
One smooth even coat of primer
Two or three smooth even coats of black
Two light even coats of clear

Harder way
Give all the pieces a quick rough up sanding
Smooth even coat of primer with some light rough up sanding
Another smooth even coat of primer the lightly sand till it is smooth and even
Two coats of color, then a quick light sanding.
Two coats of color, followed by light sanding until smooth an even.
Additional coats and polishing until desired color, smoothness, and depth achieved.
Two light even coats of clear, polishing after to remove any imperfections.

 

So I started my project last night and did the glove box and a few other pieces and I was going to take out the piece under the steering wheel (the one with the little glove box, if u will or w/e and the truck button) and it wouldn't come so I looked under it and there are a lot of clips! And looks like its not gonna wanna come out easy, that and it looks like it might be more then jus clips. Any one take this out before? Need help

 

Bump

 

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/general-cobalt-68/interior-48952/

this might help...theres a lot of discussion in thewre of various peoples methods and removing various parts

 

Well I got it out, it was 2 pieces not 1 like I thought! So I finished last night and it dropped down to 55 degrees out side. So I would have to paint the quickly bring the stuff in my house to dry. The stuff seams like its holdin up allright right now, could be stronger but ill have to wait and see. I still have to do my doors, A/B/C pillars and then the stuff in the back and the top of the arm rest. AGAIN. I cannot fint a product to dye the top of the armrest!!!!!!!!!! I went everywhere craft stores pats store walmart! Nothin. Then the guy at the part store said that I was dumb that its vinal not rubber and to use this dupli-color vilan and fabric spray paint and I said ill pass. Lol so I'm stumped! So right now any one with tips for that and tips on doin my door inserts please help. And how to make this paint stronger if I knew how to post pics I would??

 

How did the interior transition come out???
Pics of before and after. i have the same tan crap color scheme and i want to paint my interior black. Any advice???

 

ok so i have like 3 posts goin on now here in this section all the way from like a month ago when i started a month ago! sorry mods