1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Interior painting and reupholstery

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Accessories & Modifications' started by Nor.Prius, May 27, 2017.

  1. Nor.Prius

    Nor.Prius Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2017
    16
    4
    0
    Location:
    Southern New Mexico
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    So, since having my 04, i've had plans to modify the interior a bit. I've wanted to refinish the metallic grey interior pieces, and reupholster the fabric bits, since they've been a bit dirty and grimy. So over the past two months I've put some time into making these things happen.

    Also, full disclaimer, I'm not a painting expert, a reupholstery expert or a whatever expert. I'm just some guy with some time, not much money, and a little bit of confidence and ambition. Also, I know the color scheme isn't going to be for everyone, but It's my Prius and I like it, and that's ultimately what matters, right?

    I don't have pictures for most of the process, so we'll just have to use description and imagination. All of the plastic pieces I'm refinishing are the metallic grey ones. They're all just clipped in. Easily removable and whatnot. They're also all made of ABS plastic, which is a good thing, because there's lots of resources easily findable on google for how to finish ABS plastic, thanks to 3D printers printing ABS plastic. ABS plastic. There I've said it enough. I decided to make it simple on myself and just went over everything with 400 grit sand paper, just enough to remove a bit of the paint, so the spray paint I used would stick to the part. Now then, for spray paint, I used flat/matte white valspar paint and primer 2 in 1. I coated everything twice over, and then coated everything once with a flat clear coat. My paint job wasn't' perfect in places, with some drip over, but it's not super noticeable, so I'm counting that as a victory. You'll notice in the completed pictures, I haven't gotten around to doing the gear selector piece part thing, because it's a little more time consuming to get to, and I also have to get into the MFD soon to fix it. Anyways, that's for another post.

    The other thing I wanted to do was reupholster all the armrest fabric bits. Turns out it's easier to just pull off all the plastic door panels, and then cut off the plastic rivits that hold the arm rest things on. I didn't bother pulling off the fabric that was on everything, because that would be more time consuming and involved than I wanted to commit to, so I just took a sheet of faux leather and figured out how to wrap everything, and wraped up everything by slowly glueing it in place with a glue called fabri-tac. It's a little expensive, but it works well because it kinda hardens like a sort of a rubbery material.

    For the back seat door panels, I ended up CA glueing the reupholstered parts to the door panels, and for the front arm rests, I deciced it would be a way better Idea to create a pilot hole in the rivet standoffs. I can't really say if this was a better idea, but it makes it easier to remove them If I need to, which I may do in the future, because I'm not terribly happy with the contrast of the reupholstered bits, against the painted bits which I do like. IMG_0170.jpg IMG_0171.jpg IMG_0172.jpg IMG_0179.jpg IMG_0180.jpg IMG_0182.jpg IMG_0184.jpg IMG_0186.jpg IMG_0188.jpg IMG_0189.jpg IMG_0194.jpg IMG_0195.jpg So, options.

    Pictures below. Thoughts, if you have them, are appretiated.
     
  2. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2004
    44,834
    16,072
    41
    Location:
    Canada
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    Wow, looks good. It looks like the door armrest panels are wearing white gloves :)
     
  3. peecee

    peecee Member

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2017
    67
    39
    1
    Location:
    Annapolis, MD
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Cool. I have to replace the driver's side door card, so I was thinking about doing something similar. I also bought the leather kit that comes with the four arm rest and center console covers precut. I was thinking about slicing off the plastic welds/melts and then screwing them back in. Your pictures confirm it can be done.

    Looks good!