I needed a new ash tray trim since my cig lighter didn稚 work (couldn稚 figure out how to swap just the lighter). So I found one that came with extra pieces.




So I now I have some extra pieces to test painting the trim. Did my first piece and it came out real nice I think. Almost same color as my car.



Not too shabby.

Thoughts on the gunmetal trim?

 

Got the bulk of the dash done today. Just need to do the trim work.



Doing it in the car was tough but doable. I知 going to do the gauge cluster housing a little later once I knock out more pressing tasks.

Car is coming along now for sure.

 

For me, personally, I think you should wrap the trim with some gun metal wrap like this:
Reason is, because the painted gun metal looks a bit cheap, like an older Corvette's interior piece. Just my two pennies worth.

 

One of the main reasons I知 spraying over wrapping (much easier to wrap) is that I need it to be able to tie in with the dome light piece from the G since it has the sunroof switch cut out. If use the GT-R piece, I have to relocate the switch. The issue is you can稚 wrap that in one clean piece since the roof switch is sunk too deep in the cavity. The wrap can稚 stretch that far. But if you paint it, you can do it clearly. So ill have the black dome light assembly And sunglasses holder with the piece in the middle of the lights matching the trim.

I know that痴 deep but it makes sense if you get what I知 saying. Also, I like that high gloss metallic color so it痴 not seeming like much of a concession to me. It was slick as ice to the touch which I like.

 

that looks really good...if you get every other piece to that quality , it will look really good...i have sprayed painted flat black, then gloss, then wrapped in a silver-ish finish and then went to a few others LOL but ultimately went with a dark metal wrap color and only because the spray paint jobs just never looked right to me, not sure if the color or i just did it wrong....but,if they had come out looking like that sample you got there, would have called it a day way back ...

 

This is looking good. Are you laying this over the existing vinyl and just gluing down? or are your removing the old vinyl and leaving the yellow foam base ? also, how thick is this material? does it show imperfections beneath it? i had thought on a vinyl wrap on my dash, but after getting a sample size and laying it down, it seemed to show the irregularities of the dash, if any, and mine has enough... but this seems a bit thicker...either way, looks good!!

 

@G37sPhoton - I am laying it right on the dash. There isn稚 a layer you can just peel off from the dash, under that sticky black stuff there is dense yellow material but it isn稚 a layer you can稚 get past without sanding it off which seems like a nightmare. I used Sugru on all the huge gashes and used it to form new corners where they were broken/rounded. I did sand it down (applied it like sparkle). However, don稚 use Sugru. I didn稚 realize til after I used it that the glue for the dash won稚 stick to it. Had to use super glue to adhere the dash around the side a/c vents where I used lots of Sugru. I would try flex seal if I had to do it again. The leather does hide the parts I didn稚 sand well pretty good. I know where the there is a little bump or right part but you can稚 really tell. The leather is average thickness, like 1.2mm I think. Make sure you get higher quality soft leather with natural pebbling b/ you do have to stretch and form the leather quite a bit and the natural leather isn稚 uniform by nature so stretched areas don稚 stand out like they would on an embossed leather with constant pattern.

I got center around the Nav and a/c controls done today as well as the left air vent. Need to just finish the right air vent and the dash is done. I put the left A pillar back in and it was looking pretty sick.

 

I'm pretty sure there is a bondo / body filler made specifically for dashboards that you could use for this.

 

Yea, I should have done more research in that department.

 

Well, I contemplated removing the black layer , but yeah do see your point on work to get it done and then not sure on how the surface would look so most likely not worth it..yeah there is a Bondo type putty I read about and will have to check on that again but I think almost anything will be an improvement in my situation , even if I just sand down to make it look even and then wrap it....please post pics once you're done ...I'm sure it will look good , at least based on the work you have already done to your car ...

 

FYI That radio trim you have is for an 07-09. The 2010+ did not bring that "cassette" hole by the passengers corner.

 

I was wondering what that was. I really just needed the ash tray so my cig lighter works. The rest of the pieces were bonus to use for test painting. I actually took apart that piece you mentioned to learn how it comes apart. Good thing I had a dummy to use b/ I messed it up pretty good, lol. There is a ton of screws holding the circuit board and only some of them randomly hold the trim in place. Now I know which I need to remove.

 

Yeah, plenty of screws. Many of the tabs break also.

 

Almost done with dash. Looks great.



Almost hard to tell that痴 all leather from the photo.

 

Any in progress pics ?
I'm not sure if there is a pic attached ....when I posted , something popped up for a sec on your post then back to blank square ..
NVM....it's there now..NICE!!!! Wow looks good man!!! Then that's my solution too....