Yea i did mine in the fusion paint and it turned out awesome. I also threw some regular clear coat on there to keep the paint protected.

 

No duplicolor is better. It's all over autzone to. What I mean by good prepping is making sure everything is perfect clean. I mean no oil, dust anything. If it's not clean the paint will not stick well and it'll look like crap. Prepping also involves scuffing the surface to obtain better adhesion with the paint. To do this with the plastic parts get some 1000 grit sand paper and a sanding block, a tub of water, or the sink, and using water and soap also, sand the parts thoroughly. This will give the paint a way to stick. Then make sure they are perfectly dry and clean and spray on a layer of sandable primer. For the already smooth pieces, you might want to wet sand the primer after that to get it smoother (since naturally spray painting develops little bumps of paint called orange peel that in inevitable no matter how good of a painter you are). After a few coats of primer, then apply color and wet sand if you wish. Then the a few clear coats finally. Obviously you need to allow time between each coat to dry. And if you wet sand each coat make sure that you dry it off and make sure there is no water or soap or anything on it before you paint it again. There is also a DIY on it in the DIY section under detailing/paint DIYs.

 

i have a question what would be the process on dying my dash and door panels cause i was planing on turning my interior into the type-r with the red and black...how should i go about that?!?!

 

I would just use duplicolor vinyl paint. I don't have any experience with vinyl dye so I couldn't help you there. But I painted by dash black and door panels black and it turned out real good.

 

Ahhh, please don't use vinyl paint unless you plan on NEVER hitting your dash accidently, parking outside, or anything really. Reason being, the vinyl paint tends to have a life-expectancy of 2 years until it cracks, chips, fades.

If you are dying the dash black, FIRST, try as hard as you can to find a black dash. This applies to any part as well. But if you must, I suggest VHT vinyl dye along with VHT vinyl prep. You can get these from summitracing.com . I used vinyl dye because when you dye, you no longer have to worry about cracking and chipping, as it truely permanently dyes the vinyl. Check my gallery pics for images of vinyl dyed with VHT vinyl dye and Plastic sprayed with Krylon Fusion.

As for plastic parts, I suggest Krylon Fusion, only because I've used it, I know how it reacts/turns-out, and I'm comfortable with it. I'm sure Duplicolors's comparable product work just as good, but I cannot speak for it as I don't have experience with it.

BE SURE TO PREP!!!!! Any paint job is 75-80% prep and 20-25% painting. The better the prep, the better the results. This is more than true in regards to the vinyl dye.

 

Hey danomatic, why do you advise on looking for a black dash before you dye? I think yours turned out really nice. I wonder because I have an EK and a black dash for an EK is pretty much impossible to find... so what's the problem/scare with dying?

 

The reason I advise to find a genuine black dash is because it saves hours and hours of time. In order to get quality results I feel that you have to take the dash out and paint/dye it. Once the vinyl dye is applied, it must set for 72 HOURS!!! So, this means that you aren't driving anywhere from two days, unless you jimmy-rig the gauges and wiring. It's not safe. Plus, for the price of the dye, paint, and prep materials you can buy a black dash, that is, if you can find one.

That, and I know how to work with spray paints and I know how easy it is to mess up. So, if someone were to try painting these things as their first ever spray job, they will most likely get poor results - bubbles or streaks.

If you have to make it black and a genuine black dash is unavailable, by all means, dye it. I just fear that some people don't even look for genuine black parts at junkyards or salvage yards and go straight to dying what they have.

 

It only cost me $200 to do the entire interior of my car. And I make sure I always put the dash shade up, and since I'm at college now and park my car for several days I got a car cover.

 

everytime i have seen a dyed dash, it starts looking bad after a while, i really dont recommend it. and as far as doing the plastic stuff, make sure you take your time and do it right. sand off the shinyness, spray, sand, spray then clear coat, clear coat, CLEAR COAT!!!!

and by the way, i'm pretty sure (not 100%)the ek type-r interior was charcoal gray with red seats, red carpet,and red armrests on the doors. so if you want the type r interior, dont paint anything and just go get some recaro seats, red carpet,and type r door panels.

 

It's all about finding deals...
...I got all these in genuine black:
door panels
carpet
fronts seats
rear seats
rear interior panels
seat belts
dash (I sold it because it had a dent from a tach)
glove box
steering wheel with airbag

Other parts I got, that don't come black:
A-pillar
B&C - pillar
headliner w/moon roof
and other misc. part
ALL, for 80 bucks from an awesome guy.

Some parts I sold because they weren't perfect, but I'm picky