What do you guys think about sanding the plastic interior body panels to make them super smooth then give em a nice paint job of your choice?? Has anyone ever done this? I think it would turn out pretty good

Fine grit paper, in the 400-2000 range, wet sand. "I assume" Honestly I prefer the texture. polishing would involve plastic polish and your on your own with that.

go to your local paint store and get a tube of FINAL SAND and a couple of WHITE scotch brite pads. as for smoothing the panels out, IMO it would look tacky?

yeah because they would look super plastic. as for painting them, dupli-color has good new stuff. never tested it but they seem to be one of the good companies. avoid ..damnit forgot the brand. they make touchup paint and their paint is crap. falls off. plasti-coat. thank you amazon.

i kno alot of guys who own cavys and sunfires who have saneded their interior panels, cleaned them, preped them and shot them with automotive paint. They have actually turned out pretty good. if you want some links to the cars, i can post them up.

heres one, the dash pad is fiberglassed tho.
http://www.jbok.org/car.php?id=62

parts of the panels yes, the entire interior set "our impression??" no icky. The dash is too shiny. I do like carbon fiber "vinyl", doin the aerio's trim pieces in it "dealer kit, buy cheaper in bulk from ebay" The Fbird has gunmetal accents on the exposed trim screws, including the "mock" screws that make it have a more uniform appearence. Its hard to notice but a nice addition. i'll get pics.

if you wanted to get the grain out you can sand them down with 400 grit sand paper use a plastic priimer adhesive then use the plastic prime. for painting go wild or plain and you can clear coat them PPg makes an interior clear so you dont have that high gloss

it's been done and posted on this site. look up the username Kcobain147 and painted interior.

just make sure you get paint that will adhere-? to the plastic or else it will rub off its a process and a long one at that you have to work your way up in sanding than you have to primer it than sand it smooth than paint it atleast thats how i did it on my truck

smoothing the panels is a little tougher that you guys make it seem. Because of another project of widening the rear interior panels, im having to smooth them all down. 40grit on a orbit sander takes a good long while to remove all the texture, then 180 smooths it out pretty nicely. its hard to get into all the crevasses/lips/indents in the panels too. Just spent 2 hours straight sanding and have yet to completely finish sanding 2 small rear panels.

as far as looks, i think it may need a textured paint or something to break up the smoothness. a shiny plastic interior may look rather cheap.

There is no need to speculate because, as I said earlier, it has been done before. Here is one pic:


It certainly doesn't look cheap to me, when done right.

here is the thread with several large pictures and a description of the process it took to get there:
http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/in...tml?highlight= (Interior is 99 % done - thoughts? (dial up be ware))