[Kaos]

The person who owned the car before me did a crap job of painting the interior blue and I am trying to figure out how to remove it. I thought about trying one of those aerosol paint removers but I'm afraid it might destroy the plastic. Does anyone have any ideas?

I think the previous owner saw too much Fast and the Furious or played too much Need for Speed. Here is how it looked when I bought it:

[Peleg]

I'm not an expert on paint, and not interior paint, but something tells me that even if you remove the parts from the car and try to strip the paint, it will not look as good.

From there, I would just order the stock parts.

[psuLemon]

You are definitly going to need to repaint the plastics. If the arm rest is done, then you will need to buy a new one. But you can remove the plastics, get paint thinner and that should be a start. Then get some sand paper and lightly sand it off. (probably a 250 grit to start, then 500 after). Then you can get a primer and a flat black paint. Thats what i did with my old car, but i ended up paint matching it as the same time. But the paint will stay in some of the small cracks. so that is why you have paint it.

[Kaos]

I have been thinking about repainting it, going S204 black, but I want to start with a clean surface. It wasn't done very well either, the stuff is chipping easily.

Peleg: I had thought about just ordering replacement parts or finding a wrecked 04 with good interior but that is a little more pricey than I am willing to do right now. Plus, I am really getting tired of looking at it.

psuLemon: Are you refering to the part of the armrest that the fire extinguisher is mounted to in the pic? If so, that part was easy I just ditched it for the extended armrest. Which means I have that part to test with but I'm hoping to get some input on what might work the best.

Anyone know if those paint strippers that basically make the paint melt and you can pretty much wipe it off afterwards are safe for plastic?

[aznboi320]

where did you buy your car from?

[Boostpimp]

Hey man...call a local paint and body and ask them what chemical they use to strip paint off of plastic without destroying the plastic. They should be able to offer some tips and tricks.

[Peleg]

I can tell you this. When my older car was repained, they didn't mask the muffler really well, so it was painted as well. They gave me some paint stripper and said it should do the trick. Got home, suited up and tried it:

Painted muffler - 1

Paint Stripper -0

Went down to the hardware store and got some heavy duty stuff. To this date, this is the most HARSH, HAZERDOUS, POISON chemical I ever used. It was no joke, it got on my skin at one point and burned like hell. It will melt plastic like a hot knife through butter.

I took the rest of it to the recycling center for proper disposal and I WILL NEVER TOUCH any of this stuff again.

My point is: talk to a place that does interiors and get their opinion first. Bodyshops don't work on interiors, they work on paint + body, so I wouldn't try their chemicals on the interior, it will most likely melt the plastic leaving you with melted interior pieces, so at the end, you spent money on supplies and then you'll have to spend more money on buying the new pieces.

As an alternative, checkout G2 manufacturing:

http://www.g2usa.com

They have an interior paint kit, so perhaps you can use their black color to repaint those pieces and make it look like the S203 interior.

[Insane06STi]

Paint it black.

[IndianaSti]

The dash pieces shouldn't be to hard to lightly sand and paint black or matte silver, but you might have to replace the center console if you ever want it to look right again. Maybe try spray dying the console first to save money. I think Peleg is right most paint or dye removers will most likely destroy the plastic (it's NASTY stuff).

P.S.- are those screw on caps on your peddles or did the original owner completely replace the peddles?

[Inertia]

I think i just threw up in my mouth a little bit... Seriously go the JDM route like these guys say sand and paint black. And buy the red hazzard while your at it.

[psuLemon]

Originally Posted by Kaos

psuLemon: Are you refering to the part of the armrest that the fire extinguisher is mounted to in the pic? If so, that part was easy I just ditched it for the extended armrest. Which means I have that part to test with but I'm hoping to get some input on what might work the best.

Yea, i didn't notice it was a fire extinguisher until you said something. Its kind of a small pic. Just eliminate that and get the armrest extension like you did. I just went to home depot and got paint thinner. Then i took off my plastics (this was on a nissan) and tested a small part. It got a lot of it off. Sometimes you just need to let it sit awhile. Its only really hard if you have a person that got true car paint and clear coat which i did afterwards. Use the paint thinner, then let it dry, then get some 150 to start with, then move it up to 250 or 500. Once that is done, then you can paint. You shouldn't need anything super abbrasive liek Peleg said, because you just let a base primer which will eliminate paint that will show through. And you plan on sanding. Hopefully this helps. Send me a PM if you need more info.

[Kaos]

Completely replaced. They aren't too bad, but I prefer the look of the stock ones; I'm planning on eventually replacing them with the stock ones.

Originally Posted by IndianaSti

P.S.- are those screw on caps on your peddles or did the original owner completely replace the peddles?

[IndianaSti]

YA, the peddles don't look THAT out of place I was just curious.

[Pitcherman]

B-12 Chemtool. It has always worked for me when removing pain from plastics. Try it in a non visible area first though, just incase.

Chris

[aryder]

sand it down to make it a smooth paint job when you re-do it