I found some tricks to painting.... Options

[Chrobis]

Well I doubt there tricks but yeh... Anyways I just finished painting alot of pieces in my dash, I used the krylon paint for plastic, I actually bought it at Auto Zone for $4.99 a can, used about 3 cans (trial and error) and I also got some clear coat from auto zone, it was dupont and was actualy made for the exterior paint but it worked great! Its nice and shiny and glossy. Well just some additional tips I kinda found out...

1. Use Denatured alchohol (get at a hardware store) and clean your pieces like your life depends on it!

2. Use LINT FREE clothes, one of my bigger mistakes

3. Take your time, be prepared to drive without a dash for a day or so... Apply very small coats at a time it will come out better then rushing!

4. Highly Recomend clear coat cause without it it looks kinda dull and clashes with the rest of the dash a little (especially if it has Armor All)

5. Dont use to much paint cause then the pieces dont want to go back in to the car (another of my bad mistakes...)

6. (Here is an actual trick I think I found out) To get a very smooth finish you can take a little paint THINNER (not remoover) and wipe it down till its smooth, just a little! I found that even with the paint and clear coat it was still a litlle grainy, so the paint thinner smoothed it out very nice, USE ONLY IN MODERATION! you dont want to thin so much the black starts to show back through!

I will post my pics asap. BTW I did it in white and it looks great against the black, and its really cool at night with my XPLOD unit open with the blue light glowing onto the white, I might actually think about getting interior neons or somethin...

Also: When I put the cig lighter back together the light would not work anymore Any sugestions on how to fix it?

This post has been edited by Chrobis: May 22, 2003 - 1:29 AM

[mywhite94celicag...]

dude, maybe you have the same head unit as me, check out my profile, i bet we have the same $hit.

[Chrobis]

yeh pretty close or the same, but sony made alot of different xplod active black panel radios with the flip and blue light, but more or less my dash looks about the same as yours, but I need my indiglo guages to come in (group buy) and I dont have the cool guages under the radio... But yeh my head unit glows just like your night pic, looks awesome!

edit: <cough> I just relized I used the word awesome <cough> <cough>

This post has been edited by Chrobis: May 22, 2003 - 9:51 PM

[94TRDCeli]

IMO i always thought the white kinda looked cheap...not trying to start anything but some pics i see looks like it was put on way to thick and whatnot, which it may look way better in person....ill post pics of my stuff im painting sometime this weekend and then you can say whatever

[Chrobis]

everyone is entilted to their opinion, constructive critisism...

I saw you made a comment about that one celica with the 20's and hydro's, I thought it was good for someone to speak up (the car is <COUGH> ugly <COUGH>)

but anyways with a white car what color could you paint the dash? Blue? a little to much for me, and the white and black is a nice oposite tone, just like doggy's silver and black 2 tone...

but I am not offended

[94TRDCeli]

and dont get me wrong it may look completely different in person, and i think it looks ok as long as it isnt done too thick..for example some of mywhite94celicagt....it just looks like too much but yea i guess your right about the fact its a white car so some stuff would look contrasting and what not

[Ghost]

I'd paint the entire dash white and leave the inserts another color. Maybe have them wood grain or carbon fiber...personally I don't think anything looks better than white against wood grain. Very nice tips though, i'll take them into account if I plan on doing the dash myself.

[boosted_K2]

i also have the same cd player sony CDX-M730, i love it but i bought it right after they came out.... 350 bucks down the tubes

[Chrobis]

yeh I originally had one but it got stolen, the insurance replaced it with basically the same unit but with the detachable face option. Originaly paid $300 for it. Now my current one is all faded on the black panel side and I almost always have it in the open position. I also cant stand that there is no ATT button on the actual unit, only on the remote. And there is no pause, play, stop, or mute functions....