painting interior pieces. help with fish eyes on dash?

[danielson631]

i needed a new steering wheel because there was no leather left on the top of the wheel. when i would accidentally touch it, my hand would be covered in sticky black stuff.

so i decided to buy a new steering wheel ( for a sweet deal, thanks to 330cubegt) and it was dark charcoal. i had black/ saddle interior. so i just wanted to start out painting the airbag cover. i bought the vinyl prep and 99-01 dark charcoal vinyl paint from latemodelrestoration.

it came out great, and i was very pleased with my new wheel. ive always wanted all black interior, so i thought it start painting the rest of the interior. i wanted to keep the original black, and paint all the saddle, dark charcoal. (eventually getting new leather seats and a carpet. )

i started out cleaning everything with dawn dish soap, and a scotchbrite pad. the vinyl i used the prep/cleaner and the plastics i wiped down with denatured alcohol. these are the results after i painted all the small peices that i was able to remove from the car.






so next i wanted to paint the vinyl on the dash, while the dash was installed in the car. normally i use a ton of armor all, so i knew i had to clean it very thoroughly. i started with a very strong simple green solution. then i wiped everything down, and scrubbed with the dawn and scotch brite. let it dry, then i sprayed the vinyl prep and wiped that off too. after about ten minutes i go to start painting, and immediately i noticed fish eyes EVERYWHERE.
it looked like i didnt even clean it.

thinking maybe i didnt do a good enough job prepping, i immediately removed the paint with some paint thinner. then i let it dry, and repeated the cleaning and prepping step, this time also using some steel wool. even trying some very fine sand paper in some spots.

try again, and it was a little better, but still a lot of fish eyes. heres a pic



can anyone tell me why this is happening ? why is it so bad even after i thorougly cleaned and scrubbed it? why did the airbag cover and the center console vinyl come out perfect, but not the dash? its so frustrating.

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[Musturd]

Did you use gun wash or anything prior to spraying it ? A lot of time the grease from cleaning stuff like mothers or whatever you use doesn't get fully cleaned off and causes similar reactions

 

[danielson631]

never heard of gun wash, but i thought simple green and the dawn dish soap/scotchbrite would do a pretty good job, i knew it wouldnt completely get rid of everything. but i thought the SEM vinyl prep & cleaner would get rid of the rest but apparently it didnt.

so gun wash might do the trick? anything else similar that would be easier to find at a local store?

would goof off or goo off have the same effect?

 

[MustangChris]

I was going to say the same thing. what did you use to prep it? if theres armorall or anything on there.... . . ..

 

[danielson631]

i always used armorall.

i cleaned with simple green, then with warm water, dawn dish soap, and a scotchbrite pad. after my first failed attempt, i went back and repeated those steps, and also used steel wool and very fine sand paper in some areas. THEN, i used SEM vinyl prep and cleaner.

those steps worked on the steering wheel and center console armrest vinyl with NO fish eyes at all. but not on the dash. i dont get it. ive used armorall on ALL of those pieces. but they came clean.

 

[chris91]

Have you tried laying on VERY thin coats? A lot of the time when it does that its because you're laying it on too thick.

 

[Musturd]

I always wipe them down with a thinner of some sort first make sure there really clean before painting .

 

[snoball]

Go to your local DuPont jobber and ask for 3939s all surface cleaner and degreaser. Stuff is better then the sem stuff. Plastic is very porous so more than likely your armor all and other stuff is still there. You may have to clean several times .

 

[snoball]

And also don't use a thinner before paint it will cause fish eyes also because with the pores/ cracks in dash it will hold it in. Use a surface cleaner and get some adhesion promoter. Use it liberally.

 

[danielson631]

i tried very thin coats.


thanks for the quick replies, guys. i want to have the dash done by saturday so i can put all the pieces back. then all ill have to do is paint the bottom half of the door panels, and the bottom half of the rear quarters. then its on to the rug, which will be a piece of cake) gonna buy brand new dark charcoal from AM.

then its on the to seats seems like the leather and foam is going to be like 800 dollars in parts alone.

 

[rz5.0]

What sno said.. Don't use any kind of spirits on plastic. Sometimes they will distort plastic or cause weird reactions..

 

[ttocs]

never had a problem painting my interior panels black and getting it too stick even after ears of cleaners/armall used. Krylon fusion is what I recommend when you painting your dash black. Great shit for plastic, all I used and I have painted a lot of my dash black now....