dashboard painting
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Fiberglass, Fabrication, and Interiors
Forum Discription: Fiberglass Kick Panels, Subwoofer Enclosures, Plexiglas, Fabrics, Materials, Finishes, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=75527
Printed Date: May 19, 2024 at 9:11 AM
Topic: dashboard painting
Posted By: unreality
Subject: dashboard painting
Date Posted: April 01, 2006 at 9:37 PM
Hey, there was a post a while ago, I've quoted the first post at the bottom, it states a primer mix can be used on dashes, could a regular spray-can primer work to the same purpose? What kinds would be reccomended? and help would be greatly appreciated, thanks all! Craig McKee Quote follows: "I have done some searching and have found alot of people fiberglass their dashboards just to have a shiny look, and not actually manipulate it in any way. I have found one way to get the same result as FG without the hassles is to take a little dupont urethane primer, mix it with a little flex additive and spray liberally once the surface is prepped properly. This mixture provides a high build filler, taking out the texture in most dashes, and can be wet sanded and before final paint application to look like glass. I have found this is alot less time consuming than the fg application and wont give you the cheesy result of just painting the stock pieces. Hope this helps some of you."
Replies:
Posted By: mr.audiophile
Date Posted: April 02, 2006 at 9:08 AM
Yes, some fiber glass to smooth it. Some dashes just have a rubberized coating which you can sand off until its smooth. I forget the name of it, but there is canned primers you can buy for plastics.
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Posted By: mr.audiophile
Date Posted: April 02, 2006 at 9:14 AM
Ok found it. Its for model cars and other plastics. It's called Tamiya. You can probely find it at a near by hobby shop. ------------- Checkout my self installed system. Just click on my homepage.
Posted By: unreality
Date Posted: April 04, 2006 at 2:17 PM
well, I couldn't find that specific primer, so I bought a can of scratch filler/primer at Canadian Tire, and took a small piece of the dash to try this out. evidently it'll need about 5 billion coats before it's any semblance of smooth, although I may be going about it using the wrong method [get the piece, clean it, prime, wait to dry, prime again, do that a few times, lightly sand, prime and dry, etc] I've decided to bondo the dash, if I have read enough, the following process should work, if anyone sees something wrong, please let me know sand with 120 grit to get a bit of roguhness, and then go nuts with a heavy grit to scratch the heck out of it, dust to get rid of, well, dust, then bondo, sand, bondo, sand, primer, sand, repeate untill done. I'm assuming I should use Bondo-Glas, although someones opinio of using regular Bond body filler would be appreciated. As well to see if I have the right idea for bondoing the dash. Thanks for any and all help! Craig McKee
Posted By: austincustoms
Date Posted: April 07, 2006 at 9:46 PM
don't use bondo brand anything. It's all crap.
Posted By: paintguy
Date Posted: April 08, 2006 at 12:59 PM
What type of plastic is it? Hard, soft?
Since you're up for a LOT of sanding, why don't you just sand the texture out of the plastic so it only requires a little primer, rather than trying to cover over it with filler or primer?
It'll probably take the same amount of time, but cost you less as you'll not need layer after layer of products. Much less likely to shrink/crack/peel too.
Posted By: gus1
Date Posted: April 08, 2006 at 10:20 PM
I would suggest snding it as smooth as possible.... 320grit smooth. To get any actual filler or paint material to stick to this surface once sanded, you will need some form of adhesion promoter. Notice I did not say primer. Most dashes are made out of some form of TPE or PPE based plastic (Polypropolene). It is a rather slippery type of plastic that responds well to temperature variences that are found in vehicles without cracking/discoloring/breaking down.
We use a spraycan product from a company called "car Groom" that is a plastic adhesion promoter for this type of plastic. Once the plastic is cleaned very well with gunwash to remove all greases/oils/armorall, a couple coats of this goes on. You can then fill right on top (if it needs filling.... obviously, it needs to be roughed up) If the part is just getting painted, then it gets the promoter, then a primer coat or two, then, final paint. Works very well, the only thing that it diesn't get along with is expoxy.
Give this stuff a try..... it works.
USC/Motron TPO Adhesion Stuff
Gus
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