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Dash and Doorcard Re-paint

9K views 26 replies 14 participants last post by  bullfrog 
#1 ·
i have a Lwb T4 and i have ben trying to find out the best way to store my surfboards inside. being still undecided, i had other jobs to do on the van, i.e the fuel gauge problem and my window washer nozzels were not working properly.

once some of the dash was off i decided, to hell with it, this needs some TLC. i have not had the van long and i have been unsure on how to tidy the interior up. the outside of the van is black, as well as some of the facias, so i decided to take the grey and make it black.

i decided to photograph the series of events as the change was being made. here is the original colour and dash, minus the clocks and the glove box



once everything was off, this is what i was left with, it was a bit daunting, but everything seemed to come off nicely. i found that i had to be very patient as there were constantly screws appearing still holding the dash in place. my trick was to pull lightly on the dash and find out where parts of it were still attached, sometimes it was clips and others were screws such as the sneaky little ones that are behind the the heater vents!! but it was patients and this paid off.






Now with the dash off, it was time for the door cards.
i have taken door cards off many a vehicle for speakers and wires etc, but these on the transporter are not very obvious too take off, so it was onto this forum to find some help and this was the link that helped me get these off without snapping anything.

http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8983

this is the original door card



Now removed



i then took off the other door card and took all the parts to get them ready for paint. i gave them a wipe down with some white spirit and then pressure washed them this was to ensure that they were clean

here some some parts ready for paint



look how tired my dash looks



i decided to use plasti cote paint to do the job. i got one can of black primer and 2 cans of matt black.

i primed the everything in the black primer and annoyingly ran out of primer just leaving one door card without anything on it. i then decided to use the matt black on the door card instead of the primer to see what the difference was when finished, a bit of a risk but i like experimenting.

after the primer i applied two coats of matt black to everything so i had 3 layers on every part. i did this so that in theory the finish should be tougher.

the door card that did not have the primer to begin with came out the same as every other item, so in my mind it does not matter if the plastic has the primer on it or not.

here are the items all sprayed up



they have come up really nice and you can see the difference from when it was grey.

here is the dash going back together.



here is the dash finished all tied up including the dash clocks fixed! i will post a better picture later when i have given the dash a once over with some dash cleaner. but what a difference!!!!!



here is the finished door card, i am so happy with the way that they have come out as they look so much better and cleaner.




this took me saturday (6 hours = dismantle, prep and paint) i let the paint dry overnight. and 4 hours on sunday (re-assemble and dash clock). i took my time doing this and boy has it payed off!!!
 
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#16 · (Edited)
This has been an extremely helpful thread. I was driving along yesterday minding my own business when I fancied a toffee. Not a big problem I hear you retort. For me it has turned out to be a very big problem. You see toffees do tend to stick to false teeth and when I am alone in my van and nobody cares if I pick my nose when I am driving down the motorway I think it is quite in order to take out my false teeth to partake of a toffee. I have both hands on the wheel when I am sucking a toffee whereas if I am picking my nose I do not so I could probably understand any problems they may arise from picking my nose but not from sucking a toffee. I got home and went to return my molars to their rightful place in my face and I could only find my uppers. I backtracked 12 miles to where I got out of my van but there was no sign of my precious gumshields. Then I took everything out of the box in my door and I find a previous owner has cut a little hole in the box. I get my torch out and what do you know? When I got my torch and head lined up with the hole in the box I could just see into the hole and my teeth were on the wrong side smiling back at me. I have been out all day today with my teeth inside the doorcard instead of inside my head. I will have to decide what to do next besides leaving my toffees at home now.
pete
 
#3 ·
Looking good, I went mad when mine was out and painted it metallic grey with a few nice coats of lacquer, looks cool and the glare in the sun is amazingI:.
By the way, the primer won't affect the final look but if it's proper plastic primer then it's to help the paint to adhere properly, but lets face it, how much abuse does a dashboard get?
Good work :ILU:
 
#21 ·
i am quite interested in doing mine but i have taken the dash out of my mk2 and my previous part ownership of a track project and its such a pain apart from the obvious ones are there any hidden ones that i wouldnt notice normally??? just it took me 2 hours to find the ones under the bonnet on my golf:( a list would be nice lol ( i no i no also can u make my bed for me and sugar coat it )I:
 
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