A few years back I stripped off all the original paint on my FD's door arm rest panels and coated them with black Plasti-Dip. It actually looked pretty good and had a good texture, however after a few years it has started to wear around the edges. So a few days ago I pulled the panels out to re-finish them with SEM 15013 "Landau Black" (a great finish!). The second panel turned out great -- to remove the Plasti-Dip I soaked it in WD-40 for about an hour and the Plasti-Dip just rubbed right off with as cloth. However, I didn't know the WD-40 trick on the first panel, and instead first peeled as much Plasti-Dip off as I could by hand, then started sanding with a soft sanding block, and eventually used the Dremel with a sanding bit on it. That was a big mistake. The Dremel left a number of gouges and unevenness to the underlying plastic. See pics below of the finished "good" panel and "bad" panel.

Good:



Bad:







So what's the best way to fix this? I don't have a lot of experience with filling and sanding.. but if I wanted to try it what would you recommend as a filler? I know Chris Ott has a guy in TX that does a lot of FD arm rest restorations, I may call him and beg if I can send this to him to fix.

Input appreciated!!

 

Body filler

 

Can you be more specific?

 

Regular old bondo should work fine. Take it back down to the surface (by hand!), fill the depressions, sand (by hand!), and repaint.

 

^there's probably some youtube videos on that^

 

Yeah I haven't done any "bondo" type fill and sand work. It looks like Bondo only works on metal and not plastic however. I used SEM paint and they make a "High Build Primer" #42003 I might give that a shot.

 

High build primer *might* fill a sanding scratch from 250grit sand paper.

My rule of thumb in painting is best case scenario the part surface will look the same as before paint, just another color.

I would strip it back to plastic for adhesion, add some kind of plastic compatible filler, sand with a block decreasing in grit to ~400 grit, use a plastic adhesion promoting primer (or a plastic specific paint) and then your top coat.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to send it to Chris Cunningham at Auto Body Specialist in Garland TX as I know he does a lot of this work for Chriss Ott @ RP.

These things are hard to find and I don't need to be ******* it up any more than I already have.

 

You can also use JB-Weld instead on bondo. It's a little harder to sand but will adhere to the plastic.

 

A few things here.
First off the drivers door looks great.
Second, Bondo will stick to plastic, I’ve done it. I’m a custom cabinet maker by trade and we use Bondo on all sorts of materials. Metal, wood, laminate, primered material, etc (if you’re concerned, primer the part first, then bondo over the primer).
Third, that part is available new. I wouldn’t send it to a shop to do the body work. It’s probably cheaper or equal to buy a new one, especially if you’re a Mazda Motorsports member.

 

Wow, they are available new. That is simply amazing.

Unfortunately, $500 new is quite a bit more than Mr. Cunningham quoted me for the job. Really appreciate the input, though.

 

I believe the passenger side is only available new and it's the 94+ texture.

Anyways I have a pair of 93 trim pieces for sale if you're interested. I'll take 450 for them plus shipping. Passenger will need to be painted but is in great shape and already smooth for paint. I can provide pictures if you're interested.

250 for driver and 150 for passenger