Hey all.
I did not like the grey interior color of my RX7 and wanted to change it to black. Well, it was beginning to become a nightmare trying to find all the pieces and also was looking to cost more $$ than I really wanted to spend.
I then had an idea...what about painting the interior pieces? I tried regular paint at first and it looked really bad and would flake off really easy.
I then found this stuff for rubber bumpers and tried it. Voila, it worked and the finished pieces looked great. Take a look at the before and after pic's and tell me what you guys think.
I also am using vinyl carpet paint for the carpet and it looks like it is going to work also. Here's the before and after pics...

 

Nice! My interior is already black, so I have no worries, but that definatly will look great! Nice Job!

 

Looks great! I may have to try that, what are you going to do about the dash, seat and carpet?

 

I am going to use the same on the dash( already tried a few of the small pieces and got the same results.)
I am going to have the seats recovered and for the carpet I am trying a stuff called vinyl and carpet paint. It makes the carpet a little stiff at first, but you take a brush and brush it out and it makes it soft again. The best thing about this is that is going to cost me under $20.00!
I will post some picks of the carpet as soon as it's done.

 

Lookin' Good!! Great job! I've been wondering how I would go about doing that..

Somebody get that man a beer! :>

 

On the plastic pieces it looks great and credits to you!
On the carpet, be wary. Most carpet is a closed pore synthetic that nothing sticks to long term. Keep us posted, please.

 

My prayers have been answered.
Now I just gotta figure something out for the headliner and the seats.

 

I think that I have the headliner figured out also. I purchased some RIT dye and I am going to dye it over the weekend. I will post a pic of it to show you guys how it looks.

 

I would love to see the results of yours.
But I'm thinking of a Black/White combo with the headliner possibly white. I figure it doesn't get touched so it may actually stay clean.

 

Where did you buy the paint?
And did it require any priming/preping to apply the paint to the pieces, or does it just stick right on?

 

 

*blink* i didn't see the pic

 

I purchased the paint at WallyWorld for $3.67 a can and I will not use over 2 cans for all the interior parts.
Here is a pic of the paint. I used the flat instead of the gloss.
The only thing I did was to clean the parts really good and then wiped them off with lacquer thinner. This cuts down on the orange peal effects when painting the parts.

 

I did the same thing to mine last year when I bought it. Only difference is that I used the charcoal grey to refresh my faded plastic. I used the flexible coating that SEM makes. I bought it a local auto body supply shop. After a year of sun and use it still looks great. It does not scratch and does not peel off. I used the SEM Plastic Prep as they rec....they say is softens up the top layer of the plastic. Don't know if the prep is needed but it's holding up great. I anyone wants the exact color for our grey ('87 TII) and the exact name of the paing let me know...I still have a can of it in the garage. I tried dyeing my carpet but it looked like crap so I just bought some at Lowes and cut and fit it myself. Took a few days but looks great now.

Todd

PS. New carpet was less than $50.00.

Todd

 

Hey im also going thru the same ordeal!...Instead of DUPLI-COAT im using PLASTI-COTE vinyl and carpet paint. I tried it on my old shift boost and that stuff really works. I was gonna try SEM but they cost like 8 bucks a can...Im might use the gloss black vinyl paint for all my interior pieces though....

What do you guys think about gloss black dash???...I mean people use ARMOR ALL dont they????..

 

I tried the gloss first, but you could tell it was painted. The flat looks completely factory. Especially the door sills where it says Mazda.
Try both but I bet you will like the flat a whole lot better.

 

hmm youre making me change my mind here man...Im gonna buy a flat black and see if i like it..

 

wow i'm doin that... it's gonna take some *****... well i need a winter project... cause my cars' take'n a break in the garage .. fukin snow.. do u use clear coat to help protect the painted surface? hmm i wonder how matalic red out look for the vents and around the shifter... maybe to Rice...?? U think you could use that carpet and vinyl paint on my seats?

 

oh um how much is it for ur seat to be re-done?.... kinda curious thanks

 

how hard is it to pull out the dash?
My friends and I just redid my friends interior in black in his 3rd gen camaro.
Wash beige and drey, but we luckily (very luckily) found a nice full black interior, just gotta get the small pieces which will probably be painted black and then maybe even get a new carpet (i doubt it) and new seats (racinging w/ 5 point camlocks). Should be a fun car :-)

But where can you get the carpet for $50?!?!?!

 

make sure to tell us about the headliner, mine is out right now and it would be a perfect time to dye a differnet color.

 

MAN i hate my blue interior.....I now have black corbeaus so i guess i'll give it a try.

 

headliner?