Dash board Paint

[Indy007]

How hard do you guys think it is to repaint the wooden dash. It looks real ugly in my opinion. I thought that black would be nice, or even the body colour with a clearcoat. Has it been done (pics?)? I would think that repainting is easier than putting on a special foil (all that cutting and shaping). So if anyone has any experience, please give me some insight.

Thanks, Indy

[rob.ellis]

have a look at tony grasso's site:

www.black89lotus.com/nineth.html

I don't think the carbon fibre effect is too hard to fit. The end result looks great. Probably easier to do this than to prep and paint it IMO.

[pauli]

hi,

i shall be having my car retrimed soon, what i wasd going to do, is ask them to trim the comlete dash in leather to blend into the car (similear to s2 t.v.r), instead of the black which i have (88 turbo) which i think is going to look pretty trick and different. shouldn`t be two expensive just having the dash it`self done as you`ll have to strip it to paint anyway.

pauli

[andecorp]

There's a reason why the top of the dash is black. I saw an Esprit that had the dash changed to magnolia just like the rest of the interior and the reflection of the lighter dash in the windscreen made the car undriveble in the sun.

[Indy007]

How thick is that wood cover on the dash? Can I just peel it off, or do I have to grind it down? Or do you think it would be ok if I just put some primer on, some paint and a clearcoat (without removing the wood-cover)? I think that the dash in body colour would look pretty good. And then some parts of the center console could also be painted in glossy body colour.I saw a V8 interior on the net that had this done and it looked pretty good (except for the shift knob). But it was the new interior.

Indy

[Indy007]

Alright, I just did an extensive search on the internet (on painting the dash/console) and found some good information on the RX7 forum. They warn that sanding any of the consoles will always create scratches that will make the paint appear far from perfect. They suggest using some kind of paint remover.However, I doubt that the wood cover can be removed in such a way.If I peel it off, how smooth is the surface underneath?

[cnh1990]

You can sand off the finish and then seal it with sand sealer to get a perfect smooth finish. overcoating the finish is not good as it has a habit of cracking and will crack through the paint. another option is to have a veneer put over it. They do make a carbon fiber veneer. Also there is a place that can refinish it to better than stock finish a non craking type.