BL_Protege

i finally painted my gauge cluster and outer part by the wheel. i dunno what it's called. with helpful tips from hihoslva, it was pretty easy. i didn't do so bad for the first time spray painting, but it came out pretty good.

hihoslva

Hey man - looks like you just stole my pics!

Good job. Came out real nice.

Hmm...if everyone does this, the stock black cluster will become the "custom" look.

~HH

born2zoom

Looks great but do you guys have any problems with glare when driving? Furthermore, how do take out the part you painted?

BL_Protege

i figured out how to get into my gauges when i put in the indiglos. first. there are two screws that are holding that front part there ( painted silver also). to take that out, you need to pull on it towards you, it might feel like you might break it, but u have 2 like jerk it out. then there are three screws on the cluster. top, bottom left, n bottom right. u unscrew them then unsnap the covers of the gauges. simple as that. sorry if these aren't very informative. i didnt take pictures of it while painting. what you can do though is look up a thread that has to do with indiglo gauge installation, then you can see b/c i think someone put pictures on how to open up the cluster. also, ask hihoslva, he helped me on tips how to paint it, he also knows how to take apart some of the rest of the car if you want to paint that. hope this helps.

hihoslva

What - like I don't have enough to do already? Just kidding man. I'm glad to give tips to anyone who wants/needs them if I can.

~HH

MarkSpark

I'm gonna be honest, that looks damn sweet. One thing stopping me from doing it to my car is the disparity between the rest of interior [unless you got a two-tone deal going on].

hihoslva

That's why I re-painted all the "champagne" colored stuff the same silver as I did the gauges in my car.

I brightened up everything, so it would all match.

~HH

Protege5Lava

Your gauge cluster is off-the-hook!!! Are you going to paint anything else??

BL_Protege

thanks. i'm not sure what else i wanna paint. guy who gave me tips, hihoslva, he painted a buncha stuff in his pro it's pretty sweet.

Witchdoktor

hihoslva and BL_Protege,

The job you two did even gives the king ideas. ******* sweet! BL_Protege has got class to give it up to hihoslva for the tips. I've spoken to both of you and you guys are alright so I'm not a bit surprised you pulled that **** off. ******* sweet! Now let me see if I can duplicate, I only painted the outside piece silver, not the piece around the gauges (99 LX) ******* sweet you two.

hihoslva

Pro king - stop it, you're gonna make me cry

Nah - thanks man. It really was an easy project to complete - and easy to make look good, too.

I definitely recommend the SEM bumper coater paints for this stuff - it's so damn easy to use, and my **** has been painted for a month or two now, and I think it is more scratch-resistant than the original finish. This stuff rules!

~HH

Rider69

While we are throwing props to Hihosilva, I have already thanked him once for the idea of painting my Dash Bezel. I only did the part around the instruments, but enjoy the way it looks.
So any way, Thanks again. I just hope we don't turn into the norm and stock is the custom!

Witchdoktor

I don't give a **** if it was as easy as taking candy away from a baby or as hard as a baboon's pecker on viagra. Bottom line is that it looks ******* awesome. Where do you get the silver paint for that stuff? P5 Looking Good on Strong Island

hihoslva

Get the SEM paints - try a good auto parts store, or better yet, a body shop supply house. Chances are they'll carry a big line of SEM stuff, and the "bumper coater" is what I used. Made just for plastics and fiberglass, and made for exterior stuff, so you know it'll last. I've never used any spray paint like it - it doesn't get "glossy", and dries so damn fast that drips and runs are a thing of the past - you'd have to TRY to get runs with this stuff.

I painted the gauge cluster, the surround, the center radio bezel, the shifter/cupholder trim, the e-brake trim (after sanding the texture out of it - that was a bitch), all four door latch pulls, and even the glovebox latch (for the hell of it ) - IN ONE NIGHT! I took the parts out of the car on a Friday afternoon (except for the e-brake trim - that I had out for few days to sand), masked off a few things and prepped everything (light sanding and cleaning) and sprayed everything that evening - each piece got at least 4 coats - nice and light, dusting them each time to get a nice even color. You can re-coat in like 5 minutes with this stuff - it dries so fast. Some parts got more than others, but everything got hit well. Then I put on at least 2 coats of clear (also SEM stuff - called "trim clear"), and let the parts sit in my house until Sunday and then re-installed 'em. The paint says it achieves maximum adhesion in about 48 hours, so that's why I let them sit all weekend.

I'm really pleased with the results - came out just like I wanted, which is all you can hope for with any mod.

Here's a quick pic of my e-brake trim for those who have not seen it:


And hey - I couldn't care less if everyone does the same frigging thing. I like mine - and if too many of you ******* copy my **** exactly, I'll just have to paint it all green or something-j/k!

And King - hell yeah! Big "ups" to Strong Island!

That's the first time I have ever heard someone who's not from here refer to Long Island as Strong Island - you visit or something?

~HH

Witchdoktor

Visit or something? ****, born and raised 5 miles outside the big NYC in Jersey. Now laying low in NC doing the school thing. I may soon return one day. Are you near the city? Back to business, what exactly did you do to prep the plastic pieces? We primed it with some ****, don't even remember what it was. This was done about 4 or 5 months ago, the door handles are chipping pretty bad, especially the driver's which is used the most of course.