Personalize your Interior... Cheap!

Given the recent success I've had painting interior pieces with SEM Color Coat, a flexible interior paint product, I thought I would expound on the write-up by Moose1988: HERE

I copied his idea and started to paint certain interior pieces like the trim rings around the gauges and door speakers. This turned into an idea to change the color of my interior to black (which will happen one day). For now, I'm taking it one step at a time. Here's my progress:

While my gauge cluster was out and Jerez was changing the LEDs, I took out and painted the trim rings around the gauges. The dash piece that covers the gauges comes off with very little effort, just remove the two clips above the gauges and pull the piece towards you. Once off, you can remove the rings by pressing the tabs on the rings and working them out of the dash piece:



To paint these, i just scuffed them with a red ScotchBrite pad and hit them with a few coats of Krylon Fusion gloss white. Allow them to dry, then bake them by heating your oven to 250, turning it off, and placing the painted bezels in the oven, on a piece of cardboard, for about 5 minutes. This smooths over the orange peel and really helps the gloss come through. The finished product looks like this:



No need to epoxy these in, they just snap back into place. The next step was to paint the rings around the door speakers. To remove the door panel, remove the bolt behind the door latch and pop the clip on the upper front-most corner of the door panel. Then use a panel popper to pop the lower part from the door and lift up, removing the panel from the door. These rings also pop out but I had to pry mine out with a screwdriver since the stereo shop mounted my tweeters to the door panels with some sort of glue. Repeat the scuffing, painting, drying and baking process you used on the dash rings. Once they were baked, I used 2-part epoxy to re-install them into the door panels and used blue 3M masking tape to hold them in place while the epoxy dried.

The other pieces I painted white were the Toyota emblem on the steering wheel, the chrome bezel around the shifter, and the chrome taper on the bottom of the automatic shifter knob. The taper on the shift knob just pops off after you remove the knob from the shifter. This was then scuffed and painted. The shifter bezel can be removed by removing the shift knob, pulling the console piece off the center console, and then lightly prying the bezel out of the bottom of the console piece. This was also scuffed and painted.



I used a coat hangar to hold the bezel and the taper while I painted them:





To remove the emblem from the steering wheel, you need to gently pry up on a piece and slip a razor blade under it to cut the tabs shown in this picture:



It's super soft plastic and just takes patience and a steady hand. I carved some steering wheel off while I was cutting and just smoothed it over after heating it up with a lighter.

While the bezel was out of the console, I decided to sand off the bumpy plastic texture and paint the piece, as well as the dash piece surrounding the radio and AC controls, flat black. I went to the hardware store and bought 3 levels of sandpaper to complete this task:



I used the 80 grit to knock the bumps off, then the 120 to get rid of the deep scratches, and the 220 to prep the pieces for paint.
Before:



During:




So the console piece was a huge PITA and required a few times of priming and sanding to get a nice smooth surface since I was going to be painting it black.



After doing these pieces, I wanted to paint the dash piece with the air vents black with a white accent. To remove this, you need to un-do the 4 bolts holding in your radio and then pull the piece towards you until it pops off of the dash.



Once it's off, remove the two black covers under the vents by lightly prying under them. Then scuff it with the ScotchBrite pad and give her a warsh, then start masking for the vents. I decided to paint the white first so if it bled through the tape, the black would cover it up. I used 3M Fine Line masking tape to contour the edge of the air vent.



After shooting the white, remove the masking tape about 30 minutes after painting and allow the piece to dry overnight. Then bake it, let it cool and mask for the black. Once it's dry you can re-install it into the dash. Snap all the pieces back together and here's what you get:



With all the priming and sanding I was doing to the center console piece, I decided to remove my center console and paint it Landau Black with SEM Color Coat. To remove the center console, undo these 4 screws:



Also, remove the two bolts in the bottom of the glove box (sorry, no pic). Once it's all unscrewed and unbolted, push the glove box piece towards the back of the cab and then pull it upwards to release it from the forward console piece. Then you can pull the forward piece towards the back and remove it from the cab.




Remove the armrest from the glove box by removing all of the screws holding the black plastic cover piece, and then by removing the 4 screws holding the armrest onto the bracket for the glove box. Lightly scuff the pieces with the ScotchBrite pad. Then wash them to remove all of the oil/dirt. Now you can mist the pieces with Bulldog Adhesion Promoter. It gives the paint a little more to grab onto. Let the Bulldog dry for about 5-10 minutes and begin lightly coating the pieces with the SEM. I did about 3 coats of black and let them dry overnight. You can see the difference from stock here:



And here's what it looks like installed into the cab:



I finished painting the center console shifter piece and used 2-part epoxy to re-attach the bezel to the console piece:



Here's the final product, all painted up and installed. Also put in an aftermarket white ball shift knob I bought on eBay for $30 bucks. Enjoy!

 

Awsome write up

 

Btw looks good

 

Thank you!

 

x2
damn fine job ya did

 

Thanks man!

 

that's a sick looking interior! I should have done that when my interior was stripped last month

 

Thanks! No $ means finding shit to paint lol

 

Lookin good! Planning to do my own version in the near future

Thanks for the info!

 

I kind of want to see this in blue

i'd consider it on my truck

 

Any questions hit me up! Make sure you buy a few cans of paint. I ran out of flat black and had to switch brands!

 

do it!

 

Haha all my stuff is out already and in process. You gotta re cover your arm rests and get some black seat covers. You'll be set. I had a lot of problems with my paint running in the vent covers. Hard to get those angles to stick. You and I will have the same exact interior when I'm all done. Didn't realize the silver bezel on the shifter just popped off! I thought you had to melt some plastic welds to get it.

 

My door inserts and armrest cover from RedlineGoods.com are in the mail. $180 got both with black Alcantara, black Napa leather and white double stitching. I'll update the thread when they're installed. Also looking into black Alcantara headliner, black carpet and black leather seats with Alcantara inserts. I just need funds $$$!

 

looks good man

i want to paint my center console black like the 2012s...

 

Dude so awesome! Sub'd

 

thanks bud! hope you're doing well!

thank you!

 

looks good man!

 

That is super clean man! Looks great and nice write up

 

Looks good OP!