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Sand your shift boot bezel and paint it!

19K views 33 replies 13 participants last post by  SabarKcirtap 
#1 · (Edited)
Sand and Paint you Shift Boot Bezel for a little extra look on the inside of your STi!

What it is:
Ok guys when I was putting my Cobb Springs on, I wanted to do something that I had seen before on a friends STi. Ok I'm not going into detail about how to remove the bezel itself, this is a how to on how to sand it and paint the STi letters red. By the way my car is an 04', when I was doing this I also put a Shift Knob off an 06' on my car!

It has been brought to my attention that people are having trouble figuring the bolts on the bezel itself out. Well, the easiest way is to just pop that center piece of the console out then use the correct Allan Key to remove it. The piece is very easy to just pop out, if you try to unscrew them without doing this you may wind up searching for the bolts that drop down, that are underneath the bezel! Hopefully this helps!!!!

Tools Needed:

-400, 600, 800, and 1000 grit wet or dry sand paper.

-Can of red "or whatever color you would like" spray paint of your choice. We used engine enamel.

-Rubbing compund of your choice, we used Turtles Rubbing Compund.

-5 Gallon bucket with some water, to dip the sand paper in and also to clean the bezel.

-Brush so when your finished you can clean the bezel up before you paint.

-Heat lamp if your impatient and want the paint to dry faster.

-Good not cheap paper towels to clean it with and to dry it.

-Also we used Windex at the end of the process to leave a streak free shine.

-Also you could use Mothers Metal Polish, we didn't and the shine came out great, but if you would really like it to stand out I would recommend using this.

Time Spent:

With sanding and letting the paint dry and sanding again, the process will take you about 1 1/2 hours depending on how you want it to look.

Directions:

I am going to explain the directions first, the pictures will follow after the directions.

Step 1-Sanding- after you get the part removed your gonna start sanding with the 400 grit sand paper. Remember to keep a wet surface while sanding and to keep the bezel clean. You are starting with this to get the brushed finish look off of the bezel. After you feel like you have got the top finish off you can use 600, 800, then 1000. You want to start with 400 and work your way to 1000 grit so that the grain that the sand paper is leaving will not be visible. There is no waiting between stages and you can continue to sand until you are pleased with the finished look.

Step 2-Next Paint- After you have the part sanded to your satisfaction you are going to clean the bezel free from any dirt or oils so that the paint will stick to the surface. Make sure the bezel is dry, then your going to tape off the parts of the bezel that you do not want to be painted, "see pictures." After this process you will start to paint. This is where you need to take your time and paint the pezel. I did three coats on mine allowing the paint about 15 minutes to dry in between coats. After you have the bezel painted and you have allowed it to dry "we used a heat lamp to speed up the process," you can now remove the tape that you used to cover up the parts of the bezel that you did not want to be painted.

Step 3-Now- You are going to sand off any over spray and the paint that is covering up the STi letters. IT IS OK TO SAND OVER THE STi TO ACHEIVE THE LOOK THAT WE ARE GOING FOR. The paint that we want to keep, is in the cracks of the letters and WILL NOT be affected while sanding over them. You will start Step 1 again just on the top part of the bezel to get the access paint off and any over spray. Again work your way up from 400 grit sand paper to 1000 grit sand paper, and making sure the surface is wet. Don't worry it will clean up again. Make sure you are satisfied with how the grain looks on the bezel and that its shiny.

Step 4- Use the rubbing compound of your choice and rub everything on the bezel except the letters that you painted. We did this two time and then polished her up. As brought up, you can clear it then buff it, we didn't do it here, but I will probably do that in the near future. When I do this I will add it to this How To. Thanks!

Step 4- You are finished and you are ready to install the bezel and all of its glory.

Now for the pictures:

We all know the dull look of the bezel, this picture is after just barely using the 400 Grit.

This is my first How To: so take it easy guys. The pics are using my iPhone, so some are great and some are not so great.



This picture is after the sanding process and as you can see its shiny!



Tape the bezel off so that there isn't that much over spray.



Start painting one coat at a time. This is after the first coat!



This picture is after the third coat. Look at how bright it is!



This is the the bezel under neath the heat lamp, to speed up the drying process.



Start you sanding process again and this is how it will look during this process.



This is using the rubbing compound.



This is the finished look.



Look at it, its beautiful!



Putting it back in.



How does it look?



And the last picture and the best one.



What did you guys think? Whas this helpful? Any questions please let me know?

Thanks for viewing my How To!!!!
 
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#10 ·
Nice write up!

I didn't polish my bezel, I just used testors red model paint to paint in the letters, then I used mineral spirits and a paper towel to remove the excess.
 
#12 ·
thanks for the idea. i ended up just doing the nail polish thing. total time spent: 120 seconds. 30 for shaking the paint, 30 for putting it on, 30 for opening the bottle of nail polish remover, and 30 to wipe up the excess. didnt even take anything out of the car. free mods FTW
 
#14 ·
i literally dabbed some nail polish all over the letters and took a cotton patch with nail polish remover on it and wiped the excess off (one swipe) while it was still wet. no polishing. looks 100% perfect.

not sure why i would polish it. seems like a big can of worms to make it look perfect once you start.
 
#15 ·
i literally dabbed some nail polish all over the letters and took a cotton patch with nail polish remover on it and wiped the excess off (one swipe) while it was still wet. no polishing. looks 100% perfect.

not sure why i would polish it. seems like a big can of worms to make it look perfect once you start.
wasn't too bad at all just the better you want it to look, the more you sand and buff :lol:, do you have any pictures? If so post em up here, thanks!!!!
 
#18 ·
Awesome write up! Followed it step by step and it came out perfect!




*****IMPORTANT******
One issue I came across was that I didn't pull the whole dash piece out, I tried to remove just the bezel piece. I didn't realize there were nuts on the bottom side, until I heard the third or fourth fall. I was only able to find three, but its held on there tight. My recommendation - take the dash piece off, then remove the bezel so you don't lose the screws!
 
#21 ·
It was such a horrible feeling afterwards when I realized the dash piece just comes out. :(
 
#26 ·
The sanding gives it a shiny finish as opposed to the plastic look. If I had to do it over again - I would sand it, definitely. Looks much better.
 
#29 ·
Hey OP do you think you can re-post/host the pix for your DIY?
 
#30 ·
Just did mine, turned out very nice. Will get it into car later and post images. Really very easy and can be done based upon text. You need images? I'll post them later.










 
#31 ·
^ Thanx for the pix :)

This will be one of my projects for the weekend.
 
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