I'm repainting the vinyl, plastic and metal interior pieces from my 1980 F150.

After researching lots of articles, youtube clips, etc. I think I found a good way to do it, and I'll document it here for others that want to do the same - I'll be sure to keep up to this thread and let everyone know how it holds up in the coming years.

Things I learned before attempting this were preparation is key!!! Without proper preparation, paint will never stick. There are 25-30 years of grime accumulated on our trucks, so it has to be clean in order for the paint to stick properly.

Everything I used to clean and paint my plastic, vinyl, and metal pieces are in the following picture:




a) bucket
b) container of TSP
c) Mineral Spirits
d) Painters tape
e) shop towels
f) face cloth (not shown)
g) kitchen dish scrubber (not shown - what is shown is another metal scrubber that I found to be too rough for some of the pieces. It left scratches after scrubbing, so use one that isn't metal)
h) Dupli-Color Vinyl & Fabric rattle can
i) Dupli-Color Sandable Primer rattle can


The only (for now) thing I'm still trying to determine is whether I should clearcoat some of the pieces to protect them from scratching etc? Anyone can chime in here? I just want to protect the final coats. I will update that in this thread when I find out.

As far as colour matching, with fading over the years, I just decided that I was going to repaint everything and stick with one colour that was readily available. I liked the red interior, and Dupli-Color has a red, but its a flame style red and I liked the original crimson colour from Ford. Reds are especially hard to match, and obviously I wanted to avoid the red looking super tacky and cheap. After testing the Dupli-Color red, I was actually quite impressed, and now I like it more than the original crimson colour.


Cleaning process:

1) TSP - Dilute with warm water (follow directions)
2) Scrub your vinyl/plastic panels with the TSP solution (I didn't wear latex gloves at all times, but they would have been useful)
a) I scrubbed using an old facecloth and on other parts I used one of those kitchen dish scrubbers - just wanted to make sure i got between the grains to actually clean it rather than just a TSP rinse.
3) After that dried up, I folded over a shop towel and got it wet with mineral spirits. I really rubbed it into the piece, making sure that everything got cleaned. TSP is not enough. Mineral spirits really take out a good amount of leftover grease after washing with TSP. See the picture below of the cloth after a mineral spirit wipedown on this metal piece that connects headliner to windshield.

 

Painting:

The key to getting the paint to stay and look nice is to not glob it on! Start with super light coats, wait, then repeat. After a couple light coats, you can be spray a bit heavier, but do not hold the spray can in one place, keep the can moving and at a safe distance from the surface so that you don't get drips and paint puddles.

On the plastic and vinyl pieces, I didn't use the sandable primer - From what I researched, the Dupli-Color Vinyl & Fabric is built to stick on without primer or adhesion promoter. I did use the primer on a couple of pieces, just to see (over time), whether it was a necessary step for the plastic and vinyl -

On the metal pieces, since they are neither plastic or vinyl, I first sprayed them with a couple light coats of the sandable primer. Then I went ahead with the same vinyl and fabric spray, right over top of the primer. (I will update with pics later)

 

Oh damn - I just read on the Duplicolor website to apply Dupli Color CP 199 adhesion promoter on the bare plastic after cleaning, and before applying the paint... http://www.duplicolor.com/pdfs/tips.pdf

Wow..would have helped to read the duplicolor website of all places.. well
I've already painted about half my pieces without adhesion promoter...so I guess we'll see if those pieces pass the acid test over the next few years.

Also they recommend 3-4 coats of clear coat at the end, which I'll cover all my pieces with.

 

I wondered how that could work w/o an adhesion promoter. I'm using SEM and following their video training. I had to stop the video several times to write down all the instructions. But, they have several adhesion promoters depending on what you are working on: vinyl only; plastic & leather; and sand-free to be used on textured stuff, like our trim. And, then there is one called XXX that must be for really hard-to-adhere-to surfaces.

 

I have painted with Rustoleum and no adhesion Promoter with good luck...its been like ten years now.

 

Nice! Thanks for sharing

 

After doing more research I found this post on a DupliColor forum -


I called DupliColor this morning and asked about the necessity of (a) adhesion promoter and (b) clear coat using the Vinyl and Fabric rattle can.

I finished painting some pieces a week ago, and I explained what I've done to date, that is, the cleaning process and then spraying the paint. She told me on the phone:

"If the paint has already stuck, then it should be good, and you will get away without a need for adhesion promoter because you prepped the surface well enough"

I then asked her about the clearcoat - I noticed on some of my pieces that I could scratch the plastic, and some of the Dupli-Color would scratch off - She reassured me

"Dupli Color does not sell a clear coat for the Vinyl and Fabric, because clear coat is not needed. The reason the paint scratched off is because it didn't have time to cure. It sometimes takes up to a week for the paint to cure (lose all of its moisture), and it will cure faster in a place that is not humid. Once it's cured it will be essentially scratch proof, but like any product will be susceptible to gouges"

So it appears like I may be in the...clear, for lack of a better word!

 

Good to know - on the prep, the clear coat, and the curing time. I painted the cover to the console yesterday, so I need to be somewhat careful with it until it fully cures. (I'm assuming my paint is SEMilar. )

 

Okay - So I've finished painting my interior pieces - and what I found was that it is definitely worth using adhesion promoter.

On my doors, I initially did not use adhesion promoter, and I noticed that some of the paint was spotty looking (like it wasn't really sticking). See the pics posted below. On the doors, I was worried about the paint not lasting and not being durablle enough for everyday wear and tear. - I only want to go through this once! so i peeled back all of the paint, and then applied adhesion promoter and reapplied the paint - See the pics below.

I've been collecting photos to post of each step but unfortunately I have lost most of them due to a bad file transfer I'll post what I've got anyways -

Spotty Paint:




Some of the paint on the doors start flaking/peeling, and didn't look like it was sticking everywhere (like above) It's not a very high-res image, but the color underneath was showing through. So - I ended up:
1) peeling off all the paint I had sprayed on already
2) applying adhesion promoter
3) repainting over the adhesion promoter

Peeling the paint off took a while, but once I got a bit peeled back, the 3 coats I put on were thick enough that it peeled the paint off without breaking (most of the time) some of the paint didn't peel off (see pic below) so I either left it on there if it was small, or used a sharp object to scrape it off. The paint on the speaker section I just left on -



After I painted the doors again using multiple light coats, it looked good and unfortunately I don't have pics of that now because I lost them.

I tested to see if the paint would endure scratches and scuffs, and I wasn't confident. My door fell on some concrete and it scraped it right down to the previous paint -

So I searched and searched for clear coats to cover it - The best one I found (I think) was this stuff:



I didn't want a gloss, and it says that this stuff is non-yellowing, but all reviews of 'matte' clear coats say that they do end up yellowing, and this is no exception - I did about 6 or seven coats and it did leave a haze on my paint and turned the red a lighter colour, but it is more resistant to scuffs, which is ultimately what I wanted.

Here is a picture of the completed door - I did not clear coat the arm pads on the door, and you can see the difference in the red that was clearcoated and the red that wasn't.




( I glued the vinyl on after painting, and will post about how I did that on a separate thread: the thread where I got the idea from HERE --> https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...or-panels.html)

 

Sticky. Damn. Nice.

 

Glad you got it worked out. But I'm surprised that you are staying with the slide locks. Have you found magic to keep the bezels in?

 

I haven't even driven my truck enough yet to know that there was an underlying issue! Do you just mean the red slide lock itself? If so, the slide locks snapped into place pretty snug because putting them in over the vinyl gave them an extra 'snap' when I popped them in. I don't think they'd come out with normal wear and tear. Maybe I'm mistaken.. lol hopefully not.


Also I just thought of something to eliminate the clearcoat haze... and I don't even know if I'll follow through with it at this point, but spray painting over the clearcoat one or two coats of the actual paint - Might bring back the luster of the original red

Edit Note: On further thought, man, just looking at the pic of my doors up there, they look pink because of that haze - !! If I paint over the clearcoat, I will be sure to lightly sand it with like a 600 grit, and then apply adhesion promoter, before spraying over the clearcoat

 

Yes, the bezels. But if they snap in they should be good.

 

Gary, (or calling any others!) well I've been saving up and finally putting a little more tlc into my ol truck here..(sidenote I'm excited on: just did a disc brake conversion and dropped in an eaton truetrac in the 9")
Anyways,
Run into one problem, which you've documented in your blog - is the transition in 80'/81' from sliding latch back to pull ****.
One of my latches has broken, so I'm looking for a new latch to replace the old.
LMC and the usual suspects seem no help. Are there any resources you guys have for a sliding latch ?

I can pay shipping, issue paypal, whatever, I really have been struggling to find one. Figured I'd ask first here before i start scanning wreckers in a 50 mi radius..!

One of my sliding latches

Sliding Latch I'm looking to buy one any color. embedded in the driver side door in this image..

 

You sure LMC don't have them?
I thought they did unless it was a short run.
Dave - - - -