Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Center console painted

I painted my center console and a couple of other parts on the doors and the dome light cover. They came out pretty awesome, much better than I was anticipating





I'm still finishing up on the covering around the gauges and tomorrow I think I'll also do the air vents. I'm also considering getting a double din silver color head unit to replace the black stock one. What do you guys think?

Looking good so far!

Looks good!

lookin good!

wurd. Post pics when its all done.

Very nice

looking sweet man!

pimptastic!

Looks mint! Has the paint chipped anywhere? or has it scratched off easy? My friend did her engine bay and without a clearcoat the paint scratches off pretty easy

I help put it the console back in. Putting it back in was a breeze. No paint chipped...I would have never have guessed it would have came out this good using spray cans.

He has the hugest smile on his fast after we put it in

I put about 4 coats of clear coat on each part and there were no scratches or chips anywhere. Of course I went out of my way to avoid any possible scratches when putting them back on, but from what others have posted, the clear coat will prevent scratches/chips.

Just an update...I finished up the a/c vents and the part around the gauges. It sucked taking the vents out and putting them back in. Here's a few more pics

wow its all . i think its just me

Is it difficult to remove these pieces to paint? Any recommended paint/primer brands?

looks good!!!!!!!keep up the good work!!!

Was it diffucult or just just frustrating trying to get them back in?

looks good! is the paint translucent or do you not mind being able to see your ac controls?

damn seeing the close up of it kind of looks like a pro. did it. great job man mad props

It wasn't difficult, it was just annoying since I was trying to pop in both sides of each piece (2 piece per vent) without accidentally scratching up the vents. The first one took me several minutes to finally get it in...by the last one, I was able to get it in in about 30 seconds since I developed a kind of trick by the time I put the third one in.

Don't know if this will make sense, but I put the top left into place, slid the top right up from the middle of the vent until it clicked into place, then pushed the bottom (smaller) vent in so it was behind the part where it clicks into. Then I wiggled the bottom left into place, and brought the bottom right into place by pulling it up from the bottom.

I don't blame you if that makes no sense whatsoever...it's kinda hard to explain

It's easy to remove the parts...the only parts you have to be careful removing are the a/c vents since you can easily scratch them up with the screwdriver.

I didn't use any primer, just cleaned the parts, did 3-4 coats of paint and 3-4 coats of clear coat. The paint was just some spray paint from Pep Boys.

The paint isn't translucent, so I can't see the controls...but I don't really mind, I don't look at them often since I leave the controls at the same spots. I took the green "boots" off the bulbs tho, and I'm getting some blue "boots" so hopefully they shine blue through the knobs and cig lighter.

It is amazing how such a simple mod can clean up your dash area so much. I have been wanting to paint mine but was afraid of missing the a/c labels to much. I think it looks great now that i see it!

u can get an overlay for the controls black or white i'll get a name for you guys if your interested i think they are like 10 bucks for the whole set

What paint did you get? what brand?(enamel/acrylic)...
That looks Great!

WOW how long did you work on it? looks really clean.

If anyone is interested you can mask off the dials, so you can ready them, it can be tricky seeing how they are round, but jut use some black electrical tape, cause it's rubbery and can move and mold better, thats how I did mine.

hmm this one should be closer

The paint I used was Plasti-Kote Ultra Enamel.


Took me about three days total only because the first day I just did a couple parts to see how they would come out. The paint dries really quick.

And thanks everyone for the compliments, painting the console and other parts was a lot more fun than expected, especially the final result

Overlays? Where where??

THANX!!!