Recoloring plastic/vinyl interior surfaces

[Dr.Jeff]

With so many of the US spec X's having the "trud brown" interior, a complete color change is certainly desirable. But redoing the entire interior to a new color can be a huge task, and quite costly. Some things aren't extremely difficult to change, especially if you already need to recover the upholstered surfaces or carpet any way. But other areas are not so easy, like the dash/console, all the little trims areas around the front and rear windows, etc. Particularly the ones that are really involved to gain full access to; having to remove the dash or those windows in order to replace the vinyl coverings around them is a major job.

Short of a "cost is no object show car" interior, it may be best to "recolor" some surfaces rather than replace or recover them. There are some good vinyl dyes available that do a decent job. The better ones can be a bit difficult to find and expensive once you do (particularly with the cost to ship them). Worse yet, they tend to only come in a rather limited selection of colors.

So I've been considering options, utilizing readily available products that come in a wide range of colors, finishes, and effects, and won't break the bank. One possibility might be to start with a "adhesion promoter" product (after cleaning and prepping the surface) to allow the use of almost any paint over it. These products work really well to make regular finishes bond to difficult surfaces like plastics, urethanes, vinyls, etc. I've had excellent success using it to paint aftermarket urethane spoilers - something that is particularly hard to do. Today I was at one of my favorite hardware stores and was shocked to see the price for a small spray can of "Bulldog" - one of the common, midrange, adhesion promoter products - was $30! The last time I bought some a few years ago it was about the same price as a decent can of spray paint (~ $8). What the hell happened there? There is a less costly one from Dupli-Color available at some stores but I've never found Dupli-Color products to be that great. So to redo an entire interior with this method may not be as affordable as I thought.

Another option may be to use one of the paints formulated specifically for plastic surfaces. Krylon "Fusion for Plastic" is an example. The label guarantees it will adhere to any plastic and not peel, including in outdoor environments. I've never tried it but that sounds encouraging. Anyone have first hand experience with any of those products?

There are some incredibly durable two-part finishes that bond well to just about any surface. An example of these is some of the truck bed liner products. One from U-Pol leaves a relatively smooth surface with just enough texture to hide blemishes and it can be painted over. However it would only be good for certain places, like the dash and console.

I've heard of other possible approaches to recoloring vinyl or plastic surfaces, but they tend to not work well. What have you tired and how well did it work?

 

[kmead]

With so many of the US spec X's having the "trud brown" interior, a complete color change is certainly desirable. But redoing the entire interior to a new color can be a huge task, and quite costly. Some things aren't extremely difficult to change, especially if you already need to recover the upholstered surfaces or carpet any way. But other areas are not so easy, like the dash/console, all the little trims areas around the front and rear windows, etc. Particularly the ones that are really involved to gain full access to; having to remove the dash or those windows in order to replace the vinyl coverings around them is a major job.

Short of a "cost is no object show car" interior, it may be best to "recolor" some surfaces rather than replace or recover them. There are some good vinyl dyes available that do a decent job. The better ones can be a bit difficult to find and expensive once you do (particularly with the cost to ship them). Worse yet, they tend to only come in a rather limited selection of colors.

So I've been considering options, utilizing readily available products that come in a wide range of colors, finishes, and effects, and won't break the bank. One possibility might be to start with a "adhesion promoter" product (after cleaning and prepping the surface) to allow the use of almost any paint over it. These products work really well to make regular finishes bond to difficult surfaces like plastics, urethanes, vinyls, etc. I've had excellent success using it to paint aftermarket urethane spoilers - something that is particularly hard to do. Today I was at one of my favorite hardware stores and was shocked to see the price for a small spray can of "Bulldog" - one of the common, midrange, adhesion promoter products - was $30! The last time I bought some a few years ago it was about the same price as a decent can of spray paint (~ $8). What the hell happened there? There is a less costly one from Dupli-Color available at some stores but I've never found Dupli-Color products to be that great. So to redo an entire interior with this method may not be as affordable as I thought.

Another option may be to use one of the paints formulated specifically for plastic surfaces. Krylon "Fusion for Plastic" is an example. The label guarantees it will adhere to any plastic and not peel, including in outdoor environments. I've never tried it but that sounds encouraging. Anyone have first hand experience with any of those products?

There are some incredibly durable two-part finishes that bond well to just about any surface. An example of these is some of the truck bed liner products. One from U-Pol leaves a relatively smooth surface with just enough texture to hide blemishes and it can be painted over. However it would only be good for certain places, like the dash and console.

I've heard of other possible approaches to recoloring vinyl or plastic surfaces, but they tend to not work well. What have you tired and how well did it work?

I think Bobkat’s thread is testament to how far one can take an X’s interior with vinyl dye/paint. Given what he has demonstrated suggests those methods would be best to follow.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

I think Bobkat’s thread is testament to how far one can take an X’s interior with vinyl dye/paint. Given what he has demonstrated suggests those methods would be best to follow.
View attachment 50169

I'll have to go back and look at what products he used.

In the past I think I've only recolored existing vinyl once before. Typically I either can live with the original color (not possible with Fiat's brown) or I do a complete interior change with all new materials. The vinyl die I used back then worked fine, but I remember it only came in a couple of colors. Looking at the current products there is more selection available now, but not quite what I want (at least not in the well trusted brands I'm familiar with). So I was wondering if other products might work instead of the traditional vinyl dies...given the multitude of new technology that is on the market today.

 

[Mark]

I’ve used the SEM products on several cars, all with great results:
I changed a complete blue Scorpion interior to black, including the seats. I had a Spider 2000 with a red interior that needed one seat and half the rear seat reupholstered. I sprayed everything including the newly upholstered seats so everything matched. I color matched my Scorpion’s dash to the leather seats with a custom blend. I reshot all the blue plastic and vinyl in my Toyota 4x4 to correct for fading.
Never had any peeling or wear issues. I prefer to shoot it through a gun, but have used the aerosol for smaller projects.

With so many of the US spec X's having the "trud brown" interior, a complete color change is certainly desirable. But redoing the entire interior to a new color can be a huge task, and quite costly. Some things aren't extremely difficult to change, especially if you already need to recover the upholstered surfaces or carpet any way. But other areas are not so easy, like the dash/console, all the little trims areas around the front and rear windows, etc. Particularly the ones that are really involved to gain full access to; having to remove the dash or those windows in order to replace the vinyl coverings around them is a major job.

Short of a "cost is no object show car" interior, it may be best to "recolor" some surfaces rather than replace or recover them. There are some good vinyl dyes available that do a decent job. The better ones can be a bit difficult to find and expensive once you do (particularly with the cost to ship them). Worse yet, they tend to only come in a rather limited selection of colors.

So I've been considering options, utilizing readily available products that come in a wide range of colors, finishes, and effects, and won't break the bank. One possibility might be to start with a "adhesion promoter" product (after cleaning and prepping the surface) to allow the use of almost any paint over it. These products work really well to make regular finishes bond to difficult surfaces like plastics, urethanes, vinyls, etc. I've had excellent success using it to paint aftermarket urethane spoilers - something that is particularly hard to do. Today I was at one of my favorite hardware stores and was shocked to see the price for a small spray can of "Bulldog" - one of the common, midrange, adhesion promoter products - was $30! The last time I bought some a few years ago it was about the same price as a decent can of spray paint (~ $8). What the hell happened there? There is a less costly one from Dupli-Color available at some stores but I've never found Dupli-Color products to be that great. So to redo an entire interior with this method may not be as affordable as I thought.

Another option may be to use one of the paints formulated specifically for plastic surfaces. Krylon "Fusion for Plastic" is an example. The label guarantees it will adhere to any plastic and not peel, including in outdoor environments. I've never tried it but that sounds encouraging. Anyone have first hand experience with any of those products?

There are some incredibly durable two-part finishes that bond well to just about any surface. An example of these is some of the truck bed liner products. One from U-Pol leaves a relatively smooth surface with just enough texture to hide blemishes and it can be painted over. However it would only be good for certain places, like the dash and console.

I've heard of other possible approaches to recoloring vinyl or plastic surfaces, but they tend to not work well. What have you tired and how well did it work?

 

[Dr.Jeff]

I’ve used the SEM products on several cars, all with great results:
I changed a complete blue Scorpion interior to black, including the seats. I had a Spider 2000 with a red interior that needed one seat and half the rear seat reupholstered. I sprayed everything including the newly upholstered seats so everything matched. I color matched my Scorpion’s dash to the leather seats with a custom blend. I reshot all the blue plastic and vinyl in my Toyota 4x4 to correct for fading.
Never had and peeling or wear issues. I prefer to shoot it through a gun, but have used the aerosol for smaller projects.
View attachment 50181
View attachment 50183
View attachment 50182

Agree, although I haven't used their vinyl die, SEM is a good brand for several products.

 

[Kurt]

We used spray paint on the door cards, can’t remember which kind probably krylon. I’ll get some pics next time. We taped off the two lines and made them red to match the exterior and left the rear black looks really good.

 

[Bobkat]

I have uses SEM, Duplicolor and Leatherique.ca dies. Al work great The leatherique leather dyes (there are other leather restoration dyes) can be mixed to any color (almost) and sprayed in many ways. My X is a combination of new material, new material that has been dyed and old X bits that have been dyed.

 

[dnudelman]

+1 on Leatherique, the dyes and the leather restoration system. I've used it on interiors of both a Rover P5 and an Alfa 164.

 

[Kurt]

Here’s the red inserts just sprayed inside the design on the door cards. I believe we used krylon and taped them off it was quite a few years ago.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

I guess I should add a link to the thread showing how I redid my dash from brown to black using truck bed liner:

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