I just completed blacking out my interior pillars. I have the black interior and the light cream colored pillars and roof. Since I have a light (35% tint) on my windows the interior always seemed kinda bright and it looked odd with the black sides and cream pillars. I decided to make all the pillars black. I considered using a paint/dye to do them, but since I had to deal with two different materials, the cloth A-pillar and the plastic B and C-pillars I decided to just use matieral to get a more consistant look and feel. I used a suede like material with a very short nap and 3M 77 spray adhesive. the A-pillars were a breeze, but the back ones were pretty difficult to do since there is so many curves. Luckily the material had just enough stretch in it to go on smooth without any wrinkles. I also painted the air bag cover and rear seatbelt cover black with plastic bumper paint. I still need to figure out how to paint the front seatbelt bracket.

I think it looks so much better now, as from the outside looking in it's dark and you can't really see the pillars, also sitting in the car in daylight, it's a bit more dark and not as bright, the pillars now just kinda dissapear. Next step, headliner.

I took some photos, but it's kinda hard to shoot suede, the flash reflects off the fibers and makes it look more reflective then it actually is.

 

looks really nice, it will look better when you get the headliner done.

 

Just as important as the headliner at this point, IMO, are the seatbelt anchors/swivels. They really stick out like a turd in a punchbowl. You can find automotive interior paint (best found at a specialty or autmotive paint shop) that's intended for plastic interior trim. It acts sort of like a dye, as it soaks into the platic. This way, it leaves an OEM look and you don't ever have to worry about it chipping/flaking off and looking cheap.

When I used this to match a pillar-pod on my '97 Mitsu. GSX, I just took in a plastic bolt-cover panel from the dash that was the same color. They matched it right up. I thinned it a bit and ran it through a cheap, spray-can-powered hobby air-brush that I bought from Wal-Mart around the models ($15?). A very light prep-sanding to remove a bit of the shiny coat and residual cleaning chemicals was all it took. It looked OEM when done.

The mod looks great! And nice approach! While this interior trim paint would do great on the plastic pillars, you still would have had a problem with the fabric color-change. Nice, consistent look!

I just went into a local specialty paint store, which sells automotive paint as well, and when I told them what I was needing paint for, they suggested this stuff. Wish I could remember the name, but it was common enough for them to have and to know to suggest it.

 

GT-Ron, so do you think the Dye you are talking about will hold up to the constant rubbing of the seatbelt on the bracket? I was going to paint them with the same black paint but I was certain that it would rub off. I'll have to look into that. I can't think of any paint stores here that carry that stuff, so if you can remember the name or know of an online store that would be great.

 

Very good job. Looks nice. I hope there is a lot of cloud cover where you live. I have stone interior and my car is an oven.

 

looks really nice

 

looks sick.......do the headliner nxt

 

The seat belt brackets can be painted.I painted mine over a year ago,& they still look fine.I just used interior spray paint from the local auto parts store.Your pillars look really nice now.but will look much better with the headliner as well.I don't have any close up pics of my seat belts,but if you look closely you can see it is now gray.

 

caskyline do you remember the brand and name of the paint you bought? Also did you have to do any special prep to the plastic. your seats look bad *** by the way. Is that grey suede? it looks so hot.

 

Very clean job. As stated above the plastic paint will do a great job on some of the remaining trim parts. If you can't find it a hardware store a local body shop auo parts store will have it. I've used it before to change a red interior to black.

Once the whole interior is done you'll have great match. A dark interior but a great match.

G/L

 

DHC - What they said. The interior paint soaks into the plastic, so any rubbing would have to remove a lot of plastic before the original color was exposed again.

 

Your work looks really nice! Post some more pics once everything is complete.

 

I don't remember the exact name of the paint.I think I used Dupli-Color Vinyl & fabric coating.I did prep the plastic.First tape off the belts.I used the green scotch-brite pads to scuff them,then cleaned them off with alcohol.Sprayed an adhesion promoter (bullydog) Then sprayed the color.

My interior is grey suede.I also sprayed the sun visor mirror trim.center light & sunglass holder,trim around sun roof,sun roof handle,upper pasenger handle,rear coat hooks & seat belt trim

 

I seem to recall the small can that I used being Dupli-Color as well... ...but it's been about 7 years at this point. They offered to put it into a rattle-can, but they didn't have any new ones on hand.

 

thanks guys, they sell that brand around here, I'll have to give it a try.