Repair your peeling paint on the cheap!!

[Richy04]

Supplies needed:

Gloves
Oven cleaner
Goggles
Stiff toothbrush
Ford interior paint Dark charcoal vinyl paint - M4JZ-19M547-4149H $20
Or Duplicolor HVP111 Vinyl Paint (Pretty close good in a pinch but slightly lighter in color) 7 bucks

Remove the panel carefully from the door panel from the front first.

Once its out, then remove the plugs from the switches by depressing the plugs in the little cove shaped area with your finger and they pop right out, the mirror switch and door lock switch has the tab which must be lifted to remove the plug.

The mirror switch has two tangs holding it into the panel, depress those and remove the switch.

The window switches have little nubs on the side of the housing which lock into the panel, carefully lift the panel surround until the nubs clear the panel and lift out.

The same for the last switch, carefully make room for the nubs to clear and she comes right out.

Ok, once you have the panel without any switches, spray the panel with oven cleaner in a well ventilated area.

Oven cleaner WILL NOT distort the plastic, ruin the patina of the plastic nor damage it in any way. Pretty cool!!:beer:

But it will take some elbow grease to get the paint off of the panel. Use the brush or if you are like me and are impervious to oven cleaner, a finger nail will also work in getting into the tight spots but be warned, oven cleaner burns so use the precautions of gloves and goggles.

Once the panel is devoid of paint, take the panel to a slop sink and wash it down to clean it and deactivate the oven cleaner. You should now have a perfectly black panel sitting before you.

Dry it good and wipe it down with prep pads to remove any remaining grease etc..

Place the panel on some newspaper and shake the can of paint well. Begin by spraying the edges of the panel from about 8-10 inches away, dont worry about covering everything with paint, dust it and go have a beer. The finish is based on how quickly you can walk away after a light coat, if you lay heavy coats, you will lose the patina in the original plastic and the coat you lay will be spotty.

Lay additional coats every 15 minutes or so and if you want, dust it with some clear to give it a factory shine and to even out the gloss. Dusting the part with clear gives it a beautiful factory finish and its recommended. Dust from about a foot away give it a nice pebbly finish and added protection.

This may work for the edges of the dash panel and other parts that are peeling but test the panels in inconspicuous spots with the oven cleaner to make sure the cleaner will not damage the part.

The trick to this is to get to the original plastic without distorting the pebble finish, foux leather finish etc.. The oven cleaner will accomplish this and give you back a clean black factory part thats ready for paint.

I offer this info "as is where is" only. If you dont have the patience or ability to do this, please give the parts to a professional to take care of them or contact Ray the dealer for a sweet deal on new panels and parts..

If you do this right, you can sweeten up the panels whenever they get scratched and if you use the factory paint, it should look like Elena Ford shot it herself in the factory.

Good luck and if you have any questions, you know where to find me..:P

[Bradley G]

How did you know my paint was peeling? :confused: I have the dark gray paint coming off on the dash above the dot Matrix panel.

[Richy04]

Eventually they all will peel..

Anyway, I just installed the panel back in and the duplicolor charcoal gray vinyl and fabric interior paint is a damn good match!! The only thing is you must dust it with clear to get the semi matte finish of the original part. It looks pretty ****g sweet.:D

Take the dash panel out and try the above, you will love it. I am going to add pics of the passenger panel job when I do it, am also going to add pics to the other post when I rebuild quiksvt's compressor.. Stay Tuned!!!

[BigCars4Ever]

I remember having to strip a Cadilac down to bare metal because someone sprayed it with oven cleaner. The painter at the shop tried to prime over it but it just came back through.

[Richy04]

It works for plastic. I did my panel in about an hour and a half from removal to reinstall. I checked it on my way to work and it came out outstanding.

[omarauder]

I remember having to strip a Cadilac down to bare metal because someone sprayed it with oven cleaner. The painter at the shop tried to prime over it but it just came back through.


Oven cleaner is 'lye' based, which is a strong 'base' (opposite to a strong acid). Try scrubbing and rinsing with vinegar when done. Vinegar is a mild acid which should neutralize any leftover oven cleaner residue. Rinse again with clean water and let dry.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Instead of oven cleaner, I would use bulldog plastic stripper. It is designed for stripping paint from automotive plastics.

[Richy04]

where do you get the bulldog stuff? I used the oven cleaner and had it squeaky clean in about 20 minutes. I didnt have to neutralize it as I cleaned it well enough and the oven cleaner washes right off of the plastic. Vinegar is good to neutralize bases but its over kill when the oven stuff just rinses off the part. I am stuck here at work until Saturday, when I get a chance I will upload pics of the parts, before and after.

Like I said, the part comes out like new when you strip it, which is the key. The original grain is left intact and light shots of color over it keep the finish factory. I see lots of problems with these cars in the future as many of the dash parts where the matrix panels are, window switch panels, EATC panel surrounds are peeling since the color is not mixed into the plastic but sprayed onto black injection molded parts.

[BigCars4Ever]

Most autobody supply shops carry Bulldog products.