I just bought a 91 with a jdm tii swap. Mechanically, everything is great but the cosmetics leave a bit to be desired (but the price of the car makes up for it tenfold),
The bodywork needed is fairly straightforward (just a few dings) so i'll do most of it myself. The big problem however, is the interior.

The previous owner went through a bit of a Fast & Furious stage a few years back and spray-painted most of the plastic dash pieces white. The paint is all drippy, you can see through it in a few spots, there's some over-spray, and generally looks like ***. The guy is a friend of mine so i've been making fun of him about this for years, i even got his tuner to chime in about it (always in good humor though). Anyway, now the car is mine, and i'm trying to figure out what to do about it.

I don't want to just re-spray it black because of the obvious drips in the white that will show through. Sanding will probably just make it look too smooth and weird. Is there any way to dissolve the paint; at least to the point where i have a good enough surface to use black vinyl dye on? And what should i do about the overspray on the softer parts? Would nail polish remover take care of that without messing things up?

If nothing else works, I'm thinking of just wrapping those plastic parts in some sot of vinyl that somewhat matches the rest of the dash.

Any thoughts?

 

before you scrap that stuff bring a piece over to your local line-x spray bedliner dealer and let them give it a shot. you might be pleasantly surprised.

t

 

Bed-liner actually sounds like a really good idea. Do you have any experience with this? Also, what do you think about that textured spray-paint stuff?

 

never used the textured spray paint, but I had a crusty old golf cart that I restored done in line-x. their stuff is thinner than most and goes on grainy, not goopy, so it may work for an interior. its hard to see in the picture, but they actually get a nice even pebble finish.

t

 

That cart came out great! I actualy don't think there's a line-x dealer anywhere conveniently close. There's a rhino-liner dealer about 20 minutes from me, but after looking at a friend's rhinoed truck bed I think their stuff would go on a little thick for dash pieces. I guess I'll go get a can of that spray paint stuff and test it on a spare piece of trim from my old mr2. If that sucks, I'll probably make the trip to a line-x place.

 

I'll be very interested in how it turns out.

 

I went with the spray paint method.


The before. I got this piece from a junkyard for my mr2. Apparantly the last owner of that car went through the same rebellious teenage spray-painting stage as the previous owner of my rx7.


These are the two paints I used.


After lightly sanding with 240 grit and applying 2 layers of the rock texture stuff.


After a thin layer of the regular semi-gloss paint. The glare makes the texture look a little crazier than it actually is. Please excuse the messy workbench.

I like how this piece came out and i'll definitely do the same to the trim in my FC once I get it back from the shop. Stay tuned.