Painting Black Dashboards Brown

[Morris McKinnon]

Brown dashboards, I've had plans to actually make them but there's a Lot of parts that go with it so I've kind of shelved that idea for now!
Black dashboards seem to survive a bit better so thought, why not paint black ones brown
Done a couple of these dashboards now and have had positive results. I first thought painting plastic would be a disaster but modern paints are extremely flexible and with good prep it works. I had to dust the paint on, letting the particles fall onto the dashboard so as to not cake up the crackle finish and look over shinny with that just painted look. It has to be applied extremely thin but also give good coverage and not lose too much shine at the same time
It's an absolute Tonne of Work to get the finish right but looks the biz and after some polishing seems pretty durable too

[JoshWard]

Looks amazing mate, well done

Have a couple of black dashboard stashed away here in the hope something like this could be done, although still not sure I fancy replacing one

[MarinaCoupe]

Great work, well done.

[mickthefitter]

Looks impressive as the dash on my Mk 1 in the 80s was the same shade. Humbrol used to do a vinyl paint, I read about it in Street Machine I think in the 80s, and somebody re-coloured their Mk 1 Golf interior with the stuff. Its probably out of production now but I haven't looked. In 1987 I had a BMW 316 with a black interior and a broken passenger door pull. I got a tan one from the scrapyard and bought a tin of the black Humbrol paint and it worked very well. Only a small area to cover but it didn't leave brush marks and it didn't flake. Mid 2000s I considered buying a restored Viva HB SL, but the owner had recoloured the scruffy black interior, including seats and door cards with maroon body paint. It maybe wasn't quite as bad as it sounds, but it was still starting to wear through on the seat creases and turn back to black, which was one of the reasons I didn't buy it.

[tathoarder]

Lovely!

Josh, fancy selling one of those black dash boards?!


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[Morris McKinnon]

The paint seems to take very well to it all. I did try plastic paint on some broken parts to test but couldn't find the right shade and looked too shinny and thick for the job so just used etch primer with regular aerosols.
Because of the way I let the paint fall onto the dashboard it leaves a very gritty dusty feel, which is exactly what you want. It's a light coverage and the gritty dusty texture removes the shine of the gloss. It has to be rubbed back with a scotch pad after each coat though to remove that grittiness. When enough paint has built up and the final coat go's on it's time to polish, and I mean seriously polish! It seals the paint and brings back a little of the shine
The smooth part of the clock surround get's flatted back with some 800 grit then polished. Same go's for the vent pods and window vents to remove the orange peel effect from the aerosol.

[MarinaCoupe]

That's lovely work, great finish, what primer did you use?

[Morris McKinnon]

That's lovely work, great finish, what primer did you use?

Cheers Chris.
I used acid etch. I have used plastic paints and primers on other projects but they give a different feel and just don't look right which is noticeable.

[MARINAMADBAZ]

Good stuff looks good cheers barry

[timspencer]

Is that my one?

[Morris McKinnon]

Is that my one?

The last pic is, yes. The others are of another I did but didn't have any fascia trim so used your's to show one completed.

[Morris McKinnon]

Looks amazing mate, well done

Have a couple of black dashboard stashed away here in the hope something like this could be done, although still not sure I fancy replacing one

Yeah, I've never removed one before but looks to be a right pain in the butt replacing one!