Soft touch interior plastics restoration- info here

[71camaro]

So, I'm sure like me, many of you have peeling plastic interior trims finished in soft touch that have aged very poorly. These parts make an otherwise still attractive interior look fairly low-rent. I have found the answer to restoration of these parts.

About two years ago I decided to try to refinish these parts. I bought a spray can of a product called Plasti Dip, a spray-on rubberized coating for tool handles and the like. I sanded down the parts to the abs plastic below the soft-touch and sprayed the parts. The result wasn't too good... The parts were black and rubbery, but also with some texture. I was unhappy with it.

This past week I decided to revisit this. Plasti Dip is also available in a sealed can for actually dipping parts, or for spraying out of different guns. I bought that form of the dip, as well as a thinner called tuelene. I mixed the dip and tuelene 1:1 in order to thing it to a viscosity similar to paint. I re sanded the parts and decided to see what I could do this time. Using an HVLP gun from a company called SATA, I sprayed the parts in a manner similar to how we spray a car at my family's shop. I layed down three coats of material, allowing a flash time between coats of about 10 minutes, just long enough for the Plasti Dip to dull in appearance. I then allowed the parts to dry for 4 hours before install.

Once the parts (door pulls and steering clamshell) were installed again I compared them to original parts (plastic at front door corners, seat trim, column position switches). The Plasti Dip sprayed through a gun and mixed in this manner is an exact match in feel and appearance. It's actually really nice. I don't have pics since I just decided to post this and it's 2 am here, but I'll get some.

If you're interested in doing this restoration I recommend it: I would have a paint shop do it, thoug, because the material does need to come from a nice gun to get a smooth finish (I first tried a primer gun we have that's cheaper and less well-maintained and the results were not nearly as good). A painter will also be more familiar with the way to lay the material down (pressure and volume settings on the gun, spray patterns, etc). If you've got experience spraying cars go for it, though, as it's literally the exact same process, just with that particular material mixed and thinned in that manner.

The short version of this post is that Plasti Dip mixed with tuelene 1:1 and sprayed from a good paint gun is 100% identical in look and feel to factory soft-touch trim.