paint the dash
 

I ask this in responce to another thread but thought a new heading would get a better responce.I am changing out my interior on a 1987 blazer s10.It is red now and I am making it charcoal.Would it be easier to paint the dash as opposed to changing it? If painting is the way to go,is there a special paint? Im using a donor car for the interior and it has a dash but it looks like a pile of work to change the dash.

KRYLON paint sticks wonderfully to plastic in my opinion. Its all in how you prep the surface as to how long the paint will stay. Sand the parts really nice and clean them up with alcohol real well before painting. And make sure you do many small coats instead of a couple thick ones for the best result. Changing out a dash is a real pain in the ass, and painting it lets you have it look how you like it.

Best would be to change the dash out. No paint is gonna stick to the vinyl dash and hold up long. Many people swear by that krylon crap for hard plastics but IMHO it looks caked on and too thick on every one I've ever seen. A lot of that has to do with improper prep and they just sprayed it over the factory parts also.

^^^^^^^ x2

Changing the dash would probably be best. It's really not that hard. Just looks imtimidating. I've had great results with the following method for painting.
No. 1 thing is to clean the surface really well. Use some product for the job. Duplicolor cleaner & wax remover worked for me.
No. 2 is to use a bonding agent. Don't get cheap here. This is the key step. I used Bullydog adhesion promoter (about $20.00 per can - you don't even need one whole can) according to directions (2 light coats about 10 minutes flash time between coats) followed by...,
No. 3 is the topcoat about 10 - 15 minutes after the adhesion promoter. I put on about three light coats making sure everything was xovered, I used Duplicolor vynal paint and with the adhesion promoter you can hardly scratch the surface. I thought there was a little too much gloss (I put in a later center console so on the dash you really may want to try this) so I just shot it with a couple of coats of good old Minwax satin polyurethane and it looks factory. You may want to go with a flat on the top.
So yes you can have good results painting it if you don't want to change it. If you have a bunch of cracks you definately want to change it.

I personally would just swap out the dash.