Painting interior plastic trim - talk to me please

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:20 am

Collected the leather interior for my C5 from @confused last weekend.
Firstly massive thanks to him for picking it up and transporting to Colchester, secondly, was great to see the Anglia for real - very impressive stuff!

Should be a decent handful to drive

Now onto the main purpose of the thread...
The door cards have some small bits of fake wood trim. As fake wood goes, it looks ok, but isn't the look I want and doesn't go with the rest of the interior. The trim can't be removed (without leaving the rest of the door card as a real mess). I want to paint it a titanium silver type colour, but I've not done any interior plastic trim painting before so would like some advice please

The existing trim pieces have something like a lacquer coat on top of the main plastic. Rather than a sprayed paint coat, it's just another layer of plastic I think. It's slightly soft to touch with a nail.

Would I be right in thinking the process I need to go through is;

Give the surface a light key using a scotchbrite pad
Mask all round
Spray over with plastic primer
Spray over again with top coat (ordinary Halfords exterior car paint)
Job done?

Have I missed anything there?
Do I need to rub right through the current 'lacquer' layer to get to the proper plastic underneath? (not sure I can be arsed with that and I can see it becoming just a squidgy rubbed mess, rather than stripping off properly!)
Do I need to lacquer over the top of the 'top coat' or is that not necessary?

Thanks all

Post by **Donald** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 11:07 am

When I did my Prelude ones I just used some wet and dry and went for it. Looked spot on.

bennyboy · Post by **bennyboy** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 11:37 am

No you shouldn't need to take the top layer off.
I would use a 'proper' paint for the job though. The yanks pretty much have this stuff sewn up IMO - Things like plasticote really are very good, as usual it's a case of doing the preparation properly.
You wan't something that will give so as not to crack with heat/cold, and you want a good keyed surface.

bb1boy · Post by **bb1boy** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 11:42 am

Also make sure surface is super clean with panel wipe or something similar.. years of greasy, oily fingerprints for the paint to react with..

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:12 pm

bennyboy wrote: I would use a 'proper' paint for the job though.

Thanks - Only problem is I can only seem to find that stuff in flat colours, whereas I want a metallic finish? (the other inserts on the interior of my car i.e. dash centre panel are silver).
I want something a bit darker than silver on the doors (hence titanium) but it still needs to be sparkly, otherwise I think it'll look pants

Any suggestions?

bennyboy · Post by **bennyboy** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:15 pm

Odd - I'm looking at a metallic silver, gold and a 'chrome' in plasictcote as we speak.

Maybe it's just the range available to you?
They do a nice clear lacquer too btw.

EDIT to say that I'll be doing this at some point on the trim in the CR-V - It's just rubbed off on corners etc and a nice new coat of titanium or similar will do the trick.

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:16 pm

bennyboy wrote: EDIT to say that I'll be doing this at some point on the trim in the CR-V - It's just rubbed off on corners etc and a nice new coat of titanium or similar will do the trick.

Great - so where do we get it from?

bennyboy · Post by **bennyboy** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:18 pm

Of all places, I just get mine locally from Wilkinsons (WIlko's) - Thye seem to have a very good range.

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:25 pm

No plasticote stuff listed.
Is it this stuff?
http://www.wilko.com/paint+woodcare/met ... size=150ml
(unhelpful/useless search filters on that site...)

bennyboy · Post by **bennyboy** » Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:27 pm

Agreed - their search is SH1TE!
Odd, I wonder if they've stopped selling it?

I'm going there later, I'll have a look for you.