Good morning guys,

I’m thinking of painting my interior paneling in my 96’ XJ instead of trying to find all new panels in the color I want. My XJ came with tan paneling but I got a new grey dash and grey center console and would like to match the panels to it. Any recommendations on paint that’s good on plastic panels? Anything helps, thank you guys.

 

If you can, go to an auto paint supplier and chat with them, valspar has some nice stuff that sticks to plastic well, the key is getting all the "treatments" off of it from years of use and something that sticks well to plastic.

 

Clean, thoroughly, a couple of coats of Oil Primer, Rust-Oleum if you are spraying, Pro Industrial (The water based product, purple label) from Sherwin Williams is some real nice paint, get you a mini roller (Not a Sponge) and roll it. If you have access to a sprayer then I would spray it. Let it dry for a day or two. I painted my whole jeep with it and it's still holding up after all of the riding through trees/limbs

 

I just painted some of my interior plastics today. They looked pretty faded and I wanted to freshen them up. My Jeep interior is gray, and I used Rustoleum Satin Granite spray paint. It was a really close match to the original. Just spray super light coats so you still get the original plastic's texture. I always have good luck with Rustoleum.

 

Dang this looks good! Thank you for the photo reference man, I’m definitely gonna try this.

 

Yeah, glad I could help. Check out my build thread here if want. I will be finishing putting together the interior soon.

 

Thanks for the tip on rustoleum satin granite. I spot painted a couple of areas and I honestly can’t even tell a difference. That works for the lighter gray plastics, anyone know what matches the darker gray of the dashboard areas?

 

Well I tried rust oleum charcoal gray and it’s not nearly as close of a match. Anyone have experience with something that matches the darker gray of the dash

 

For the lighter gray panels this is pretty much an exact match




For the darker bluish gray of the dash SEM color coat 15413 (Thomas Bus Gray) should match it, but the first can I received didn't even match the swatch chart color and I haven't tried the second that arrived today

 

When I did the interior of my Nova I used all SEM products.

SEM 38353 plastic prep

SEM 39863 Plastic Adhesion Promoter

SEM color coat.

 

The SEM products are definitely the top of the line stuff to use if you're a professional and don't want any come backs...And the local body shop supply house will mix up the exact match for you.... But what the heck if that rustoleum gets it done then why not ?? Super clean is the key no matter what you use..The SEM prep will literally soften up the plastic as do most adhesion promoters.. The big test will be down the road with the rustoleum after a few months.. See if it stays on there...

 

Yeah, the Satin Granite from Rustoleum is an absolute identical match to the lighter gray panels. I tested a spot on the back of one and could not see where I sprayed it after it dried. My rear panels were in pretty bad shape and now they look great. I did clean them pretty thoroughly with a degreaser, then isopropyl alcohol mix, then adhesion promoter before painting so hopefully they hold up. I also touched up some other panels that had paint spatter and stuff on them, and can't even see where I sprayed which makes it nice to not have to pull the whole panel.
For the hell of it I sprayed my steering column with the Rustoleum Charcoal gray. I knew it wouldn't be an exact match but just wanted to see how it would look against the rest of the dash. It's better than it was (it was pretty scuffed and had some black paint marks on it), but I'm not happy with the final product. I'll give the SEM Thomas Bus a shot but at $25 a can that's tough to swallow if it also doesn't match.

 

The color swatch I have from SEM does match, so there might be something up with the specific can. I'll let you know what I find with replacement can number 2

 

So I tested the other can, it's finally matching the swatch, but is a little too light for an exact match. I'm going to head down to a paint shop near me and see if I can get an exact color match. I'll let you know what I find.

 

I've taken a panel down to the local SEM paint shop and they're going to match the color exactly, once I have the mix number I'll provide it here.