Painting Centre Console

[daleksean]

Have had a look around on the forum but can't find anything about painting the dash so I thought it's better to ask first.

What I would like to do is paint the centre console of my dash the same colour of my car (I45 Ottoman Blue) instead of the dull and boring grey I have just now. I'm contemplating painting the facia only or from the diagnostic cover right up to the windscreen air vent (the whole plastic centre of the dash). I actually got the idea from my friend who painted that dash of his Corsa and that looked quite cool. I've seen photos of Méganes with a painted dash and they look great. The problem I'm having is finding paint. Would I need to buy special paint or could I get away with using normal spray paint that comes in a can. My friend used spray paint but that was matte paint, I would like the colour of my car, which is metallic, which I can't seem to find in any shop, tried Halfords and several different other places and no one knows the colour.

So basically my question is, is there a special way to paint the centre console, would I need special paint and your opinion on which part/parts to paint.

[Meganeccdarren]

Paint from a can will be fine if you are a reasonable DIY person

1st prep the surface with a 1200 wet and dry to form a key

Next use a tac cloth to remove dust
Next spay a PLASTIC primer (again from halfords is fine) then 1200 wet and dry again lightly
Next the base coat, basically the colour of your car, several very light coats, not all at once or you will have runs, then 1200 wet and dry again
Finally a coat of lacquer from haldrords again, nice smooth action
Then your done

Few notes, take your time, the better the prep, the better the finish
If you invest your time in the prep, the finish will be good

Make sure you leave each coat to totally dry

Don't paint outside if there are flys about!

Hope this helps

Darren

[daleksean]

Thank You very much.

[Meganeccdarren]

Post us a picture when you are done.

Oh and when you use wet and dry use it wet with a bit of washing up liquid in the water and very lightly rub only

[daleksean]

I promice i'll send in a picture, as soon as its done and i work out how to upload pictures. Thank you for all your help.

[Meganeccdarren]

Here you go, this may help you to upload pictures

First you need the image you want to be shown on here uploaded to a webspace.
Myself or AndyAdmin can help you with that, or you can sign up to sites like Photobucket who will host these images for you for free!
Once uploaded to a webspace, you\'ll need the URL address for the image... it\'ll look something like https://webspace.com/image1.jpg.
You can get that by right clicking the image you want, and selecting properties
You\'ll see it listed in the middle of the pop up window, select it and copy it or note it down somewhere.
Once you have the URL address, in a posting or in the signature section of your profile, use an [img]tag%20followed%20the%20by%20URL%20address%20you%20copied%20from%20your%20properties%20box,%20finished%20with[/img] to close the tag

E.g.
would bring up my avatar


Regards

[daleksean]

I think I get it now, thanks. Let me try it our, this should be a photo of my car.

[daleksean]

that worked a treat, thanks ever so much

P.S. that isn't my house in the background, I wish it was.

[Meganeccdarren]

Yes that's the way to post piccys

Now get that console painted !!!!

[daleksean]

well finally got round to painting my dash, well not really painting it. I tried to be slightly different so here's a before.


And here's an after. What do you all think?

[freelanderuk]

looks very nice

[Dynamiquetwo]

Thats a well turned out job well done

[freelanderuk]

what did you use to do this

[daleksean]

Thanks all, the process is called Hydro Dipping. I got one of my freinds to do it for me as its kind of a specialist process.

[ibiker]

Looks great mate.