SterlingStangMan

Actually the dash kit is brushed aluminum but the lighting makes it look more steel. It is definitely darker that the stock. The dash kit as about $160.

DRB

Did you do the painting yourself? What did you use - materials, tools?

SterlingStangMan

Yes, I did the painting myself. Very easy to take parts off the car. A few things like the ebrake had to be painted in place, just carefully mask and cover everything you don't want paint on. I used BullDog adhesion promoter which is why I felt comfortable painting the inserts and other plastics. It really makes the paint stick no matter what the surface. Of course shoot the whole thing with clear coat to keep it looking good. I drive ragtops so the plastics tend to grey out. I used products from Colorbond (available at Summit Racing). They have their own adhesion promoter but recommend the BullDog which I could pick up locally. You can order any of the colors from Summit although they do not list everything on their website. The plastics will scar before the paint does. Here is a pic of the interior before I did anything. It was worth it to get it the way I wanted it. Also, I included a pic of my '04 vert which I painted the interior on as well - body shop wanted to charge me a few hundred to do the job and I did it for about $50 total. Modifications are addicting

DRB

Looks great. What kind of equipment do you use? Was the color off-the-shelf or did you mix it?

There's a body shop here in town that I like based on my recent experience with them, but I'm not terribly interested in paying them a couple of hundred, as you say, for small interior parts if I can actually learn to do it well myself.

SterlingStangMan

DRB it is very easy In both cases, I used Duplicolor rattle cans I picked up at Auto Zone. I used a GM Gunmetal color because it was the closest thing I could find to the Sterling Grey. Most of the bezels just pull out. The window switchs are a little bit of a pain and the hardest is the door handle pockets. If you can take the part off, do it because you don't have to worry about overspray and you can rotate it to get all sides evenly. I picked up a set of plastic trim panel tools from Harbor Freight which are great for a lot of things. Just clean the parts good with soap and water, maybe skuff slight with fine grit (400 or higher) sand paper followed denatured alcohol. Shoot a light coat of BullDog and wait 10 minutes before your first light color coat. After 3 or 4 more light color coats, 2 or 3 light clear and then wait till nice and dry (at least 3 hours) before reinstalling (overnight if you have more patience than I will ever.) Then, sit back and enjoy your work and some of the money you saved with a few cold beers PM me if you have any questions.

DRB

That covers it really well, thanks. I've seen a couple of videos demonstrating how easy the console top is to remove - that's the main part I'm thinking about doing right now. That you got good results with the Duplicolor can is really encouraging - that simplifies things. I've got a fair amount of experience spray painting other kinds of things than automotive using rattle cans with good success.

Thanks again.