WOW! I thought the panels in my 77 were unusable, but apparently I was wrong! Mine look just like yours in the first picture. What did you do besides scrape them with your knife blade to clean them up, anything?
mav. matt. i took the point of my knife and scratched all the flakes off. it takes time. i did one inch at a time. not the blade itself, just the point. they will turn white first. the white is the $itch. you have to get all the white off so the dye can stick. time will make it right. good luck...frank...
thanks. you have got to love it. i have a bad case of "can't stop" i did a set (front and back) for my son's 71'...frank...
71 GOLD.........When you say you dyed it, what did you use. Was it a vinyl paint or is there a specific dye you use. They look so good I want to do the same to mine. JRM
good morning, jrmpilot, i used SEM color coat. it is a flexible coating. it is tricky to put on because it is like a paint but you don't put it on like paint. you spray it on in a mist let set 5-10 min. and apply another coat. the lighter the coats the better. it takes time. i put about 8 coats on. i have one more to go. i also wipe it down with oil and greese remover before i put the first coat on.good luck...frank...
There are several different brands of vinyl dye that are sold in a spray can. They work very well. Plasti-Cote is a common brand and sold most everywhere. I've had great luck with it. You must make sure the surface is very clean and free of flakes and grease as well as cleaner residue. Thin coats work well and cover cleanly. I just did my partner's (at work) fender flares on his Wrangler as they faded. They look better than new. I'm going to do the ones on my Cherokee this summer. The door panels I got for my Mav were tan and after I dyed them black, you can not tell that they were ever any other color.
Here is a tip on redoing these type of panels. All good advice above. When you are ready to spray, if you first use some lacquer thinner on a clean rag, then rub it on the panel as if you were wiping it off, you will promote adhesion. What the lacquer thinner does is this. By wiping the lacquer thinner over the plastic, you are actually doing 2 things. One is helping to clean any grease, oil, body oils from your skin, and the other is that you are causing the plastic to open up a bit and ready to take dye. You can't tell this by looking at it, it is just a molecular type thing going on. End result is dye that stays on as good or better than was factory. I learned this from an upholstery guru and it works great. I never have problems with plastic losing its dye. Dan
panels I restored my panels in my 70 as well. The way i did it was taking some really fine steel wool and rubbed all the rough spots out (basically the whole thing) and then rubbed it down with rubbing alchohol. Then I painted them with vinyl paint. they looked really good until my dad in his infinite patience through something on top of them and scraped them all up. At least now I know what i am doing
Tom, I found this link a while a go and I saved it. I am sure there are other suppliers as well at there. I hope this may help. http://www.metromustang.com/FordInterior/Paint.html Good luck with your project!
