Ok...I pm'd this to someone but I don't remember who and I suppose I didn't make it clear when I said what I was using so heres a little how-to I suppose......
The Company is SEM
The Product is Color Coat flexible coating *paint*.
It can be used to (straight from the spray can) CHANGE OR RENEW COLOR ON MOST FLEXIBLE & RIGID PLASTICS, CARPET, VINYL, AND VELOUR.
I asked the paint store people and my body guy and he said it's the same kind of stuff they use at the shop but it's in a spray can. They didn't suggest using a dye. (Where would you dip it??) The lady at the store said she used it on interior automobile carpet (black) and it worked great. I haven't done that yet so I can't say firsthand. However everything else I painted (all interior pieces and headliner)has turned out great
I noticed a couple of pieces were scratched by, I think, a screw or something so I touched it up and then added clear-coat for the first time. No problem after that. Even if it were to get chipped in the future I would rather buy a $8.00 can of paint and touch up everything every few months than pay fucking $1300+ for new interior. Fuck them shits. Plus the only pieces I could imagine getting scratched would be maybe the door panels, dash and prolly the center console. You can spray the dash and doors w/o removing em if it is just touch up and you use some garbage bags or plastic and the center console comes out easy as pie so....
Also I thought it worth noting that I completely stripped my car out and painted everything and let it cure all winter, then when spring came and it warmed to about 80 degrees fahrenheit I painted another coat on everything and clear-coated. I doubt most people can stand going w/o their interior for a couple months but if ya have the time do it. I would say the longer the curing process the better. The paint dries in ~ 10 minutes. I waited about 1 hr -1 day between coats. Like I got the piece to look about how I wanted it, then touched it up about 24 hours later. I then touched it up again in the spring before installing the interior. Anyway, I would definitely make it like a 3 day weekend project. Just don't half-ass it. Don't be that guy, everyone knows that guy. It took me approximately 10 cans to do everything in my '91 CRX, not including the back-seat type piece that opens up for storage. I didn't do that piece because I am making a sub-enclosure to fit there. However I would think that would take at least a can to do. Keep in mind though I was doing a drastic color change. Going from grayish-blue to white. If you are changing the interior to black or, I imagine, anything other than white it would require less coats. I used a whole can on each door panel..... um at least 2 cans on the dash I would think. Other stuff I'm not sure about.
The only other suggestions I have is to spray the item with the can in the upright position as much as possible. I had a problem with the can dripping out the bottom and landing on a piece that I had underneath the item I was painting if I didn't keep the can in the upright position. Also, when you first get the can, do a test spray into the air or onto some grass or something because the first couple sprays always came out as a kind of spiderweb like consistency. I don't know why, perhaps a pro can solve that mystery. When you spray, don't leave the can in one position, use sweeping motions and continous spraying. This worked best for me. I would start the can spraying a little before I got to the piece and then just sweep back and forth across it only letting up if I felt I was coating too much. The first few coats I would spray from right to left fairly quickly, letting up when I passed over the piece on the left side. I would then move the can to the next section and repeat.
Um... do very light coats, theres no rush especially in the summer heat. Let it cure a good 20 mins. To really speed the process up have all your pieces out and cleaned VERY thoroughly with the SEM vinyl/plastic cleaner. And I mean thoroughly. Soap and water those bad boys a few times then use the cleaner. 1 can of the cleaner did me fine. It smells bad though so do it outside or in your garage unless you can open up all your windows and keep your pets away. I imagine the fumes could harm em. Next, start painting the pieces doing light coats and do 1 piece after another. Take note of the time to make sure 20 mins has passed. This will ensure the paint is dried thoroughly and you will use less paint. It's better to wait a few more minutes than end up spending an hour sanding out a run or a glob of paint just to start all over imo. By the time you get done putting a coat on the last piece you may be able to start on the first piece again. If you do the painting like this please make sure your work area is well ventilated. I'm not talking with dust and shit blowing in but perhaps use a mask or something. I know I was kinda light-headed and had some bad headaches when I was doing this so.....just be careful.
To get around all the pieces without touching them I used a bread-carrier *thing* that my girlfriend got from her parents who deliver bread. Here is a pic of it...
As you can see this allowed me to keep the item off of the floor and rotate it to spray it from every angle, which is a must to coat everything, all while maintaing the can at the upright position to prevent drips. You could use sawhorses or buy a pair of those plastic sawhorses that are like $30 each. I'm ghetto and just used this though. For the dash I propped it up with a stick behind it which held it very steady. You have to be able to walk around the CRX dash because of the little compartments on it that are impossible to spray without being where the windshield normally is. I'm not familiar with other dashes but it seems Honda kinda makes most of their cars very similar so it's probably likely you'll have the same problem.
Well I hope this explained everything in detail. I'm sure I mentioned stuff in here that lots of people already knew but hey, I'm just trying to be thorough (have I used that word enough in this post??) If you have any more questions or anything I will do my best to help ya out, just pm me. Good luck and I'm glad this topic has seemed to help a few people.
