Greetings Fellow Ford fans,
I have recently acquired a 2009 F550 Super Duty 4X4 and I'm looking to refresh the interior a little bit. The truck is in incredible condition at 260,000 miles and I'm still looking for things to fix; so far it looks like the oil pan gasket. However the door panels suffer severe deterioration from the sun and Mother Ford does not make them anymore. Has anyone discovered a good method for restoring them; even a little bit better. I'm considering a thorough cleaning and painting. I've used heat (a carefully utilized heat gun) to restore exterior plastic before and it works well,but I've never tried it on an interior panel. And if there is anything I should be aware of on these trucks, please feel free to point it out.
Mike

 

I've seen new car dealers satisfy new car complaints on nicks and scratches of interior plastic... not by ordering and installing a new part... but by hiring a mobile detailer to come out and air brush paint the existing interior part. So yes, interior plastic parts can indeed be painted.

Interior plastic parts are even painted at the factory. That is one reason why they look so terrible later when used. It used to be that interior color plastic was through-color, so that if the surface gets abraded, the color wouldn't change, because the color was the same throughout the thickness of the plastic.

But then someone must have discovered that they could save money by making all the parts black plastic, and painting the interior color onto them, rather than pouring different molds in the respective colors offered.

Perhaps the worst example of this is from GM, who decided to extend this concept to the radio head unit buttons. Key word "buttons" mind you... things that get touched all of the time, including by hands with long fingernails.

In the old days, backlit buttons were made with at least two visible parts... the button itself, usually made of black plastic... and then a text or hieroglyph insert that illuminates at night and indicates button function or activation, often made of translucent or white plastic.

Well, GM decided that money could be saved by making the entire button white plastic in one piece, and painting the majority of the button black, but for the text or hieroglyph that needed to be seen by the operator.

Needless to say, as the paint wore off the buttons, the entire head unit face became freckled with white dots, where the black paint chipped off the buttons.

Sorry, I wandered off there for a bit. But yes, you can repaint interior parts. Ford used to supply rattle can interior paints just for this purpose.

 

I appreciate the 'Wandering' and this confirms my thinking. Lacquer is awesome and I used it on my Shelby GT 350. Now the fun part: The Peoples Socialist Republic of California has banned everything including paint and ALLEN WRENCHS. Yes, they do this and check packages that enter The Peoples Socialist Republic of California. So it's off to Arizona to look for a new shipping address and the closest Ford Dealer.
Yours,

Mike