Painting plastic on interior of car?

IDMTmedic

Gravity Guru
My neighbor came over about an hour ago and asked if I could airbrush the console between the seats of his Mercedes he is trying to sell. I looked at it and said I would give it a try. So if I treat this as the laptop I got advice on then are these the steps I need? Buy 1000 grit sandpaper, degreaser, scotch bright and apply base coat, match the color and paint. I don't have any clear coat and nothing to spray it with. Any problems if I don't clear coat? Anybody tried painting anything like this? Advice welcomed and appreciated.
 
Hi IDMT - yeah ferret might be able to help out on this one also - we used to paint items like this ourselves just using basecoat.

anyway, here's how; use only light grade scotch brite to rub it back and don't push too hard! you can be firm but don't scratch into the plastic.
after that wipe over it all with a light application of wax and grease remover.
spray one coat of adhesion promoter - specially made for plastics.
color match your color.
Now at work we would add about 5% hardener to our basecoat - the hardener was the same hardener as we used in our clearcoat. so any 2 part system hardener. You can get away without using this but the paint won't be as durable.
apply your basecoat evenly until covered.

Congratulate yourself, you're a vehicle restorer. BOOM!:highly_amused:
 
Good morning IDMT ,the most important thing is to match the paint ,you should be able to buy a rattle can already mixed especially as you state you have no spray gun as such .If it is textured and has damage you can also buy texture coat in a rattle can . Some have different grade cans some have just a different nozzle to give the effect .Another way to reproduce the exact texture is to use a piece of artist silly putty on a good piece of interior apply a little pressure and hey presto you have a mould for texturing .Just apply your mould over the textured area lightly and this will make the rattle can texture look the same as the original .Once dry if its a bit too obvious use a 2000 grade disc lightly knock the top back a touch .Now you can apply your top colour .If you use a waterbased item you may need a sealer over the top ,we used to use a silicone spray once dry . With the prep really just as Mitch has said previously but make sure you give it the degreaser as you will get bad effects if all polish residue is not removed . One last little trick that may work for you if its just a colour repair in standard plastic trim is to just gently heat the effected area with a hair dryer ,No i am not mad ,it appears that a lot of plastics will regain the original colour with the gentle application of heat .I hope some of this will help with your repair /project .
 
Thank you two soooooooo much. Helped alot!!!!!! Posted some pics before and after. Quick 100 bucks. IMG_0482.jpgIMG_0483.jpgIMG_0484.jpgIMG_0487.jpgIMG_0489.jpg
 
IDMT from the pics you made a good job of that ,but you under charged the fella unless the parts were removed from the car ?. These type of jobs can be great earners .
 
I was going to do it for free for practice and I didn't have to remove anything just tape it off. Learned ALOT but not sure I wanna do another. He was happy with it though.
 
Turned out really good. You'll run into these kind of things when people hear you airbrush. They can help recoup your supplies, and what not.
 
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