Plenty of members have painted their console and pieces.

Another option is to have them wrapped in the faux carbon fiber wrapping.

 

^^^
Yea my interior was pretty scratched so I wrapped mine in CF vinyl...

 

3M Dinoc my friend.. I bought new ones but I'm going to wrap my old ones.

 

I think the cf vinyl would be nice. Anyone have some pics.

 

Here is my center...

 

I thought you could have these swapped out at the stealership? I read that somewhere on this board some time ago.

 

Duplicolor Fabric & Vinyl spray paint, flat black. I pulled the pieces out of my car and shot them with that stuff, then wiped down with a soaked t-shirt and polishing compound. Came out lookin like new. Very close color match.

Before:



After



Check the color match:

 

it looks like new, nice job...

 

yeah that looks good. Is it hard to get the pieces out? How long to dry?

 

my arm rest was thrashed from years of my elbow poking into. i ordered a replacement from turbo toys.. took longer than i expected to get there but it was in mint condition

 

lbz,

Excellent work!

what polishing compound did you use? I will need to do this at some point and don't want to F@#$ it up. Thanks.

 

I used regular old dupont that I saw at the local pep boys. I figured anything really mild would smooth out the paint without damaging the textured finish.

As far as being concerned about messing it up, I just went smooth and easy with it, very little pressure applied, just let the compound do the work. I thought I might have to use a soft brush to clean out any excess compound from the texture but with plenty of water being used, it didn't get a chance to dry and rinsed right out. I think I might have used it in sections to make sure it didn't dry up.

Pulling the center console out is not that hard.

The link to my LED conversion post might be helpful as it describes how to pull everything out including the door handles, etc. Mine is an 05 so yours might look a little different, where the screws are, but in general, its the same.

https://my350z.com/forum/exterior-an...onversion.html

Scroll about 1/2 way down the first page. If you pop up the lower finisher, you can disconnect the AC controls ribbon cable and turn the lower finisher out of the way.

Then remove the screws that hold the center console in place, give a firm tug at the very top edge behind the triple gauge cluster and the console will come loose.

Disconnect the gauge module, then the radio (not sure about the navi connection) and lift it out.

Remove the radio and the gauge cluster.

I didn't do any prep work except to wash it in warm mildly soapy water, towel and then air dry. Was summer so drying was fast.

You can use Duplicolor adhesion promoter, clear spray that sets up a bit of tack.

After painting I just set it out in the sun to dry. Did coats until I ran out of paint. When it was good and dry, used the compound and wet cotton tshirt on all surfaces, towel and air dry then put the radio and gauges back in and put it back in the car.

If you decide to do your lower finisher, you'll have to remove the shift ****, procedure for that in the link above. You can then pop out the AC controls and remove the shift boot and the trim ring and hit it with the same stuff and same process. Fun times.

PS - Dont forget to plug in the gauges at the top and your AC controls ribbon cable when buttoning up.

 

The dealership replaced my door pieces at no charge. Said it was pretty common and they'd done quite a few.

 

Thanks

 

Great info. Thanks!

 

since mine weren't too deep, just kinda light surface scratches, i used a sharpie. good results...

unless you get really close.

 

bump! thanks for this thread...i thought all the scratches from the previous owner of my z were from a careless person. The left aluminum looking piece on my steering wheel is flaking off. Mine's an 08 and only has 12k miles. POS interior.

Anyone had luck getting 08 steering wheel parts replaced by dealer under warranty?

help. that fake aluminum is pissing me off.

 

Painted ma panels and they are 100000x better and scratch resistant lool the factory surface sux

 

my driver side is doing the same scratches on the panel with the window controls/lock/etc

brought to dealer. the first girl helping me wasnt sure if it'd be covered. she grabbed a co-worker from the same area and he said "no thats just normal wear and tear. i said "no its not look i can scratch it easily with my fingernail like its nothing" and put a big scratch in it (already has a ton). i even told him that when it is sunny outside was cloudy and raining all day that day), it scratches even easier. he thought about it for a second and went in the back. a minute later 3 guys came out, one being the manager. The manager looked at it and said it would be normal wear and tear. after stating that i knew of other people that had had it warrantied, he said that they could take pictures and submit it because if he said "yes" and nissan denied the claim, they would have to eat the cost. understandable


so while someone goes and gets a camera, im talking to the same manager and hes saying that because its so involved, they'd rather get nissan to verify the claim first before starting work. but he starts talking about how it would be a few hundred in parts and an hour or so labor. i stopped him and said "wait. only to change out this one small piece??" and he said "oh i didnt realize it was just that one piece and not the entire side panel that would have to be changed" and turned to someone and said "yea just go ahead and warranty it". they will be doing my cubby hole latch as well because it has the same problems. my passenger side is not doing it. not sure if its because the car has rarely had passengers or what.

 

have any of you had this issue covered under warranty yet or are we all sol?