Two tone interior paint scheme for my '99 GT 'vert?

Red99GTVert

New Member
May 16, 2006
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Buffalo, NY
Looking for some opinions here...

I have a 99 GT convertible, red with tan interior and tan top (soon to be replaced). My interior is looking a bit sun-faded and worn, so I was considering trying to find replacement panels when I thought about painting some of them. Specifically i'd like to replicate the two-tone paint scheme that some of the early SN95's had, black or dark charcoal and tan.

Like the pic below, only black/tan:

b20c_1.JPG


b45e_1.JPG


Specifically, the dash and radio/shifter bezel, top half of the door panels, and top half of the interior quarter panel trim would be black. I'd leave the rest parchment. I also have a tan light bar, so i'd paint that black too.

Anyone have any opinions on my ideas? Just looking to see if i'm not the only one crazy enough to do this, or if someone has already done it and wants to share their experiences.
 
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Someone here in the local car club did some similar painting with interior paint and it really didnt look that good,cheapened the look,I asked him how that held up and he said not very well.He says he has to do a repaint on the stuff about every 4-6 months cause the paint isnt very durable.
 
if you do paint your interior,go to a body shop supply store and buy the correct paint,expensive,but will last. I have painted a lot of my interiors,even changing colors and they still looked good when I sold them years later. the parts I painted in my car still look new. try to stay away from the "rattle" can paint
 
As far as durability is concerned, i'm optomistic it'll last a long time. I do plan on prepping the pieces properly - cleaning them with isopropyl alcohol, using adhesion promoter, etc. I was going to order the paint directly from Ford, which would be the same stuff they use to paint the interiors from the factory. SEM also makes some good quality paint and has a line that matches Ford OE interior colors.

I'm just wondering if it'd look good with the two-tone scheme. I could always just repaint the faded parts of the interior the same color as stock, but as I said I'm contemplating a more or less unique scheme.

It would look like this, with dark charcoal on the upper part of the interior (rear quarter panels, top of the doors, top of the dash, and the light bar) like in the pic below (no blue or silver of course lol) and the original tan where the white is on the bottom of the rear panels, doors, the steering wheel, gauge bezel and the center console :

INTA4.jpg
 
dye what you can, avoid paint if possible

How would I be able to dye the hard plastic? I've scoured the forums for interior painting posts and AFAIK noone that has attempted and succeeded in painting their interiors have used any kind of dye - only paint, like SEM Clasic Coat or The Ford/Motorcraft interior paint available directly from a Ford dealership.
 
As far as durability is concerned, i'm optomistic it'll last a long time. I do plan on prepping the pieces properly - cleaning them with isopropyl alcohol, using adhesion promoter, etc. I was going to order the paint directly from Ford, which would be the same stuff they use to paint the interiors from the factory. SEM also makes some good quality paint and has a line that matches Ford OE interior colors.

I'm just wondering if it'd look good with the two-tone scheme. I could always just repaint the faded parts of the interior the same color as stock, but as I said I'm contemplating a more or less unique scheme.

It would look like this, with dark charcoal on the upper part of the interior (rear quarter panels, top of the doors, top of the dash, and the light bar) like in the pic below (no blue or silver of course lol) and the original tan where the white is on the bottom of the rear panels, doors, the steering wheel, gauge bezel and the center console :

INTA4.jpg


lol That's my car in that picture. Looking back, the blue and silver was a little much, but I still like it. I had the idea then that no two adjacent areas should be the same color. Every break in the design should be a break in color. There were too many breaks though. Without the blue it might have been amazing. The silver wasn't bad, and was something Ford was doing themselves for a time. But the black on white was HOT. Ford also did that on some of the 94-95 models. That's where I got the idea. And I learned a few things on that project. Photoshopping your interior idea before starting the job is a good idea, that rattle cans aren't as bad as people say as long as you know what you're doing, and TEST some areas before committing.

Do you notice the black steering wheel in the pic? That's because the white wheel would not come out right. I tried multiples times with dye and paint. Even using extremely thin coats and allowing to dry for 24 hours between coats. But nothing worked. I used Duplicolor for the whole project. Overall it worked out pretty nice. After a year there were only a couple of tiny aread that could have been touched up. I used white paint on the door panels, center console, and rear panels. White dye on the dash, passenger airbag and center arm rest. Those areas worked, but not the steering wheel's airbag for some reason. The black you see on the doors and dash is stock, but the black on the rear panels were painted. The blue was all dye. So if you're considering using dye, it works and can come out pretty nice. It changes texture though. The carpet on the doors were dyed blue, and felt like a large scouring pad when done. The cloth on the speaker grills became hard.

Prepping the parts was a pain. Everything was scubbed with alcohol using a scouring pad, and/or toothbrush. Then hosed off with water and allowed to dry. The prepping I thing is what made the rattle can paint work so well.

Like I said about testing, I think it's very important to test high wear and tear areas first. On that project, I had the center arm rest dyed for about 2 years before i started the rest of it. I'm currently getting ready to do my new mustang, with more extensive testing. I got an extra drivers side door panel off ebay for my 03 focus. I want to get white paint/dye directly from ford, paint this door panel, and beat the hell out of it for about 6 months. If it hold up nicely, then I know that's the paint to use. My main concern is how soft the panels are in the 04.


Red99GTVert , did you ever finish that project?