Basic Interior Painting How-to

cricket1977

Member
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Mazda CX-7
I used to do this to help my old forum members (as you see what parts are in pics). This is just a basic how to so take it as is. I started with this process before I started using the paint booth. If you follow the basic steps I put in here you won't go wrong. I have many "kudos" and thank you's from my old forums on this.
INTERIOR PAINTING:
FIRST YOU WILL NEED TO START OFF WITH A FEW ITEMS BEFORE YOU CAN REALLY GET INTO IT.

600 and 800 Grit sand paper:

TOO MAKE IT A BIT MORE FUN YOU SHOULD ADD THE FOLLOWING:
Pizza Friends and Beer!


NOW WE CAN START THE PAINTING PROCESS!!
1. WET SANDING:
a. Gather up all your pieces and sit yourself down in a place that doesn't matter if the area gets dirty.
b. Get an old tupperware bowl, or something similar. Fill it up about halfway full with warm tap water.

c. Lay your 600 grit, or higher, sandpaper in the water to soak up for a few minutes.
d. Grab a piece and start sanding away at it, dipping the sand paper back in the water frequently. The pieces should get a brushed look about them. You don't need to spend hours doing this, just make sure it has a brushed up look to them.
e. Wash/Rinse and Dry these pieces. Use the 800 grit and repeat for final time. The plastic should actually feel pretty smooth. Don't worry, they now have a nice adhesive surface for the paint to adhere to.
f. Don't dump that water yet, you have more wet sanding to do in a few minutes!!
2. SANDABLE PRIMER TIME!!:
a. Well basically if you have made it to this point you probably have spray painted something before. But I will refrain from assuming anything because we know where that takes us.
b. Take your pieces outside or in the garage and place them down on the drop cloth.
c. Find like an old beer case or similar sized box. Now place the Top Bin Frame, of the center console, on top of the box. This will give you the ability to turn the piece while you paint.
d. Start spraying your pieces with the primer. Use a fanning motion back and forth using short but useful bursts, or if you already have a technique then use it.
e. After you have a good first base coat on all the pieces, it's time to do another round of wet sanding. Repeat the same process, and do not worry if some of the primer comes off while sanding...it's gonna happen. Rinse --->Dry.
f. Repeat for a second coat, and then again one more round of wet sanding, rinsing, and drying.
g. you can dump the water now :)
It'll pretty much look like the following:

3. TIME TO START THE PAINTING!!!!!:
a. Ok, to make this easy, you are pretty much going to use the technique you developed in the primer phase.
b. Use even burst and fanning as you go, so as not to leave any streaks or build up. Example: Start from the left and move right, pressing the sprayer at start of swing and then letting off as you end your swing, and reverse the swing repeating the process. As you get into this you will learn about what i am trying to help you avoid. You are going to mess something up, it is inevitable so don't fret. Just add a few light coats on later to hide it.

c. During this phase you will end up with anywhere from 3-6 coats depending on how thin you sprayed it. Something to remember during this painting time is that it does not have a clear coat on it yet. So the paint just might not look that great at that point....do not worry!!! It needs the clear coat now.....
d. With clear coating, you will need to be pretty light but steady with your coatings. If you put it on too thick IT WILL CLOUD UP!!! But do not worry if it starts to cloud up. If it clouds up just sit it to the side, preferably close to the sun light and the clear coat will start to clear up. This can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 4 hours to clear again. That in itself should discourage the heavy spray finger typed of individual.
e. With the clear coating, it should come out to roughly 3-4 coats. Again this can be different depending on how you spray.


f. Give it about two hours of drying time from the last coat before installation as a last suggestion.
4. MISC. ITEMS TO KNOW:
a. YOU WILL HAVE A PAINT SMELL IN YOUR CAR FOR ABOUT A WEEK, NO TWO WAYS AROUND IT!!!
b. Your new interior pieces are just like the exterior of your car...they will need to be waxed...just not as often. Your first coat will need to go on in about 6 months. You can probably get away with about 6 months in-between wax coats, unless you get very liberal with the cleaning solvents.
c. The clear coat helps to protect from scratches, but you still want to be careful with that watch or ring. And yell at the drive-thru person that doesn't put the lid on tight, because you will hate to see your new interior messed up.

Some Finished Products:
Some Mazda3 work from my old forum site:
Silver and Mazda Copper Red Mica on the engine cover to match the guys exterior.
shot2of9.jpg

final1sj3.jpg

cdplayercz6.jpg


Copied the Area 51 Spec V interior, did this in a paint booth so slightly different process

Eventually put new seats in and painted exterior to 350Z Blue.
 
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