I am changing the old, dingy, sun faded light grey stock interior or my Bird to a nice new, black and charcoal colored interior. I have new black carpet, new custom door panels, new Suede headliner, new A4 Corbeau Racing seats etc. Part of that change involves changing all the scuffed, dirty, broken interior panels to black.

After a lot of research, I found the SEM brand of Vinyl/Plastic paints work great and last a long time so I'd figure I'd give that a shot. I purchased 2 cans of SEM Plastic and Leather Prep PN: 38353 which was plenty with a little left over. I purchased 2 cans of SEM Plastic Adhesion promoter PN: 39863 which wasn't quite enough for the entire interior. I'd buy 3 if you are going to do the job. I purchased 4 cans of SEM Landau Black Color Coat PN 15013 which was just enough. I might buy a 5th can if you do this job just to be sure. I skipped buying the SEM soap. NOTE: I painted both the front and the back of every panel and piece. I wanted to have the panels look like they came black originally and also I feared the paint might chip from an edge so I wanted to paint the whole thing. I did one coat on the backs and two coats on the fronts.

I started by plastic welding all cracks and broken tabs etc. I bought a cheap Amazon plastic welding kit and an extra set of ABS filler rods. I used the wire mesh to reinforce the backs of cracks almost every time and used the Fiber Flex stick to lay on top. The font sides I used the ABS filler rods and then a Dremel to shape any excess and then 180 grit sandpaper to get a final finish. I attempted to use 320 grit after but it made the plastic too smooth and it looked better with the 180 grit to match the texture on the untouched plastic better. I even redid my entire center console and lid and reglued the foam top. Saved a lot of money there. I already spend way too much with Hawks. LOL. I did buy a new center console lid spring though because my old one was broken. Also, I HAD to fix my A-pillar trim as all the tabs are broken and NO one sells new reproductions for hard tops. Only T-Tops and Convertibles for some reason...

I started each piece by washing the piece with just a diluted mixture of Dawn and water from a spray bottle and a $4 Scotch Brite hand and nail brush from Lowe's. The brush is small enough to get into all the crevices and small areas of some of the panels. After a good rinse, I wiped down every piece with the Plastic prep spray. I was amazed that this stuff would take off things the soap and water would not even with harsh scrubbing. This stuff is bad ***. I'll keep the spare product to clean off customer cars I might accidentally get grease or oil marks on in their interior when I work on them.

I then followed the directions on the can of the Plastic Adhesion Promotor spray to a T. I did a light coat on the entire panel and let it dry for 5 minutes and then a heavier coat and let dry for 15 minutes.

Once it dried, I immediately started spraying it with the color coat. This paint is thick and the can needs to be shaken VERY well to come out evenly. Once you do that, the paint is VERY forgiving and if you spray too heavy it wont run, it will start to lay even on the piece as long as you lay it down flat. It dries VERY fast. The paint looks FANTASTIC and the Landau Black matches the factory black panels almost perfect. The paint is flexible so it wont crack when you pick up and move the panels around.

I highly recommend this stuff. Its kind of pricey but it is way cheaper then sourcing new panels. You can see an old panel and a refreshed one in the picture below

 

Nice! It's amazing what can be done with rattle cans. I've had good luck painting interior panels in the past. It's all about the prep. SEM has always made quality products.

 

Looks great. How scuff resistant do you think it is going to be? Im exploring this route vs buying an entire new interior set.

 

I'll let you all know! LOL

 

I have paint a lot of interiors in the past with SEM products. If you are freshening up the interior with the same color, scuffs usually don't show. If you are changing the color drastically and you scuff it pretty good then you may see some under color. Everyday use was never a problem. Just from my experience. Prep is the key.