As promised in the FB channel post, I wanted to share with the community how we did this as well as trials and tribulations. Attached are the TDS' for the products as well so when you go to your local body shop you can help by being prepared!
Stripping:
The first question we had was how. Some folks used oven cleaner and other harsh chemicals, but me being the purist and nerd I am as well as the black gauge pods being perfectly fine, I wanted to preserve it and after some testing in inconspicuous areas, I found they all removed the black too which sent me back to the drawing board. What worked and worked well... 91% rubbing alcohol - $4 from my local dollar general. The original finish on the dash is an organic rubber based material that as it ages begins to break down causing it to get sticky and mark up (ever notice your remote controls or other older electronics doing the same? likely because guess what, same stuff and same remedy works there too). See link at end for detailed pics!
Masking:
Some folks have asked how the masking was done as well for the gauge pods. Using a CriCut and FBS Pro Band Blue Mask stock @3.10" diameter we were able to cut circles to match and fine line tape for larger gauge pods.
Painting:
Now the fun... What finishes, brands, colors, etc. do we use to mirror the original soft touch rubber like feel and to that, what color.
Color... I used this post as my starting point which gave us the trim code (I'm working on a 1994 not 1995 but its the same and final pics will show you that). Once we had the trim codes, we went to the local autobody supply had an ounce made up of black and color (needed some touch ups on black after using the harsh stuff).
Links to paint is below, but one thing to note here. We did experience some cracking/lifting/separation in the glove box door and the dash itself! Even with adhesion promoter, its almost like the solvents were too hot in the paint and caused the plastic to melt too much creating a cracking effect. Fortunately this happened in the paint layer and was solved with multiple attempts and stripping the paint off and lightly laying the paint seemed to help.
The paint used was PPG Deltron DBI which is their interior based paint where primer and clear aren't required. They're meant to lay on straight plastic. See pics below for actual paint codes and label from can.
DBI TDS
Now for that soft loving touch. PPG makes an industrial coating call Velvcron Softtouch Clear in their Vibrance collection. This gives that soft luxurious feel with UV protection and most importantly, scratch resistant! The thing to note here is its only available in a quart (we used about half of that with all our f-ing around) and with hardener and misc. supplies was over $300, oh I should mention too, the DBI paint is also $20 an ounce, so this won't be a cheap venture!
Pictures!
I can only post 5 pictures for some reason, so I placed them in a google album for yinz. If an admin wants to make this a how-to or pay gate it like other how-tos, just let me know we can upload these in thread!
Stripping:
The first question we had was how. Some folks used oven cleaner and other harsh chemicals, but me being the purist and nerd I am as well as the black gauge pods being perfectly fine, I wanted to preserve it and after some testing in inconspicuous areas, I found they all removed the black too which sent me back to the drawing board. What worked and worked well... 91% rubbing alcohol - $4 from my local dollar general. The original finish on the dash is an organic rubber based material that as it ages begins to break down causing it to get sticky and mark up (ever notice your remote controls or other older electronics doing the same? likely because guess what, same stuff and same remedy works there too). See link at end for detailed pics!
Masking:
Some folks have asked how the masking was done as well for the gauge pods. Using a CriCut and FBS Pro Band Blue Mask stock @3.10" diameter we were able to cut circles to match and fine line tape for larger gauge pods.
Painting:
Now the fun... What finishes, brands, colors, etc. do we use to mirror the original soft touch rubber like feel and to that, what color.
Color... I used this post as my starting point which gave us the trim code (I'm working on a 1994 not 1995 but its the same and final pics will show you that). Once we had the trim codes, we went to the local autobody supply had an ounce made up of black and color (needed some touch ups on black after using the harsh stuff).
Links to paint is below, but one thing to note here. We did experience some cracking/lifting/separation in the glove box door and the dash itself! Even with adhesion promoter, its almost like the solvents were too hot in the paint and caused the plastic to melt too much creating a cracking effect. Fortunately this happened in the paint layer and was solved with multiple attempts and stripping the paint off and lightly laying the paint seemed to help.
The paint used was PPG Deltron DBI which is their interior based paint where primer and clear aren't required. They're meant to lay on straight plastic. See pics below for actual paint codes and label from can.
DBI TDS
Now for that soft loving touch. PPG makes an industrial coating call Velvcron Softtouch Clear in their Vibrance collection. This gives that soft luxurious feel with UV protection and most importantly, scratch resistant! The thing to note here is its only available in a quart (we used about half of that with all our f-ing around) and with hardener and misc. supplies was over $300, oh I should mention too, the DBI paint is also $20 an ounce, so this won't be a cheap venture!
Pictures!
I can only post 5 pictures for some reason, so I placed them in a google album for yinz. If an admin wants to make this a how-to or pay gate it like other how-tos, just let me know we can upload these in thread!
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