Restoring Your Interior Plastic and Vinyl Parts

[Nick Sachse]

Here are the steps I took to restore my old sun rotted door panels. As long as the panels are not rotted all the way through, they can be restored.  This process works on all plastic interior panels.

1) remove any trim or cloth inserts getting down to just the plastic door panel
2) save the retention clips and flatten them back out with pliers for reuse as I’m not sure how easy they are to replace
3) wet rub off all the sun rotted dead plastic using steel wool to get down to good plastic
4) wash the panel thoroughly with soap and water and a scrub brush
5) clean the panel with an alcohol based cleaner. I used Color Bond Pro Tech Surface cleaner
6) lightly spray the panel with Bulldog Adhesion Promoter
7) apply three light coats of SEM Texture Coating. Lighter is better. Don’t go too heavy.
I put it on the smooth and textured surfaces without masking to get an even overall appearance
8) lightly sand the entire panel with 1200 grit paper. Light is key.
9) wash with soap and water
10) apply a light coat of Bulldog Adhesion Promoter
11) paint in your color with a plastic/vinyl paint. I used SEM 4002 Canyon Red and it took two cans per panel to get a good coverage with an OEM look
12) reassemble panels
13) follow the directions on the can for all of the products I listed above
14) I found the fabric at SMS Fabric
15) you can clean and paint the switch plates and speaker grills the same way with these same products but they shouldn’t need the texture coating
16) you can clean and paint the arm rests and all other plastic or vinyl interior pieces using these same products Sent from my iPhone

[Gary Lewis]

Nick - Glad you joined.  

And thanks for the how-to on painting panels.  That will certainly help.

And a couple of other things.  First, we ask that people go to the New Members Start Here folder and post an intro there.  That's because we have our guidelines posted there and want to ensure everyone's had a chance to read them as we hold everyone to them.

Second, we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we can add you with a city/state or ZIP if you'd like.

[BigBrother-84]

Thanks Nick!

I’ll certainly test it on Big Brother’s rear doors, which cannot be found new and are sun rotted.
I painted them, but this did not "rebuild" the thin plastic.

[mat in tn]

your results look great.