Question, I have a pair of kick panels and an arm rest backing cover that are all green in color for my 71 GS convertible. I need to have them re-dyed due to fading and get them looking factory fresh again. They are in good shape however the years have taken it's toll on them. Does anyone provide this service? Thanks in advance, Mike New Jersey 914-393-3302
Buy SEM dye and you will be set. You can get it at any Sherwin Williams Auto Paint Store. http://www.sem.ws/ They should have the color you need.
u may also consider using lacquer paint on the hard plastics. i have also used sem with good success. sem has a product that u have to spray onto any hard plastic surfaces just prior to dyeing the material.
Mike, the kick panels are made out of polypropylene plastic which has that greasy feel to it. I have an original factory service bulletin that tells you the proper way to paint all the interior plastic parts. The polypropylene parts and other plastic parts according to the bulletin were painted with interior lacquer which came in semi gloss and flat shades. Only dash areas used the flat. With the polypropylene parts such as kick panels you must use a special plastic primer or the color will not stick. You must also clean the hell out of the parts or you could have problems. When I painted my parts I used simple grean and a scrub brush and washed and rinsed many times. I bought a plastic primer which was clear at an automotive paint store and ordered the correct color interior lacquer from Tower Paints which came in a spray can. This stuff worked great for me. I am sure the SEM stuff George recommends is good as well but I just followed procedure and got the right color I needed. What color is your interior? I have the list of all the interior paint codes for 71 that if you give to Tower they can match.
Dave, Gerry & George, Thanks for the response. Dave - my interior color is 1971 Dark Green. I appreciate your help. I didn't think the process would be this easy to just paint the trim parts. o No: Mike New Jersey 914-393-3302
Mike, I painted my seat backs with this process and they are the same polypropylene as the kick panels and they came out nice. the GM codes(out of the assembly manual) for 71 dark green interior color is #4136 the semi gloss for all colors is coded W25A and the flat is WOA. The PPG code for the semi gloss is #44303 and the flat is #44345. Tower paints can match either of these codes. Just remember clean and dry well then use primer first if you use the lacquer route.
you really need to use a prep/primer with either method. With SEM you use their "Flexible Bonding Clear" on polypropylene parts and use their "Sand Free" on hard plastic parts such as ABS plastic (for example the dash bezel is ABS---but if you are having it rechromed first there would not be a need for a prep type spray as you are not putting paint on the plastic---you are putting it on the "chrome surface"...a console would be a better example of ABS you might be putting a SEM product on). Clean, Clean, Clean first as already mentioned.....basically, you can't clean it too much.
I've used SEM with great results, but I was wondering. How does it hold up on metal? For example, painting the metal dash with the same SEM as used on the dash pad.
:laugh: Would probably stick like any other paint since it is a paint also. It's pretty thin stuff however so it probably won't hide any minute sanding scratches like a thicker enamal, etc might. If you were to try it I would put it on over some type of primer. Basically, I think it's a thin paint with some flex agent additives in it. Notice that SEM recommends their adhesion promoters such as Sand Free and Flexible Bonding clear which tells me that there is nothing "magical" in the color coating which makes it only applicable to plastics or vinyls. Even the "big boys" such as DuPont have a prepaint treatment for their vinyl/plastic paints.....I think DuPont's is called Plastick or Plastik...and it is some fairly noxious stuff. Another product that may be more readily available (have bought it at O'Reilly's Auto Parts) is Bulldog brand adhesion promoter. It seems to work on polypropylene with SEM also. Funny thing is sometimes you see, hear or smell things that take you WAY BACK in time but you can't remember exactly when. Got a whiff of that Bulldog stuff and my mind instantly registered it as...that is familiar. Couldn't remember what for a few days and finally remembered. It was that paste we used back in kindergarden or grade school. The white stuff with a red spatula spreader cap. Now I know where all that stuff ended up.....at the Bulldog factory :laugh: Mind you---this is a "smell recollection" from over 40 years ago. Kind of odd how some of that stuff locks into your memory banks. :eek2:
Patton, funny how that smell Deja vu thing works isn't it? National Geographic did a scratch and sniff study on this a few years back. As far as painting metal dashes just use the correct factory interior lacquer. Why mess with what worked for the factory?
Yeah Dave--it was kind of odd and funny. Two other guys were there, and both probably too young to have used this old white paste. They were kind of wondering what I was talking about when I said that stuff had a familiar smell.
I used the same paste in school back in the 60's. I remember the rubber cap with the slit in it. Getting off subject I guess. Maybe sniffing that stuff was as bad as the airplane glue.
Here is another one for you. Remember the old blue ink mimeograph printed papers? I remeber the first thing we did when we got a fresh printed test was plant the paper right on our noses. I wonder what that chemical did to us. But boy did it smell good.
