[Crockinator]

It has been about 1 year since I purchased my E and it has been awesome. I have never done anything to a car before, but in the last year I have done the Home Depot grill mod, installed my own floodlights, replaced the battery with a yellowtop Optima, replaced the inside lighting with leds, etc. However, the painted dash was a real pain in the butt, but provided the most satisfaction. I sanded all of the texture off, primed with plastic primer, used a rustoleum metallic spray paint (blue for the trim and center console, gray for the dash) and finished with a clear-coat. The blue metallic paint matches the car nearly perfectly. Just proves that anyone can do it.

And this site has been invaluable.

Next is the sound system and full inside led colored lighting.

 

[box-E]

Great job! That really looks unique and well done. I love the fact that you chose really different colors than the factory did. Looking forward to you next mod.

Drew

 

[Jojo]

Sexay

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[Island E]

$20 says BigT will be in here with his Kicker dash and other pics.

 

[barryscott]

Looks great :lol:

 

[ORANGEE]

Come do mine..................

 

[King of Canada]

Great job! Wow, that grey really looks nice.

 

[Crockinator]

Thanks

I have to admit that right now, I am just glad it is done. Sanding out the texture on the dash was a pain in the ***. The cool thing was that my neighbors saw me working on it during the weekends for the last couple months (I work out of town most weeks) and thought I was crazy. Watching their reaction when I finally got it back in was pretty cool. I actually tried a couple different colors and ended up sanding it back down when I didn't like it. That being said, I would have never had the guts to do it without this site.

Because it is metallic paint, the blue shifts between blue and purple depending on the sunlight, and the grey seems to shift a little into the browns.

 

[AztecRol]

Looks AWESOME!!! Well done.

 

[327cam]

Fantastic job!

 

[JOeyK]

I have to admit that right now, I am just glad it is done. Sanding out the texture on the dash was a pain in the ***. The cool thing was that my neighbors saw me working on it during the weekends for the last couple months (I work out of town most weeks) and thought I was crazy. Watching their reaction when I finally got it back in was pretty cool. I actually tried a couple different colors and ended up sanding it back down when I didn't like it. That being said, I would have never had the guts to do it without this site.

Because it is metallic paint, the blue shifts between blue and purple depending on the sunlight, and the grey seems to shift a little into the browns.

I wonder if it would be faster but still as durable to sand the areas you can get with a DA sander, and then do a couple of coats of hi-build primer to fill in the remaining textured areas?

 

[Eww-an E]

That looks great! Nice job.

 

[wjdunham]

Inspiration

for my next project. Looks great.

 

[Brian Swope]

Really nice work!!!

 

[Kaoss]

Meh, not my cup of tea.

But hey, whatever floats your boat

Good job though

 

[SK8nLMNT]

what paint and colors did you use? i likey.

 

[Crockinator]

The paint was "Rustoleum". It is a metallic paint, and I just used blue and gray. I only saw the one shade of blue and gray in the metallic paint (the spray cans have a picture of a tricycle on them), and the blue matches the car almost perfectly.

I used an electric sander to get most of the texture out, but had to sand most of the driver-side dash by hand because of the crevices.

Most people have a hard time believing that it was done with spray paint, which is the best compliment I could get.

I also used the method I learned in these forums for removing the center console by sticking packing tape to both sides toward the bottom and just pulling. It popped out fine with a tug.

BTW... thanks for the compliments. I currently have $300 in Best Buy gift cards, so I will probably start working on the sound system next, although my son wants me to install sound-sensitive led lighting all over the inside.

 

[TOAST_E]

The paint was "Rustoleum". It is a metallic paint, and I just used blue and gray. I only saw the one shade of blue and gray in the metallic paint (the spray cans have a picture of a tricycle on them), and the blue matches the car almost perfectly.

I used an electric sander to get most of the texture out, but had to sand most of the driver-side dash by hand because of the crevices.

Most people have a hard time believing that it was done with spray paint, which is the best compliment I could get.

I also used the method I learned in these forums for removing the center console by sticking packing tape to both sides toward the bottom and just pulling. It popped out fine with a tug.

BTW... thanks for the compliments. I currently have $300 in Best Buy gift cards, so I will probably start working on the sound system next, although my son wants me to install sound-sensitive led lighting all over the inside.

sound-sensitive led lighting w/o an upgraded sound system? like Outkast said "if you aint got no rims n*gga, dont get no wood grain steering wheel"

When you say a lot of sanding, like how total hours with the sander on or your arm moving? I am asking cause it looks AWESOME

 

[boxe1]

this is about 2 years old. and the sanding all by hand took me about a month. but the effort was worth the outcome i think. Then the pillers kept buggn me. so i got black tweed wrapped the pillars and the little plastic thing on the door.

 

[JETsi]

very nice, looks good