I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

I just bought this '04 Crossfire late last week. After driving it for a day or two, I could not stand to look at the awful peeling interior paint on the black plastic. I decided to remove and repaint every piece that was scratched, so that basically meant EVERYTHING on the dash and center console.
Everything came apart nicely, except the center A/C vents - they were already cracked from a previous owner, and when I unbolted them, they bascially fell apart in my hands.
I've read up on many of the how-to's here on the forum for painting interior plastic pieces and I plan to take my time and do it right.

Oh, you can also see where somebody painted the grey parts without even masking the dash!! :mad:

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...1&d=1367284922

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Good luck on your project. Do you have any 'before pics' ? James

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Do the sticky key fix while you are at it! ;)

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Since you have everything out try out the double din mod.

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

I have been steadily refinishing the grey panels. The glove box has been the most challenging. I picked up some Duplicolor Adhesion Promoter and sprayed a nice thin coat on the glove box. Well, the stuff acted like acetone and promptly bubbled up a large portion of the original paint. This prompted a lot of time scraping the paint. I grabbed my can of acetone, tested in on a small area, and then proceeded to use it to try and strip the rest of the glove box.
As you can see, it currently looks like a mess! Anyway, once I have it smooth, I will apply a coat of primer, two coats of duplicolor vinyl grey paint, and then two coats of SEM semi-gloss clear coat.

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...1&d=1367384329

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

I am definitely going to tackle the sticky key fix before I bolt it all back together. The ignition switch assembly is just sitting there staring at me - if I don't do it now while everything is apart, it will most assuredly act up once I have it all back together. :D

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

I just refinished all my interior panels. I removed all the factory rubber coating with synthetic dot 4 brake fluid. You have to brush on a thin layer and then add a little heat from a heat gun or blow dryer. The coating will come right off and not damage the plastic. I washed the pieces with dish soap let them dry then wiped down all parts with windex(has to be the kind with amonia) before spraying. Everything turned out great and still looks great. Also I used Krylon Fusion plastic paint, no primer needed.

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Good luck on your project, pics when it is done.

When I first bought mine, I was the same way, but on the exterior :D

https://www.crossfireforum.org/galle...01765small.jpg

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Unfortunately, I didn't know about using brake fluid, although there were a few times when I thought about placing the parts in the dish washer to see if that would take off the rubber coating. :D Another problem is that the previous owner did some rather poor touchup work with some regular paint and I could not get that off very easily. I used my thumbnail on more than one occasion to scrape that cr@p off!

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

YIKES!!! I don't feel so bad about mine now! :D

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Did the Sticky Key Fix Mod - took about 20 minutes (because the dash panels are all out) and was well worth it!

Letting all the paint on the panels dry for 24 hours and then spraying them with the topcoat before reassembling. I think I may rewire the amp while I wait - I have a nice Kenwood head unit going back in and I would definitely like to use the front and rear fader and HF/LF adjustments.

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

OK, it's back together. I think it came out pretty nice - you can see a few flaws here and there, but this new combination of vinyl paint and clearcoat is much more durable, so I this is going to hold up quite nicely.
The Duplicolor grey vinyl paint is what I used, followed by the SEM clear coat. I had also used a self etching primer as a first coat before applying the Duplicolor.
I think there are better ways to do this - see (ChuckNorri's posting earlier), but I am satisfied with it.
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...1&d=1368889206

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...1&d=1368889206

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

That looks really good, great work!

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Looks great!

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Yea, this new guy is gonna fit in well around here..... and he may lead the way.

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Hey, thanks guys! :D

BTW - I did finish the amp rewire. My Kenwood head unit had preamp outs for front and rear, so I ran a quad rca cable to the amp location where I cut the wire leading to the front and rear channels and wired in the new cables. I was a little worried that it would require a hi signal lead rather than a preamp lead, but it worked fine. I am now tweaking the crossover points for the front and rears speakers - that may take a little time

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Did you use the service manual as a reference to take apart the complete dash/console?

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

This is a remarkable feat in my book. Your finished product looks factory new! As any artist does, you may see the "flaws" you mentioned earlier, but it all looks great to me. Excellent work!:p

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Actually, no. For some of it, I used the link to the SLK video that I am sure I found in the stickies. And of course, Reckah's How-TO on the sticky ignition fix that contains a lot of info on removing driver's side panels.

I would say everything I needed came from this forum!

Re: I've only had it four days and I started disassembling it!
 

Thanks, but I would love to see ChuckNorris post some pictures of his work - if you read back on his post, he has a pretty novel idea for original paint removal - brake fluid and heat. That would have saved me a lot of time and elbow grease!