Leather match for center console vs. painting

So I have obtained a spare rear center console and am debating whether I should paint it to match the exterior of the car (Black) or cover it in black leather (DIY). Any thoughts? Also, if I do decide to use leather does anyone know what type/thickness Porsche used in the 996? Mine is a '99 cab. if I go the paint route, what type of paint should I use?

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I went with leather on mine. I found that the painted console tended to scratch easily. With leather that's no longer an issue. Sent from my iPad using Rennlist

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Hmm. I like the sound of adding leather bits to the interior. Slopeslider, was it a DIY project? What materials did you use? Pics? Thanks.

DIY: No scratch...several coats of clear!....

I found a few examples of Leather: http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/9...also-pics.html http://www.pedrosgarage.com/Site_3/L...olstering.html Chris, yours looks great.

I bought a center console that came from the factory in leather and some other parts. The center console has double stitching down the center and the horseshoe part around the radio has very, very thin leather or other material that is close to leather. It is cured by a vacuum bag method. My center console has yet to be installed and I don't have pictures on my computer. I found mine on ebay.de, and have yet to see another one since. I have seen a few factory ones in red leather on ebay.com. Good luck!

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So I've decided to go the paint route on my new center console. My interior is black on black and needs some lightening up. I'm going with artic silver. I have sanded and primed all the necessary parts. Next step is the paint....

keep up with the updates - looking forward to seeing the results!

Diddo. Please keep us posted. I've painted a few interior parts using Testors Diamond Dust rattle cans. They looked great when finished but the paint on my horseshoe has developed tiny bumps that keep recurring. I'd be interested in how your console works out and what paint you used.

Will do. The waiting is a pain but I heard that waiting at least 24 hours from the time the primer is sprayed is best. ANother trick I read was to hold the part painted with primer up to your nose and smell it. If it still has a strong odor, it is not fully dry yet... Here is a list of the products I am using: SEM 38353 Plastic Prep SEM 39133 Flexible Primer Surfacer Dupli-Color (BGM0340-6 PK) Silver Metallic General Motors Exact-Match Automotive Paint USC Spray Max 2k High Gloss Clearcoat Aerosol The console I'm working on was in rough shape so I removed all of the paint on it with 400 grit wet sand. Then I cleaned it with Plastic prep and a Tack cloth. I put three layers of Primer on and used the tack cloth to clean the surface between sprays and after the primer had dried a bit (after waiting 15 minutes). Tomorrow I will put on the Paint.

So I finally got to the point of spray painting some of the interior console parts with the Dupli color paint. Unfortunately I am having a very difficult go of it. I decided to paint to console itself last and practice on the smaller parts. Good thing as I am not happy with the quality of the paint job. It seems like the paint itself wont come out in a nice fine aerosol. Instead it comes out almost like droplets in a small focus area. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I shake the cans for a few minutes and I even bathe them for a minute or so in hot water before spraying. As it is now, It seems like I get either a rough surface or I get drips or I get actual droplets that you can see on the surface. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have also tried two different cans of paint (in case I had a bad can) and they both behave the same way. I've watched a million videos on Youtube about how to paint with cans and am doing my best to follow the proper techniques involving distance, speed, eveness, etc. At this point I think I'm going to try sanding my parts that have been painted with some 1500 grit and then spray again. Could my issues be the paint itself? The SEM primer was terrific. It was a pleasure to spray and I had no issues with it. It came out even and nicely aerosolized.

That must be frustrating. My guess is that it is probably the type/quality of the paint. I didn't have any issues at all spraying with Testors Diamond Dust or the clearcoat afterwards. Both sprayed evenly with a fine mist. The problems I had with the Testors paint was that it eventually bubbled when the car was left for a day in the sun. I did have similar application issues to your when applying Plastic Dip to my wheels. The pain was nicely 'aerosolized' when the can was full but near the end fo the can the sprate ended up depositing small droplets.

I just installed a painted console that matches my car's exterior color. I decided to go with leather for the console lid, and it matches my seats as opposed to the console. It came out really nice.

Although I used Leather Dye on my console, with great success, you should be having better luck with the Duplicolor. Sounds to me like the spray nozzles are clogged. Yes, you tried two different cans, but I just used Duplicolor a couple of weeks ago to paint the dash on my old Miata, and it came out great. However, the nozzle would clog very easily, and I found myself taking it off and dropping it into some paint solvent every couple of minutes. Otherwise those big drops will definitely ruin your job. It happened to me a couple of time, but I just wiped off the excess, cleaned the nozzle, and came back with a light cover coat. Also, is the temperature and humidity in line with what Duplicolor recommends? That can have an effect as well.

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How about some pics and details of how the leatherwork was done? Thx.

So i have read a bunch of reviews on Amazon regarding Duplicolor spray paint. It seems like the cans can be hit or miss. Some cans provide nicely aerosolized paint and some dont. The nozzles are different than most cans and are a bit suspect. I'll experiment some on a throwaway surface and let you know how it goes. I sanded the parts I painted with 1500 grit tonite. The parts are now smooth but you can see the unevenness of the finish fairly well in the photos, especially the last one.

The reason you're getting that heavy blotchy look could be one of a few issues. 1. your holding the paint too close to the part 2 the paint needs to be shaken at least 30 seconds prior to spraying , including between coats. 3 the paint is too cold make sure your paint is at least 72 degrees f before application. light even coats work best with rattle cans then a few coats of clear and you'll have a nice finished part. don't forget, when you're done painting turn the can upside down and give a clearing spray until the nozzle sprays gas only. It'll keep the nozzle clean for your next spray.

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Thanks Speed. I'm doing my best to hold the paint at about 10" from the part. I shook the can for 2 minutes prior to painting (I'm not sure how long I shook it between coats). I am heating the can by putting it in a bowl of hot water for a minute. I'll try holding the can farther back and make sure I shake the can well between coats on my next try...

Are all those parts degreased really well prior to painting? Seems like it's not all sticking too well. Also 1500 grit is too smooth IMO for paint to stick good to. Generally 800-1200 tops in my experience. You did the right thing by preheating it in hot water which will increase nozzle velocity. Make sure you shake the can really good after it's been heated. Also not sure what temps you are shooting it at. If it's under 70, wait til it gets warmer or you can put the parts in the over and try preheating them for a brief time at the lowest temp. How many coats was the last pic?

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Yes, everything was cleaned well with special degreaser prior to the primer going down. The parts were sanded down to plastic so all the original surface paint and grease was sanded off. It honestly seems like the paint is sticking well - when I sanded it I had no issues with any paint coming off. I think the uneven finish is due to the paint coming out in drops rather than as an aerosol. I hear you on the grit. I will go over it with 1000 to make sure the next spray adheres properly. I'm shooting indoors, so its about 70 deg. The last pic was 4 layers (actually all the pics have had 4 sprays). The pics make the finish look worse than it does in person for some reason. I think the flash highlights the imperfections.

Sounds like you're doing everything right and that it's looking like a bad product issue. FWIW, I've used several cans of Duplicolor over the years and never had the issue you've been experiencing. But of course Duplicolor has been skimping on quality lately based on their reduced can sizes and increased costs. Have you considered getting an alternative base coat like from paintscratch or automotivetouchup.com?

Using paint from another company may be the way to go. I also have 4 more cans of Duplicolor to try. I have no issues with sending empty cans back to Amazon.

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Before you send it back, contact Duplicolor's customer service and explain the issue and either send them pics or send them this link. Their CS used to be great before whenever I had any issues. Not sure how it is now but definitely worth a try. Make sure you record all the batch numbers which should be on the bottom of the can or part of the stick one UPC label.

Love this update, deciding on what route to take: Dyi, bumper plugs or body shop Bumper plug website states $649 not sure if core charge is taken into consideration Local body shop If I go this route I'll try to prep sand everything and leave the filling/primer/paint&clearcoat to them. For those that went body shop route was price reasonable for a handful of parts?

To be honest I'm not sure I would take the DIY route on this one. Spray Paint and sanding is a PITA. At this point I'm too far in to give up...

Latest update: I sanded the surfaces once again and did three layers of respray with a new can of paint. I still can not get the paint to come out of the can in what I consider a fine enough mist. I can see droplets hitting the surface and I'm pretty sure that is what is giving me the "rough" look you see in the pics below. Today I will return the duplicolor to Amazon and buy some from automotivetouchup. BTW Amazon refunded my payment for the bad paint in full. I get to keep the defective paint, for what its worth.

That must be frustrating. FWIW I used Testors Diamond Dust paint and it was easy to apply well. Finish was smooth and the metallic paint looked very even and consistent. It actually exceeded my expectations when painting it. Definitely no issues with droplets or uneven finish. Sadly it didn't last that long though. A few weeks later the paint 'bubbled' after a hot day in the sun. The bubbles were about the size of a pin-head. I attribute that to using the wrong paint for the job so I'm still looking for a better solution. I have a small roll of the 3M aluminium film to see how that works, but I haven't tried it yet.

After the disaster of using Dupli-color paint, spraying www.automotivetouchup.com paint was a true pleasure. No drips at all, just a nice fine mist. I painted the console and various parts with Arctic Silver Metallic 92T and the next step is to clear coat them. This was five coats. It took two cans, one for the console and one for the other bits but I did a lot of overspraying.

Wow, that looks awesome. I'd love to see pica once installed.

Thanks. To be honest, I don't think I would do it again. The results are great but the process is a major PITA. Also, I don't have a paint booth or even a garage to paint in.

The finished console looks really good - well done. As an aside, how did you remove the original soft rubbery coating ?

I hand sanded the original coating off. Essentially I sanded it down to bare plastic with rough sandpaper and then sanded it with progressively finer sandpaper. That was the most difficult part of the project. This is a spare console so my downside was fairly low in the event that things didn't work out.

Here is the latest update. I finished painting and clear coating all of the parts. Now I am just waiting for everything to cure. The paint did not come out perfect (I may be a bit of a perfectionist) as I can detect some areas that are slightly different shade of silver. I think its due to uneven sanding but I don't think it will be detectable to the casual observer. Spraying the clear coat was a pleasure. It is two part - hardener and clear. Felt a bit like spraying clear glue. Hard to hold myself back from installing the parts. Anyone have an opinion regarding sanding/buffing the clear coat? It doesn't show it in the picture but the surface is already very shiny.

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Good idea. I'll bet the paint was really old. I love Amazon and use it a lot. Products directly from Amazon are great, however, their oversight of third party sellers is practically nonexistent. I've bought vitamins that turned out to be one month away from their expiration date when I received them. I also bought 2 "Mister Clean" spotless car wash sets from a third party seller on Amazon -- when I received the kit, the filters (which are NLA and the only valuable part of the kit) were removed from both sets by the seller before shipping. When I checked reviews, the same filter removal had happened to other buyers. Amazon refunded my money and allowed me to keep the useless remains of the kits, but when I checked back later, the seller was still listed on Amazon. In other words, they didn't do anything to fix a clearly fraudulent seller. It would be interesting to see if you can determine the date of the paint from the batch codes. Also, you may want to check the reviews of that third party seller on Amazon (although Amazon doesn't make it easy to find seller reviews). I love Amazon, but use them very cautiously for buying items that have a shelf life that are listed from a third-party. Your console looks great by the way!

Good enough for Government work. The first and last time I paint.

That looks terrific in the end. Great contrast!

Thanks. I agree. The the black and the silver both really "pop" next to each other.