My bad if this has been covered, but looking to respray speaker vents and possibly the door cards on my ‘93 with tan interior. Any help matching the color would be greatly appreciated

 

nothing you do will work. keep in mind the interior of your car also has a 30 year patina on it. you cant get that from a can even if you were to find the EXACT color.

 

I haven't seen too many people talking about it on this forum but I do see the Miata guys talking about using SEM spray paint in Camel color iirc to restore tan interior plastics. Might be similar... Might not... But it's a starting point for research.

 

Most interior plastic surfaces are likely to have armorall-type silicones present. Those do not play well with any paint/dye. Washing with a detergent usually isn’t enough. I’d recommend that before applying anything, visit a automotive paint supply house for a cleaner. Enamel reducer, even brake parts cleaner, can be used in a pinch. In addition to cleaning, if you use a sprayer rather than an aerosol can, there are also anti-“fish eye” additives available.

 

The problem you're going to have refinishing the tan plastics if you're only doing a few pieces is going to be getting a perfect color & texture/patina match with the rest of it. Refinishing parts of a black interior is much more forgiving in that regard, so you can typically refinish a few panels here and there and it would look fine.

The SEM paint products are the way to go, as they do a great job if you follow all the preparation & application instructions to the letter. I did a tan-to-black conversion on my FD's interior plastics and it looks great and has held up well for 2+ years now, though the car is garaged. So your best option if you want to keep it tan is to refinish ALL the plastics with a suitable matching SEM paint product. Big job, and always risks breaking brittle plastic bits, since everything will need to be removed from the car for proper prep & painting.

 

thanks very helpful. Process and lot’s of patience for sure. Feel like I’m performing surgery when disassembling the parts. And thorough cleaning any old dirt, oil and grease to prevent fisheye is my biggest fear. So again, appreciate the input!

 

+1 on the SEM stuff. color will be different than the miata, maybe. Miata has like 3 different shades of tan depending on the year and model