Interior paint (airbags)

ivan12

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Switching out the interior from tan to black. The local yard has a black steering wheel I can get a hold of but no black airbags. Have any of
you ever painted the airbags? What is the process and what exact paint did you use?
 

birel21y

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Painting air bags is like picking up a dirty hooker. Just don't do it. I learned the hard way. They are too flexible, especially when you honk the horn.
 

dafizuck

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birel21y said:
Painting air bags is like picking up a dirty hooker. Just don't do it. I learned the hard way. They are too flexible, especially when you honk the horn.

I've seen it done with success.. with proper prep and paint, I dont see why it wont hold up...
 

BraMas

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I painted mine before I had an after market wheel and it turned out great. Just do some good cleaning and some Good quality INTERIOR/plastic paint and it will look great
 

mich_666

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Ya, i heard prep is key. ie clean clean clean! ive also heard to rough up the surface very lightly with fine grit paper.
 

birel21y

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Prep isnt the issue. Its the flexibility of the paint. When you honk your horn, you are flexing the airbag. You would need a flex agent in the paint, or else its going to crack and chip. Either way, i would try to find a black airbag set. Factory finishes FTW.
 

Paul

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You paint them like any other interior piece, with black interior paint.

Mine was painted before I bought the car and looked great. Eventually the paint developed a few cracks over the course of about 7 years, but it's not like it's hard to paint them again.

Paul.
 

mxsuprastang

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birel21y said:
Prep isnt the issue. Its the flexibility of the paint. When you honk your horn, you are flexing the airbag. You would need a flex agent in the paint, or else its going to crack and chip. Either way, i would try to find a black airbag set. Factory finishes FTW.

How often do you honk your horn? Lol I think I've honked mine once in the last year...and Az has some of the worst drivers in the world...plus I live near a retirement community, so you can imagine...
 
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ivan12

ivan12

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My horn doesn't work and I'm glad because of my road rage. My pop taught me a neat little trick though, when you don't have a horn press your clutch and hit the gas. 1) it's like soothing music to your ears 2) it gets people's attention and they move. All kidding aside though, i cleaned the bags and the trim that goes around the steering column and painted them black with interior paint. They look good, I would have looked around for original black bags but I rather save that money towards my FR steering wheel since money's tight right now
 

lrall

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does anyone here know about replacing passenger side airbags? I have a new dash but it has no pass airbag and i was hoping/wondering if i could put my old one in my new black dash or how that works
 
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ivan12

ivan12

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Take off the drivers side seat(optional), remove the 3 screws holding the glove box and put it aside. Take off the black capsule (I have no idea what it's for or what it's called) You unscrew it and it slides up I believe. You shoud be able to see two silver colored screws facing towards you, Remove them. Push the airbag from under the dash out, there are two pieces of Velcro holding each side of the bag, and the small connection. The bag shoul then slide out.
 

Demented4.6

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i was one of the many that didn't trust the whole interior dye/paint. I did a ton of research and finally decided i would dye some of my interior instead of swapping out the dash and airbags. The main thing that made up my mind was while i was looking through a swap meet looking for airbags i found out that all the airbags in our cars are painted from the factory. so i did it. It turned out unbelievable! i still can't believe how nice it looks and like brand new. im very happy with the quality and with how well it has held up. I used liberal amounts of wax and grease remover on everything and constantly used a new towel. i think i cleaned every part 10 times. i then masked the dash off to spray the grey. I also painted the driver airbag black. I did the same procedure of cleaning and also used brake parts cleaner because it was really nasty. I sprayed everything with 3-4 very thin coats. it worried me after the first couple coats because it wasn't covering well but after the 4th it looked perfect. As for the horn, i have hit it many times with no problem. even in this 20deg weather.

here is some before and after
IMG_1600.jpg

IMG_1647copy.jpg

IMG_1657copy.jpg
 

greenscobie86

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Looks awesome. I wil ladd that I have painted my center console with paint from Late Mdoel Resto(I think) and it came out mint. All I did to prep qwas clean the thing with some rubbing alcohol. No chips or craks, I don't have any pics of it but it really looked mint.

I wouldn't hesitate to do it again, so my advice to you is go for it!
 

SRT Handz

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even though my car came with black interior, I have re-painted a few of my interior pieces because of wear. The trick is to get a good adhesion.

I have had Great success with scuffing up the surface with a red scuffing pad, then using the Duplicolor Adhesion promotor, and following that with Duplicolor Vinyl & fabric paint. I used it on plastic and it looked perfect. I know jonbeast used the same Duplicolor paint i did.
 

96_SVT_Cobra

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SRT Handz said:
even though my car came with black interior, I have re-painted a few of my interior pieces because of wear. The trick is to get a good adhesion.

I have had Great success with scuffing up the surface with a red scuffing pad, then using the Duplicolor Adhesion promotor, and following that with Duplicolor Vinyl & fabric paint. I used it on plastic and it looked perfect. I know jonbeast used the same Duplicolor paint i did.

what black (gloss, satin, etc.) did you use. was it basically a perfect match?
 

SRT Handz

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I used the Flat/Satin Black. on the Duplicolor Vinyl & fabric paint there is a Satin and a Gloss.... I used the satin.

Honestly, it matched damn good. It matches even better when you put a protectant on the interior.
 

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