has anyone dyed thier interior plastics to change the color?

how durable is it?

my interior is currenlt blue, and id like to make it match my tan seats!

 

I looked for a long time for a brown arm rest for my 90sr5. Could find everything but brown, so I finally bought a blue one. I used SEM paint for plastics to paint it several years ago and it still looks great. Color is very close, only in bright sun light can you see a little difference. Bought the paint at a auto trim shop.

 

Wouldn't it be easier to just put some seat covers on the seats?

 

it would be easier, yes. but my interior is blue, and i dont like it call me picky but i dont think blue goes with a tan truck.

im probably going to get some tanish camo seat covers and headliner and reupholster the door panels with tan or maybe a brown

fdp, thats good to hear! know the prand by any chance?

 

i just spray painted the interior with black paint. and changed to buckets out of a dark blue runner dash never faded.

 

"Fusion" spray paint for plastics works GREAT. Just don't get solvents on it. You might have to touch it up occasionally (1x per yr, maybe?) where you rub it off (arm rest...), but I've had GREAT results using it.
I have a set of shutters outside that I painted with that 7 years ago...in Maine....winter hasn't killed them yet! They still look like the day I did them....


Spray it on, let it cure a couple days, and off you go. I'm a painter by trade, BTW, and I say go for it. Not gonna do any better (no way to dye plastics like this, etc).

 

i used vinyl and a heat gun

 

ive seen SEM on cars and its a great product

 

thanks for the info and pics everyone!!!

keep em coming!

Mike: thanksfor the tip, i may just have to try it out on a panel

Blake: how did you get the vinyl to stick? write up anywhere?

Im mainly curious as to the durability id like to see some comparisons with the sem and krylon paints, especially with the price difference!

 

That vinyl job is Insane, Blake. A step above paint, I'd say! Lotsa work??

 

lets just say that the heat gun and i were pretty intimate at the end. it took about five hours to lay it down on a learning curve. and to make it stick you need a heat gun to form it to strech and shrink. it has adhesive balls microscopic that pop and bond once you run over it hard with a scraper. its so thin that the original dash texture show throug like the vinyl isnt even there and has held up great for 2.5 years now. and it holds up to cleaners fine with no fading, the hardest part after you learn how to work it is trimming cleanly to get a clean look. those are the only spots that make it look non factory where i slipped with a scalpel. good thing i'm not a real doctor just a toy doctor

 

Jeeeez Blake that looks great!


OP~ There was a write up on here a while back (might be a sticky now) where someone pulled all the interior stuff, cleaned it all up and repainted it.

 

The only thing worse than the Toyota blue interior color was the bordello red color.

 

I met a guy in Chicago who had a great tacoma (heayly modified) when I went to buy something from him from craigslist and it had a blue interior and he hated it and just went to salvage yards around Chicago getting the light brown kind of tan interior piece and just swapped them out and I have to say even though I like blue interiors, the switch was really great, that's an option just take the time to get different color interior and not have to worry about buying the paint, paint prep each piece and then painting each piece and scratch it and other painted one while re-installing and re-painting later on, salvage yards sell the interior pieces cheap, might get all the interior at one yard, Good Luck and have fun!

Ps. For me the interior color I hate with a passion is red and that ugly maroon or burgundy interiors, There is an awesome 89 4runner in Lafayette IN I saw and it's perfect and rust free (must be a Purdue student from down south and or out west) but it's the burgundy on the outside and inside (YUCK) I would not hesitate to buy it, but would quickly swap out the interior!!!!

 

In my thread I have had to do alot of interior painting. If you can get the same color panel, that is great and have to paint it, is the best results.

Otherwise, what I have done is using about every color panel out there, gray works the best and seems to the most common.

Black is the worst for me. I will say even with the same can of paint, going from one type of material to another, it can look like it is a shade off. But to what I had before, which some was pink, I am really happy with it.

Its has been lasting and some of mine is 2 months old. It is atleast an option for these older trucks.