Painting the interior of an 04 corolla - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

unioncorps · 10-23-2004, 03:14 PM

Hey everyone,

ANother mod I'm thinkin' of doing... I want to paint the center console pieces and the vent trimming with a silver paint. My question is though where can you get the paint... I'm sure you just can't use any ordinary paint.

I went to Autozone and they had the Dupli-color spray paint cans for "auto body" and people have recommended that Dupli-color was very good to use. But, they were saying painting, not spraying... I really don't feel like taping newspaper all over the interior of the car just so I can have a silver accent to my interior cuz I think that'll be more effort than what it's worth. So, is there any paint that I can use a brush with that I can paint the interior with and where can I get that?

Also, the reason why Dupli-color is good is because it won't peel, fade, or bubble which is always a good thing. Let me know if you guys know of anything that I'm talking about.

Thanks

rolla-XRS · 10-23-2004, 05:09 PM

Hold on a bit. Toyota is supposed to have some aftermarket parts for the centre console that are silver. They mighty just be what you're looking for.

I was told of availability in October but no news yet.

polo708 · 10-23-2004, 06:21 PM

I recently painted mine and i'm VERY happy with the results. I added some pics so you can see what mine looks like.

As for the paint: It's dupli-color, but its called "vinyl and fabric coating". If you cant find it in the store then check the internet, I got mine from www.autobarn.com

Also, all the pieces pop off, so I did all my painting outside of the car. I did 4-5 coats and let it dry over night. If you have any other questions PM me and i'll try to help.

unioncorps · 10-23-2004, 06:26 PM

can you pop out each part without damaging anything... how would you go about doing that for each part - like the center console, vent border, etc..

i'm too clumsy...

troy · 10-23-2004, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by polo708
I recently painted mine and i'm VERY happy with the results. I added some pics so you can see what mine looks like.

As for the paint: It's dupli-color, but its called "vinyl and fabric coating". If you cant find it in the store then check the internet, I got mine from www.autobarn.com

Also, all the pieces pop off, so I did all my painting outside of the car. I did 4-5 coats and let it dry over night. If you have any other questions PM me and i'll try to help.

Very nicely done, generally, people do a sh!tty job and don't do any prep work, and\or paint it outrageous colors that look bad.

The tip is, paint base colors.

polo708 · 10-23-2004, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by unioncorps
can you pop out each part without damaging anything... how would you go about doing that for each part - like the center console, vent border, etc..

i'm too clumsy...

1. As for the vents, I used a flat head screw driver and popped them out from the side (inside teh door jam). Use a thin rag or some tissue over the tip of the screwdriver so you dont scratch it.

2. The piece that surrounds the windows/locks, use a flat screwdriver the same way, and pop it off from the bottom. Then the buttons will either screw off or pop off easily, you'll see them.

3. As for the center console, here's some pics from the 2k3.org DIY:

if its a manual then just pop it off from the bottom by pulling it up.

hope this helps

dna59 · 10-23-2004, 07:13 PM

I don't think I would ever paint the interior of a new car. I would be too afraid of messing it up. But that interior sure does look sweet.

koss78a · 10-23-2004, 11:45 PM

your car looks aweseone

unioncorps · 10-24-2004, 01:18 PM

Ahhhh!

I took everything apart and started to spray. I accidentally got some spray on the clock and the hazard light button... can I easily take the paint off after it dries?

How the hell did you spray everything on without using a brush... I tried to mask everything but apparently some of the spray runoff goes around. How'd you get the small corners and borders between the hazard lights and the other things on the main console... and what' du do with the AC vents????

I hope this stuff comes off easily with water or something...

polo708 · 10-25-2004, 10:47 AM

I took the 2 "doors" off the center console (they just pop off). Also, the clock and buttons pop off from the inside. they are held in by clips.

As for the vents, I covered all the parts I didnt want painted with tape (the vent itself and the wheel).

Im sure it will come off, paint thinner definately will work, but try it out on a discrete place first to make sure it doesnt take the real paint off your console piece.

You have to take your time... do it right the first time. If you rush you will probably mess it up.

Ukrainian102 · 10-25-2004, 01:15 PM

Get a Haynes repair manual and it'll tell you how to take off all those interior panels.

Props on the paint job... think ya got enought tv's there?

Check out what I did.

unioncorps · 10-25-2004, 02:25 PM

Thanks, but I did the best I could... I didn't know that you could pop out the clock and the buttons... I thought that they were attached to it that's why I covered them up, but apparently wasn't good enough. Now that I know they could've been taken out... I wouldn't have this problem in the first place...

Well I used paint thinner to get some of the paint off, but you can still see some residue left behind on the clock and on the edges of the buttons... I didn't rub them with the paint thinner too hard cuz I didn't want to scratch anything. So left behind now, is a fogged, "smoky" look... any idea to get that to appear like normal?

So now, it doesn't look too bad overall but if you look closely you can definitely see that it's not really professional looking like yours. I'm not even going to bother with the vents... I'll post up pics soon.

Limnos · 10-25-2004, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by unioncorps
Well I used paint thinner to get some of the paint off, but you can still see some residue left behind on the clock and on the edges of the buttons... I didn't rub them with the paint thinner too hard cuz I didn't want to scratch anything. So left behind now, is a fogged, "smoky" look... any idea to get that to appear like normal?

I'm almost afraid to even mention this, but acetone (fingernail polish remover, also in paint supplies in hardware stores) is a strong paint remover. However, you absolutely MUST test it on a similar material first as it will also dissolve many plastics and leave you with a hole where your clock panel used to be, or make it so foggy you won't see through it at all. We safely use it to remove marking pen on plastic bottles where I work but it automotive plastics are probably different. Even if it's safe on the clear stuff it may do a nasty on the vinyl or other plastics so BE CAREFUL (and don't write to me with a claim if you melt a hole in something)!