I bought a new head unit and front speakers last night at BB to replace the aging Aiwa unit and stock fronts.

Since you have to disassemble most of the dash to get the radio out I had the center switch console and HVAC controls out.

My interior, plastic wise, is in very very poor shape. Vinyl held up to near perfection but the plastic just sucks. Lots of scratches and the previous own seems to have spilled pop on the HVAC lower console and left it there...for probably 4-5 years...

I tested out the new Fusion black paint. I wanted Matte but went with Satin since I could not find Matte and Gloss would just look silly. I've heard there are a couple of other brands, anyone recommend a better one?

I pulled apart the ash tray, and using someone elses direction on here sanded it with 180 to get the old stuff off, then with 400 to smooth it out. I test painted a part after just doing the 180 and was very impressed, better than OEM look IMO.

I created another album on my Yahoo site to track the progress. There are pics of my utterly disgusting HVAC cover, which is currently soaking in hot water and soap, along with the ash tray pieces after sanding.

I will have painted pics up very soon, I went back to repaint those two pieces and dropped the can on the floor which left me a nice spot on the garage.

I'll take wagers on whatever the hell that guy spilled on the console, I scrubbed it with a brillo pad and it won't come off, just gums up more.

Today I'll be doing the center console as a bigger test. Mine is cracked and needs to be replaced anyways, but I'll do it for color matching and seeing how I like it.

More pics to come.

 

Just a quick update. I just finished the first coat and it came out great.

I added 2 pics that showed it painted, not the greatest shots I really need a Macro lens for the camera.

I put on the second coat and started sanding the HVAC stack.

 

How about some pics or a link to your Yahoo photoalbum?

 

Suppose that would help eh?

Sorry about that

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/econnelle@sbcglobal.net

Its under Interior Pics

 

Added pic of the HVAC center stack.

This stuff kicks ***! I cannot believe the difference in the parts afterwards.

They say 7 days to be chip resistant so I'm going to let it cure the full 7 days.

Apparently I'm not the furst one to try to paint this piece, it was a pain to get off the old paint and it wasn't like the rest of the interior pieces.

Best advice is to take your time, under close scrutinty I can find a few errors, just places where I did not smooth it well enough and in the curved sections where the selector and temp **** is.

The wife cleaned the crap out of the backing stickers but they were still in poor shape, might try to find some new ones before I reassemble things.

I have to hit the edges with some more paint but like the rest of it, so I'm going to let it cure and mask off the good spots then spot paint them.

Doors and switch console are next.

If anyone is considering doing this, I would, its a very very easy job, the good thing about the 93's is the paint was so crappy it basically falls off with 180 grit, then 400 to smooth. Take your time and follow the directions, 3-4 passes 8 inches away, wait 30 seconds, another 3-4 passes, quick ones. Let it sit 15 minutes and do another 2 passes.

The ashtray and that took me 2 series, the HVAC cluster took 4, but I fixed a few sanding errors after the first coat.

The last couple of pics are the finished product.