Painted center consol?

[PaulD]

Anyone here painted the face of their center consol? I have a 03 Thunderbird with a black face on the center consol. I was interested is replacing the face plates with a silver version from an LS but I decided we had too many difference in buttons to try and match them up.

I have seen a number of overlay kits that can provide the silver color I want but I do not like how they look like a overlay and show their edges. I want it to look factory.

I am now looking at painting my existing face plates but I am concerned that the paint will eventually scratch off and look bad.
Anyone here tried painting those faces yet? How has it worked out?

 

[tripwire1124]

if you do go through with painting this then the whole key to making it last is in the prep work you do. Make sure its clean before you do anything otherwise in the next year or so it may show signs of wear. I did this kinda thing in my camaro when i had it, and it turned out great and lasted a while, till i sold it.

 

[burning.empire]

I had an '86 Bonneville (R.I.P. 2011) that had ugly faux woodgrain trim on the consol, so I went to home depot and bought this 1/2 pint container of silver plastic paint. I handpainted the entire instrument/stereo/control panels with a small model brush. The stuff was water thin, but it covered beautifully without brush strokes (only one coat). Since it was an old car I didn't really care if it looked hokey or not, I just wanted to try it out. It came out really good.

The paint lasted 2 years with no sign of wear or dirt. I'm sure if I prepared it better and maybe put on a protective clearcoat it would have looked professional, but like I said I did it for the hell of it.

On my LS, the center louvre panel is broken so a new one is coming in the mail soon. I was going to paint the panels the same way I did my Bonneville (with more prep and care of course) and use the broken piece as a test subject for different paint products.

Went I get my act together I post some pics and list any good paints or sealers I come across (if it turns out good)

 

[tripwire1124]

^ interested to see how this works. im unfimiliar with the bonneville interior, but if it had a rough texture to it then it would hide the brush strokes well but with the smooth surface that the LS has it may be more difficult to accomplish. im interested to see it.

 

[burning.empire]

the pieces on the Bonneville were smooth.

I used the same silver paint on a few nerf guns I had.They had a smooth texture as well. as long as you let the paint fully dry in a few hours it won't smudge or wear. I wish I could tell you the brand name but it is in storage now. I might take a trip to home depot tomorrow to buy another can. and because it is so water-like a little can lasts forever, I painted the car panels, the nerf guns and some other small projects with it and I didn't even use a quater of the can...and the can is smaller than a pint of ice cream.

 

[1LoudLS]

when i got my car, the whole center section around the shifter was all scratched to hell, t the previous owner was a woman, and every time she picked something up it left tons of little finger nail scratches all over (you should really see how bad it is under the external drivers door handle)

i was able to paint it with just a rattle can of dupli-color in the closest color i could find, i originally bought it to paint my dash kit (the double dins had just came out and only in black, and everybody else was still using the factory nav bezel) after seeing how well it turned out, i went ahead and did the scratched piece. you can barely tell that it is not a perfect match in direct sunlight, but the finish has held up for about two years now. if your going to do every part, i would even throw on some clear coat to give it extra protection.

 

[diskfunktional]

See I'm in the same boat here. I have a silver LS with the dark charcoal interior and wood grain. I really really would like to change all the wood grain to a silver. Not permanently so thats why I'm attempting vinyl. Just takes patience