Repainting your dashboard...without disassembly.

Youve made it here beacause somehow or other you screwed up your dash. I know. I did too. Perhaps you scuffed it, put Goof off on it, (Throw away Goof off, nothing but bad happens), or just plain want a different color. You read that you have to disassemble it, and know that either 1) it will take all day ( read as 4 hours for disassembly alone) or 2) youll break every clip in your dash. Fear not. There is a solution.

The biggest issue is all plastic paints are spray paints. Supposedly Krylon makes a brush on paint for plastics, but Ill be damned, cant find it anywere.

I tried many things that "worked" online. They did not. Steel wool, vinegar, olive oil, Mothers dash restore, tire shine, heat gun. Nothing worked. Dont waste your time.

The most damage was done when I scuffed mine trying to use 3000 grit paper on a mark, turns out it is not colored all the way through. You end up with a big white spot. So now youre screwed. Big white spot on your dash. Or are you?

Nope. You need.

1. Dish Sponge (not foam)
2. Drop cloth
3. Plastic primer/ paint combo, you probably want flat, but its your truck.
4. Tape, duct preferably for legacy sake
5. Scissors
6. Paint thinner
7. 1-2 hours max
8. Beer

I apologize in advance, but I didnt take before pics, only after pics. I was not happy that sanding the mark made it worse.

Step 1. Wipe dash down until its clean. Use soap and water or rubbing alcohol, etc.
Step 2. Put a drop cloth over both doors to keep paint off of them from the spray can. Youll be spraying near them.
Step 3. Get ready to paint. Cut your sponge in half (notice I said sponge not foam) and start spraying it liberally with your paint/ primer. Do this outside the truck on a non windy day, near the grass. Then go back in your cab and wipe on dash until you are out of paint. It it starts to dry/ or leave parts of sponge, you need more paint. Spray again. You'll do this about 50-100 times.
Avoid the tight spots in trim /edges last.
Step 4. Once a majority of the dash is done (looking good right?!), cut a smaller end of sponge, approx 1 inch x 2-3 inches and go around and do tighter trim. Tape the edges of trim. Dont worry about the windshield, thats what paint remover is for.
Step 5. Do another coat.
Step 6. Look at dash from many angles, front of truck, over hood, side windows. Look for anywhere that isnt uniform. Press hard/dab (not like Cam) when doing area near air vents. Slide above dash for the long length at very front of cab.
Step 7. Wipe any areas you didnt want paint with paint remover. Glass, other trim, your fingers. Funny enough it didnt take anything off other trim except for excess paint. Didnt seem to affect non painted areas. 2005 Taco FWIW.
Step 8. Wait 30-45 mins for it to completely dry, windows down.
Step 9. Hit it with a nice interior shine, eg Turtle Wax, aircraft 303, etc.
Step 10. Have a beer. When can / bottle / glass is empty, repeat. Muse at how much time you saved by not disassembling. And lack of frustration with reassembly.

Tips. Paint color usually turns out lighter than youd think. I had a cement grey (left can) that turned out white. And a charcoal grey (right can) that turned out cement grey. (see can pics). If you want dark grey, you'll need black with primer. If its not what you like, dont worry, you can paint over it.

Also, if you look real close at your dash before you paint, youll find the colors are all little shade different. This is good. Look at your side panels, then top dash, then glovebox. Theyre all different. This is good. As long as you choose a color that matches the group or the outside of your truck it wont matter. Mine is lighter than factory color, but nobody notices, since its in the same group. I can barely tell its been painted.

Mine took 1.5 hours, but I did it twice, since it came out light the first time. If you have the supplies, should take 1 hour. Took me longer to write this up.

Time for some pics.

 

You're gonna be high from the fumes for the first couple of weeks.

 

Dried within 30 mins on a sunny day, cant smell paint anymore.

 

Looks good... for now.

Hopefully that shit doesnt start peeling on you

 

We used the same plastic paint on our patio chairs in hot NC summers with no issue. Also this will be dry and not a big deal if needs repainted. You're thinking regular paint. Have you not seen the detailing videos where they repaint dashboards? They use plastic primer & paint.

 

Man this looks fantastic! I’m looking into doing this soon to mine. Really the only thing that’s gonna suck is taping everything off and being real careful. How’s it holding up?

 

No problems. Happy I did it last year. Was 100 °F ambient all last summer & this summer. Lowest low temp about 20 ° F. Parked outside 50% of time.

 

Awesome! You mentioned the color turned out a little lighter than stock? Do you know exactly what the name of the color was? I believe my 11’s dash is called graphite but I’m not sure. Here’s a photo.

 

Original color is stone. Its on the doorjam label.

Can is called Valspar blindfold. I believe I got it at Lowe's.

 

Ok cool. Well you did a great job. Thanks for the reply! Any tips before tackling this job? Lol

 

Take your time and print the first post so you can go step by step. And remember it's much better than disassembling everything.

 

Yeah no.

It would take me hours to tape everything off in the vehicle. I’m not getting paint anywhere near my vehicle without everything being covered and taped.

I’m the type of person that gets paint everywhere when I paint.

 

Cerakote is the best you can buy.