Interior Removal & Painting Write-Up
 

And here we go!

Tools needed:
1 Phillips head screwdriver
1 Flat head screwdriver
1 Putty knife
1 pair of Needle nose pliers
1 bottle of Rubbing alcohol
1 bottle Goo Gone or equivalent (Citrus stuff)
Masking tape
3 packages of Sand Paper 300/400/1000 grit
1 can Primer
3 cans Paint
2 cans Clear Coat
Patience

Step one:
Removal of door panels

These are held by clips and pop right off.
Use putty knife to pry up the backside first and with a little force, pull up and out.
Repeat for the other door.

Step two:
Removal HVAC cables

BOTH SIDES
Push both seats back as far as possible.

DRIVER SIDE start-Stick your head under the steering wheel and look up and to the right.
You will see a cable wrapped in black coating that runs from the rear of the HVAC controls to a black metal clip then finally to a white plastic nipple.
There is a little piece that needs to be squeezed on the nipple so that the cable loop can be pulled out.
Squeeze with needle nose, pull wire towards you and then remove cable from the black clip-DRIVER SIDE complete.

PASSENGER SIDE start-You will need to remove the glove box.
Open glove box and GENTLY squeeze the sides in, there are 2 rubber pieces holding the glove box up. Once squeezed enough to slip both pieces through, the glove box will hang down. Pull the left side gently towards you and then push the right side to the left and then pull out.
Stick your head down below where the glove box was and look left. You will see the next cable, clip and nipple.
Squeeze nipple with needle nose, pull wire and pop the clip off of the plastic piece-PASSENGER SIDE complete.

Step three:
Removal of center panel (Head unit & HVAC controls)

CENTER REMOVAL start-(P5 stock CD head unit) You will need 2 pairs of radio removal tools, these are available at Autozone/Pep Boys/Audio shop etc. There are 2 plastic trim pieces on the unit. One on the left & one on the right, they just pop off. Insert the removal tools till they latch, spread apart and pull. Unit should pop out.

(P5 after market unit) Most likely you installed a bracket from your local audio shop to fill in the extra din that goes unused (assuming you installed a SINGLE din unit). You will need to remove that and you head unit.

After removing the unit and the bracket, slip the putty knife between the dash and the top portion of the console (where the center vents are) pull towards you until the clips pop out of their holder. Once you can fit a finger or two between them, pull back and be wary, it IS PLASTIC and could possibly break. Disconnect the hazard switch, it’s a quick connect plug.
Work your way down until you can just about pull the entire thing out. There are 2 more quick connect plugs. The wires are short, so it’s a PITA, but not impossible. Once the 2 plugs are disconnected, there is a little tab holding the loom of wires. Flip the unit over and squeeze with Needle nose. After that is removed, you will only have to pull the unit and be sure not to bend the cables-CENTER REMOVAL complete.

Step four:
Removal of lower dash (Cup holder shifter trim)

LOWER DASH start-Grip cup holders, pull back towards rear of car. They should just pop out. Work your way down, the rear will pop out also-LOWER DASH complete.

SHIFTER TRIM start-Remove shifter knob by turning counter clock wise. There are 4 clips holding the shifter trim in place, pop those off and the trim should come right off-SHIFTER TRIM complete.

Step five:
Removal of gauge bezel

GAUGE BEZEL start-Unscrew the 2 Phillips head screws holding the black outer trim in place. Using moderate force, pull from the bottom….while pulling in the up and out direction. The piece should pop right out. Remove the visible screws and the one that is attached at the very top on a silver bracket. Pull out unit and disconnect the set of quick connect plugs on the backside. To remove the clear plastic dust guard, you will need to pop the tabs using the flat head…be patient and take your time, you do not want to break the clear piece-GAUGE BEZEL complete.

Step six:
Removal of Misc. screws, tabs & clips etc.

SELF EXPLANATORY!!!

Step seven:
Paint & prep

PAINT & PREP start-(I decided to keep the CF side panels so I used masking tape to do the border between the sections). Wipe everything down with rubbing alcohol. Allow to air dry. Sand using roughest grit first (300-400-1000). **I noticed that if you sand the stock painted section with 400 grit and then rub down with the Citrus stuff, you will notice that the ENTIRE trim is that fake CF material…very cool if you want to save some dollars on buying a CF trim kit. DRAWBACK…it will take you a long, long time unless you have a power sander, which I didn’t)** After sanding, wipe down with Goo Gone, air dry. Wipe down with rubbing alcohol, air dry.

Painting is ENTIRELY up to you…I wanted to make sure my paint bonded properly, had a nice deep color and great gloss. I believe I used 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of Medium blue pearl and then a ridiculous 4 coats of clear. Unfortunately the batteries in my cam died as I began the painting…so use your imagination. I used my gf’s hair dryer to speed up the drying process…it REALLY helps a lot!!

Step eight:
Reinstallation

REINSTALLATION start-I left the finished parts in a cool, dry place overnight to fully bond and seal. The next day I put all the screw, tabs and clips back and admired my work. I noticed some spots that I didn’t like, but figured I can do that at a later time (I decided to revert the bracket below my radio back to black and will most likely masking tape a section on the center console and paint that black also). Carefully repeat steps 1 through 5 being sure not to scratch your new painted pieces!-REINSTALLATION complete!!!

Step nine:
Show it off.

Step ten:
Thanks to all those who were nice enough to spread the wealth of knowledge!
The Guru's:
Centsless
Roddimus Prime
BLU_MP5
FlyinHawaiian071
Phantom Cruiser
:evilgrin:
-Phil

And....

Plus...

very nice work my man,,, i'm glad someone has the patience to write this up.
might want to add, before and after pictures as well..(just a thought)

Oh yeah...

Hold yer' horses....

Lest we forget...

Hmmm...can't really remember what I did, but YOU'RE WELCOME! :)

Before:

You were poking fun....let's call it "Comic Relief".

good write up man....we'll be sure to tag it for the archives.

You're most welcome....'preciate the good looking out chief!

How about we make it a STICKY even?
:evilgrin:

I guess we could...but it's so hard to get that stuff off my hands :bt:

:winkyum: :wackit: :eek:

Hahah lol, nice write up and nice paint job, its a nice subtle blue so it looks nice and its not too much! :bt:

Thanks for the compliment man...yeah...I originally wanted to got w/white, with a mix of red and black..but that fell through...so I started looking at pictures of my old 1997 Eclipse...it was white and the interior was a brighter blue with the flakes....so that was the point when i decided 'Medium blue Pearl' is the color for this one....yeah, it's not very over-powering...which is great...it's rather pleasing to the eye...so i can't complain....Thanks again!
:evilgrin:

After?

Well...I put the before pic on last...because I forgot & didn't want to delete the entire post and start all over....but you get the jist of it!!

i just hope the finish lasts!

i cried for days when i got my first sign of shipping / flaking. now its so messed up in places...im numb

To prevent flaking you should have used adhesion promotor. I recomend sanding everything down with 300 grit then washing in soap (dawn) and water. THen using some degreeser. Then you finally apply adhesion promotor then use normal paints. To get the old paint off toline/turpentine works amazingly.

The degreeser helps alot becuase plastic has a problem where it likes to retain silicon, this means that the paint powders off.
Be sure to wipe everything down with alcohol inbetween coats. It keeps dust off.

I have painted my xbox 3 years ago no clear coat or anything. There is no flaking and the paint is so strong that even with insane abuse including dropping controlers on it and stuff. Not even a scratch.

Mmmmmm Turpentine!!! Yeah...that shit works great!

You are my new best friend. haha.

When I asked for "after", I meant a shot from the back seat.

yeah, phil's car looks great. I'm going to have him do mine also.

Oh...lol...I'll take one asap.
:evilgrin:

Ha ha...thanks, it's my pleasure....

No doubt.

hopefully you can do it for me PRIOR to the MMP meet....what do you have going on this weekend? Wanna come up to my cri-zib?

This thread's the shizzat!!! I was just thinkin of doing this myself ... after I fix the damage I recently did to my car, so this thread should be all I need for the whole project. Anyway, I was just looking for feedback on what color to go with, I have a yellow MP5, and I was thinking orange since yellow interior would be a little TOO much yellow don't ya guys think?

The 'girl' thinks yellow is just fine...just don't overdo it.

I say again...

please do not put orange or red in a yellow car.

I might take some interior pics and see what I can accomlish with Photoshop ... cause I really didn't think orange would be too bad of a color to go with yellow. We'll see .. thanks for the input guys.

Hmmm...I dunno man....I wanted to actually go up to B-ham for that auto-x, but I don't think it's going to happen I just had POTUS come in yesterday and I got a bunch o' shit to take care of this weekend.. We might have to do it next weekend....

phil why didn't you paint the door handles? they look out of place now.

I didn't know how to take 'em apart...didn't want to break 'em. I've got to redo my center panel...so I think I'll do it then.

Nice job...
 

Good write up. It's a big plus when guys like you take the time to write up and photograph your projects.

No problemo....I enjoy it.

Yo! Matt, my gf is going to Mobile NEXT weekend for a Mary Kay conference....hit me up on my email and we can discuss the plan of action.

I did the same thing to my interier, came out real nice and gets Nuff compliments

http://img178.exs.cx/img178/5071/591162213full0fs.png

I replaced my guages too though
I also got a brushed alluminum insert bezel
http://img17.exs.cx/img17/3773/591162215full8dm.png

GREAT how to though, I followed all the same steps, I got the cars instructions for disassembly (the whole car)

Very nice.

Thanks, I was impressed with the cheap ass E-bay bezel fitting so whell and giving off such a good finish.

I dont want to spend too much on the exterior or the body, I like to put my money into "go fast" parts, but It was Soooooooooo Drab, That 40 bucks of paint was worth it.