Interior dye

[06Daytona]

The interior panels in my Cuda are in pretty good shape except for a small hole on the top of my drivers side panel. Unfortunately somebody sprayed them with tremclad or something in the past without doing much prep so it was peeling and faded. I used a wire brush and a few other things to get the old coating off, but my panels look scratched and faded now. I want to use SEM dye to get them looking good since I've had pretty good results using it in the past, but I wasn't worried about prep or having the finished product look stock. With the Cuda I want it to look as close to stock as possible and I don't want it scratching off or peeling so I'm going to spray with a gun and do the prep right.
What's the closest color for a match to stock, and what are the products I need to prep it right?

[Grec]

Assuming your interior is black, the standard is SEM Landau Black. I used it on my center console which was original and crack free, but uneven color, and it now looks, literally, brand new.

There was a SEM cleaner, a product called "SEM sand free" (which I believe softens the plastic slightly so dye will penetrate better) and of course the dye.

The SEM site has the info.

As good as my console came out, I wouldn't think twice about using spray cans of dye, vs a gun. The panels' surface is textured and the SEM spray cans work better than anything I've ever used. Even the Trim Black paint comes out so smooth you can't tell it's from a spray can.

[06Daytona]

Thanks for the info. Today I'm piecing together a console from the 5 or 6 I have around here. Taking the best bits and the cleanest screws, so I'm thinking tomorrow or the next day for dying it.

[NCtrueconservative]

I saw stacey david on that tv show gearz use TSP (trisodium phosphate) cleaner that you get at a hardware store to clean his interior stuff. I used it myself along with the Dupli Color dye and it turned out pretty good

[burdar]

You need to use SEM Adhesion Promotor before spraying the Landau Black.  Follow the dirrections on the can.

[Grec]

That was the function of the "Sand Free" product I used...

Clean the part, sand free, dye.

Sand free - http://sem.ws/images/tech_files/3836(%20)%20TDS.pdf

Adhesion promoter - http://sem.ws/images/tech_files/3986(%20)%20TDS.pdf

Looks like the "Adhesion promoter" is for what it terms "problem plastics." Is this what we're dealing with on Mopar interiors?

[burdar]

Yes.  The door panels, kick panels and seat backs(probably the a-pillars too) are made of polypropylene.  They don't accept paint well at all.  That's why you see a lot of painted door panels peeling.  The Adhesion promotor is supposed to help paint bond to those kinds of plastics.

I also used it on the harder dash plastic pieces(the consoles would be the same type of plastic I think) though it may not have been nessesary.

[mcmasad]

I would recommend following the SEM directions exactly.  You can download them right off their website and they give you exact part numbers for all the products you need.  I did it for my challenger and all the panels - hard plastic as well as vinyl came out great.  It is a 3-4 step process but the results were great.  I spent roughly $100 and the interior looks phenomenal.  I would caution you to not "paint" everything but rather "mist" the parts.  I made the mistake of trying to "paint" them and it looked terrible.  I went back over it and misted it and it was great.

[burdar]

I would caution you to not "paint" everything but rather "mist" the parts

Exactly...this is the key!  If you mist the paint on it will be almost impossible to tell it's painted once it dries.

[Grec]

Good to know.

I will say that the console was sprayed over 4 years ago and still looks great... but I'll switch to the "adhesion promoter" when I do the rest of the interior. (Well.. vinyl version for the seats)

One more question... how much of the landau black would I need to do an entire interior?

Seats front and rear. Door and side panels. Window, trim and misc pieces. 5 cans?

[burdar]

I'd be scared to use it on heavy wear items like seats but I know people have had good luck with it.  Your supposed to be able to spray it on carpet.

I've got about half a can left and so far I've done...kick panels...A-pillars...left and right lower dash trim.  I would imagine that it will take the rest of my can plus one more full can to do the door panels and rear panels.  If you are changing the color of the part it's going to take more paint then if you're just cleaning up the same color. 

[Grec]

Yeah... I'm gonna give the seats a try. Amazingly, my original seats are nearly perfect after 38 years with the only flaw being a bit of discoloration here and there. Maybe the car really DOES only have 65k miles on it. :-)

They have something specifically to prep vinyl and I've had excellent results with every other SEM product I've tried.

I'll get 6 cans of black just in case. :-)

[Grec]

FYI - I found a good coupon for www.eastwood.com

CART20 - 20% off and free shipping.

Got 13 cans of various SEM paint and prep stuff for $165 shipped. Saved at least $60. Great deal.

[mcmasad]

I used 5 cans of the landau black doing all the interior panels.  I did NOT do the seats since I had put new covers on them.  I also put 3-4 "misted" coats on each panel.  I probably could have gotten away with 2 but it seemed I might as well put a bit more while I was doing it.

[06Daytona]

I spent the weekend doing a little repair work on the console. I put a little epoxy in the screw holes to add a little more meat for the screws to grab, fixed one boss that had broken off in the lid and repeatedly cleaned it with general purpose degreaser. I picked up all the SEM stuff today and was amazed at how much dirt the degreaser missed when I used the SEM soap. It almost looks good enough that I could get away with just using some vinyl/plastic detailing stuff, but what's the fun in that.