dcains

iTrader: (15)

The easiest way to strip the original finish off those pieces, including that tough gray primer, is to use lacquer thinner. You have to keep the piece wet so the thinner has a bit of time to work, but once the crap gets soft, it scrapes/peels off fairly easily. Then just get the bare plastic nice and smooth for a new finish with some fine sanding.

Crypto13

I ended up using brake fluid after the old primer started peeling off after reading some recommendations on that. It was a pain, but was able to rub the rest of it off like the rubberized paint crap. Unfortunately I had already gone too deep with the dremel in a few places.

winchman

You guys are going through a lot of trouble for something that's really easy to fix. I went to WalMart's craft department, bought a little jar of flat black acrylic paint and a little brush, and very carefully painted the door pull and switch cover. Then I waited a day, and painted it again.

It looked pretty good then, and it still looks good eight months later.

The paint goes on smoothly, and the brush strokes hardly show after it's dry. I think the total cost was about $1.50 and maybe half an hour of painting.

OneLovelyZee

I was thinking of bringing my center console pieces to an auto body shop. Would they be able to paint it using the paint that they have?

dcains

iTrader: (15)

Sure, but the problem isn't the new pant, it's the prep involved to get the new paint to adhere properly and look good. On the door handles, the only way to get a perfect, permanent finish, is to strip the pieces down to the original black plastic. As I mentioned, lacquer thiner works fairly easily, followed by a light sanding. After that, you can easily respray the pieces yourself, and probably the best paint to use is Krylon's spray paint for plastics. because it bonds so well. Use several thin coats, and if you wet-sand between coats and wet-sand/polish the final coat, you'll get a great result. I had all my pieces hydro-dipped, but that, too, requires a complete strip of the original finish to get a perfect result.

zzboyzz

Do you know exactly what type of bit it was?

robbysibrahim

Thanks for the tips everyone!

xcuzme

There are a lot great threads on how to re-paint interior trim pieces, particularly the driver's door interior handle (officially it the "power window main switch finisher". There are just about as many recommendations for paint strippers to strip off the old rubber-like paint as there are threads. I think I tried most of them (rubbing alcohol, spray oven cleaner, brake fluid, pine cleaners, citrus cleaners, scratching it off with a knife, etc., etc., etc.) and found most of them to be a lot of work that rendered a very uneven inferior result that required lots of sanding and primer buildup and more sanding to make it paint-ready.

But then I stumbled on the ultimate solution: Aircraft Paint Remover for Flexible Plastic. Spray it on, wait 10 minutes, and all paint and primer literally sluffs of the plastic without doing any damage to the plastic trim piece. Rinse it with water and you are done. It leaves nothing but the plastic trim behind.

I picked mine up at the local auto parts store but it can also be ordered online from several places.

Italianjoe1

iTrader: (6)

Have you used this on the textured plastics like the glove box lid? I couldn't find any decent way to strip that without damaging the texture.

xcuzme

I have only used it on smooth surfaces and have not used it on textured surfaces. It dissolved the paint and did absolutely nothing to the underlying plastic rigid window switch panel on my door.

icer5160

iTrader: (4)

Just wanted to update this thread regarding the Aircraft paint stripper for "Flexible Plastics." I purchased a center waterfall/cubby set from a wrecker. The cubby door was already damaged from the previous owner of the wrecked vehicle (drilled a hole through it to mount a mechanical clock!). Anyway, I didn't care if this lid was damaged so I used the Aircraft paint stripper on it for testing purposes.

At first it looked like it was working great without damaging the underlying plastic/texture. Note that I did NOT leave this stuff working on the paint longer than 10 minutes. I also tried this stuff on the cubby door's spring loaded button.

The end result, is that the Ping-Pong Texture was deformed. The underlying plastic was softened up quit a bit, thus increasing the deformation of the plastic surface while scrapping/scrubbing off the old paint/primer. This was true for both the cubby lid and the button/latch. Once this stuff eats through the paint/primer it starts melting the underlying plastic. Really reminds me of how Acetone works on plastics.

If you plan to use this stuff, there is enormous risk involved. The manufacturer's instructions state not to use this product on "hard plastics."

I'm confident the product can be used successfully, but extra special care needs to be taken about how long you leave it on the painted plastic and how you remove the paint. In my case, 10 minutes seemed to be too long, but 5 minutes seemed to be too short. Using a scraper on the textured interior bits will result in deformation. Use a scotch brite pad or something similar.

The cubby lid and button are still re-usable, but I need to sand out the deformed button/latch and cubby door followed by multiple applications of primer and sanding to get an acceptable finish.

When I get to repainting my interior bits, I think I will go the alcohol/sanding route, at least for the textured areas. Good luck!
-Icer