Me and Fad did this to my car before pvs and it was a two day job. So don't think you'll do this in a few hours. Even then i didn't get a perfect finish due to the pvs deadline.
I'll keep this dummies style because i hate tutorials that go on as if you know what your doing when most of you don't have a clue.
1: Your shopping list
First you need a Flathead screwdriver and a Philips Screwdriver. Long and short will be best, there are certain places you can't get to with a long screwdriver.
Secondly, you'll need sandpaper if you want a Good finish! i highly recommend this and will cover this later in the tutorial. I brought Grades P600 and P1500. Prices are down a bit.
White Spirit is also advides because when your sanding, you can check what you've missed with white spirit.
a table indoors where you can spray and get loads of dust is recommened, even on your kitchen floor is fine.
And latestly you'll need plastic primer and a spray can of whatever colour you wish.
so heres the list
: Sandpaper P600 and P1500
Price : £1.99 each from halfords. (you'll need two of the P600's)
: Plastic Primer (if your doing the colour red, get red primer, silver, grey primer etc...)
Price : £4.99 for 300ml from Halfords
: Flathead and Philips Screwdriver, all different lenghts
Price : Depends on quility and i don't know
2: Remove the dash
Vents, they should with a bit of force, by pushing them down and getting a flathead on the inner side and on top (so two flatheads here). Because its prises the vent out. You'll just break it if you try and pull it out otherwize.
door handle covers and window winder things just pull off. you may need a flathead for the door handle cover.
The speedo cover thing, you need to remove (where you stick the key) the plastic cover on the Bottom, there are three screws i think and by turning the wheel 90 degrees each way, there are little covers to two other little screws. remove these then the bottom and top cover with a bit of fiddling come off. unscrew the three screws in the speedo cover thing and once again with a bit of fiddling, come out.
To get the passager crash panel out, you will need to take the glovebox out and the rest is a case of just finding the screws and remove them.
DON'T lose the screws.....otherwize your ******. put them in the door card or something so you dont lose them
3: Sanding
this is what takes up two days. Get all your parts you want to spray.
Then with your P600 start sanding!! Easier said than done, Keep going and this will take 2 hours to do one piece! for a good finish. remember me and my mate was doing this. So thats two people sanding and it just, Just got done in 2 days.
You see the bubble things starting to dissapear? keep going untill either your statisfied with the finish or if your really up for it, keep going untill the surface is like a light grey.
Try to do a section each time, push really hard. Don;t to it lightly and all over. it will take longer.
Now get a kitchen towel or paper, tissue, whatever and put a some White spirit on the sanded plastic part you've just done. if your not outdoors doing this in the sun, turn the light on and you'll see parts you haven't sanded as well as other parts.
Try not to give up, you'll regret it when you've sprayed the parts and there all rough and lumpy once in your car.
4: Spraying
Once your happy with the sanding clean it with the white spirit so theres no dust or anyhting on there. then start shaking the primer can.
with newspapers underneath so you don't spray the kitchen table, do line busts (Lightly for your first layer) don't get egar and put a heavy load on other wize it will come out wrong! trust me.
after about 3 minutes, primer will dry and it drys quickly, do a another layer. Make it a good one that covers the whole part.
Once thats dry, do another good coat that covers it fully and you should be done on the primer. let it dry a little bit longer then find the P1500 sandpaper, make it wet and very lightly sand off any lumps the spray can may have spitted onto your plastic part. Don't use white spirit now, it will distroy your spraying.
Using the same techqiue as the primer, do the same with the colour spray can. But this time, leave it to dry about 10 minutes inbetween coats. or even longer if your worried.
once you've done your 3 layers (or even 4 if you missed a bit and in this case don't just put a lump of spray in one area of the plastic part, do the whole thing otherwize there will be different surface levels with the spray. So its important you don't do too many layers. otherwize its too thick and will crumble off in the near future much easier.) get the P1500 (wet) and lightly sand off any minor lumbs from the spray cans spittings
5: After Spraying
Laqaur : If you want to use this (makes the finish more shiney/better) make sure you heat the can up first with a hair dryer or something, other wize it makes the finish look milky! Do a good coat and leave it to dry for at least half hour
Dry : Leave it overnight to dry, i know by now you just want it in your car but once again, trust me. If you put it in there too soon it will chip when trying to clip and push these into place.
Screws : Do them up tight but not too much because you'll break the thread otherwize
Vents : I broke mine because i got all manly about it but if you look on the side of the vent there is a pattern you can follow to push them back into place properly.
speedo cover: you've probably forgot what came out first. When putting this back in, put the speedo cover in first then the key started top cover and then the bottom cover. It does go in that order, just needs a bit of fiddling.
Parts : Parts and screws can be brought from Vauxhall so if you lose some, its not the end of the world.
Finish Product
I used Audi Aluminim Silver. Its lovely, its sparklys slightly too! recommended. Some of you may have seen it at PVS 2005
I do hope this has helped people and if you want me to add anything or have a question. u2u me!
2 heads are better than 1. Someone to help is an excellent idea! even if you go over there sanding. its still helps.
Russell
[Edited on 15-06-2005 by Sig16v]
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