I have a 75 ranger xlt with the faux wood grain door panels.
I'd like to just paint the whole panel black.
Has anyone done this and if so, what is the best proces for this? What paint should I use?

Also, does anyone know a good source for the plastic clips that holds the panel to the door?

 

I used Rustoleum "Paint for Plastic" in a Satin Black, it seems to be holding up great.


I washed the door panel off with soap and water, removing all dirt and scraping off any stuff, then let it dry. With a clean lint free rag, i quickly wiped it down with lacquer thinner. Then painted a few coats. The paint is available from Auto Zone and O'reillys.

I cleaned the rubber arm rest off too. Then made the mistake of wiping it off with lacquer thinner. Dont do it! It ate the rubber immediately. Then i painted it with a Duplicolor Vinyl and fabric paint.


The clips are readily available at your local parts store. I bought the ones for Ford, but others have used other ones and they say they may work better.

 

These GM ones longer and have a bigger head. And a little velcro helps. Dremel out the 2 spots that hits the 2 bolts heads.

No worries that finger cup will hide it.

 

ya any good paint would work but why paint over the wood grain? someone is always looking for this style of door panel maybe do a trade or find a good set of just black panels and leave the the stockers alone if they are in good shape.

 

I'd buy the wood grain panels off you if you're just going to paint over it. Like spikinfool05 said, someone is always looking for that stuff.

 

As suggested previously, there are a number of good plastic/vinyl paints on the market. I think I got mine at Pepboys. Prep work is key - 30 years of grime in the textured surface took a lot of scrubbing to remove. Before painting, I used mineral spirits as final scrub to make sure there was no oil/dirt on the surface.

 

Sem products are real good,painted mine three years ago,looks like the day I did it,,cost more though.