[Swero]

Hi,

My dashboard is a bit worn due to sunlight and heat probably. I was thinking about painting it but I'm not really sure if it will hold over time. Has anyone experience with painting it? Can it withstand sunlight, even long term?
Second thought was to wrap it but since there are a lot of roundings and corners etc., I 'm even less convinced that it will hold. Any thoughts?

 

[GUzdute]

Buy a dash mat.

 

[Bovril]

I tried stripping mine, then wrapping it, then I bought a dash mat!

 

[james008]

I've painted mine. Its held up ok, no noticeable fading over the last 5 years, there were a couple of small areas that lifted but i touched those up.
Use a plastic paint, and prep it VERY well. You will likely encounter vinyl/plastic dye aerosol type products. They are not dyes, they are paints, if you scratch or beat the surface up a bit it'll scratch just like any other paint. Done right the adhesion can be pretty decent, I have a UHF attached to the side of my centre console with double sided tape (didn't want to drill holes) and the paint has not peeled away. One strip of double sided tape failed before the paint did which I was impressed with.

 

[Swero]

A dashmat isn't really an option since my centre console is also worn. So the plan is to treat all interior parts now that everything is dissassembled. I think I'll go with painting it.

@james008, did you use a primer or just painted directly on the parts?

 

[james008]

Yes I did use a primer. Primer over a bare substrate is an important step of preparation for paint.
It was VHT adhesion promoter, I also used a VHT top coat.
Any primer designed for plastics should be okay as long as the top coat is compatible.

 

[Swero]

A little update, the painting worked out pretty well. I degreased all the parts and sanded them down, due to sunlight, the parts were brittle and tiny bits broke off. Next I putted a primer on and finally the top coat and matt varnish. I'm really satisfied with the result although I'm aware that I've to be carefull, especially on the spots which you touch the most, like the door grabs etc. I wanted to paint the dashboard and other parts of the interior since they were faded. The funny thing is, the paintjob on the parts that weren't faded is not that good as on the faded parts 🤪 Those parts are made from an other kind of plastic which is better resistant to UV but it also make the paint to not harden out

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