Hey all! I haven't been active on here much but y'all may remember me from m3forum.net (RIP). Back in the day, I had gotten my steering wheel rewrapped in alcantara by Coby Wheel and over the years it's collected a wonderful cocktail of dirt, hand oils, and 7-11 taquito grease. I recently took all of my alcantara bits out of the car for cleaning and while I was at it, I decided to restore my god-awful trim pieces to something close to OE.
There was one problem though... there wasn't much easy to access information regarding paints. Some people seem to have found a really close match to OE color but have decided to gatekeep that information and offer matched paint as part of their trim resto service (which I'm not knocking because restoring trim pieces is a pretty tedious task). I just think this information should be readily available to forum members and DIYers.
So I decided to try satin black and a matte clear coat. To be honest, it's been a very long time since I've seen an OE steering wheel trim piece so I can't really gauge how close to OE my finished product is. I do know, however, that I really like the way it turned out!
Before (notice the glossy steel-gray trim):
And the results:
If you like the results, here's how you can achieve the same (or better) at home:
1. Sand the trim until it's smooth. I used 80, then 220, then 500, then 1000, then 1200. Seriously take your time here. I had to restart once because I rushed my sanding and grooves from the 80 grit stage showed in the final result.
2. Apply primer. I used Rust-oleum Painter's Touch 2X UltraCover Flat White primer. If you see imperfections in the primer, those will show in the final result so go back to sanding and reapply your primer. Let the primer fully cure before moving on.
3. Apply your color coats. I used Krylon Fusion All-In-One Satin Black paint. This paint also contains a primer, but I was trying not to take shortcuts with this project. I used 2-3 medium coats.
4. Apply clear coat. I used 2 light coats and 1 medium coat of Krylon Matte Finish 1311 clear. I think if I added another coat or two, I could have brightened up the black ever so slightly. If the finish looks too dark, consider giving an extra coat a try.
5: Admire! Then put it all back together. I opted to wash my buttons with warm soapy water and a plastic brush. I got a pack of 10 ///M stickers off Ebay many years ago and a little trimming allowed me to use one for this project.
Here's what the cans look like:
Feedback is very much appreciated!
There was one problem though... there wasn't much easy to access information regarding paints. Some people seem to have found a really close match to OE color but have decided to gatekeep that information and offer matched paint as part of their trim resto service (which I'm not knocking because restoring trim pieces is a pretty tedious task). I just think this information should be readily available to forum members and DIYers.
So I decided to try satin black and a matte clear coat. To be honest, it's been a very long time since I've seen an OE steering wheel trim piece so I can't really gauge how close to OE my finished product is. I do know, however, that I really like the way it turned out!
Before (notice the glossy steel-gray trim):
And the results:
If you like the results, here's how you can achieve the same (or better) at home:
1. Sand the trim until it's smooth. I used 80, then 220, then 500, then 1000, then 1200. Seriously take your time here. I had to restart once because I rushed my sanding and grooves from the 80 grit stage showed in the final result.
2. Apply primer. I used Rust-oleum Painter's Touch 2X UltraCover Flat White primer. If you see imperfections in the primer, those will show in the final result so go back to sanding and reapply your primer. Let the primer fully cure before moving on.
3. Apply your color coats. I used Krylon Fusion All-In-One Satin Black paint. This paint also contains a primer, but I was trying not to take shortcuts with this project. I used 2-3 medium coats.
4. Apply clear coat. I used 2 light coats and 1 medium coat of Krylon Matte Finish 1311 clear. I think if I added another coat or two, I could have brightened up the black ever so slightly. If the finish looks too dark, consider giving an extra coat a try.
5: Admire! Then put it all back together. I opted to wash my buttons with warm soapy water and a plastic brush. I got a pack of 10 ///M stickers off Ebay many years ago and a little trimming allowed me to use one for this project.
Here's what the cans look like:
Feedback is very much appreciated!
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