Touring FD3S

I have spent the last hour or so searching, but no luck. Someone not too long ago posted tips on painting the console. Their interior was black and you painted the console a silver/grey color. I just wondered if you could post pics again and also the paint you used. I am in the middle of redoing my interior all black along with the a/c relocation w/ gauges, and since I will have to repaint the console anyway, I am considering a different color.

If you could do me this favor, it would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

You could also email me (blackttrx7@aol.com) if that would be easier for you.

EugeneChoe

it was done useing tamiya paints. i found that sanding is no good for the interior. it leaves lines unless you spend the time to go trough all the steps in the sand paper to get it real smooth. even then i sucks because the paint kinda gets between the grit and ...welll is a pain in the. use a paint stripper they sell at a hobby store that is safe for plastic.

black99

I think alcohol removes the finish too though... You might want to try it on a small area...

black99

Rubbing alocohol that is.... No Vodka, Jack, Bacardi or anything drinkable!!!

jizzajuice

Use paint stripper. Well, maybe not that strong, but paint remover at the very least. I remember that post. He was talking about RC paint from Tamiya. Well, you dont' have to use the Tamiya brand as I use very popular paint from Pactra called Racing Finish and they have lots and lots of colors. In any case, I remember the post saying something about using paint remover to get the finish off, then simply painting over it with Tamiya/Pactra RC paint. Well, good luck!

Peace,
AJ ^_^

dgarvich

I painted mine silver, actually aluminum and ended up using a Krylon industiral strength paint and a clear coat of some sore to gloss it, seal it and protect it. Worked fine.

I sanded mine, because I'm also replace all of my stock gauges with aftermarket AutoMeter UltraLite gauges and I wanted to panels to match the aluminum. The sanding process gave the plastic a nice texture, much like brushed aluminum. But sanding is a HUGE PITA!

Either way, you can look at what I bought and how much I spent at my web site under the tech - current section.

BlackR1

I made that post....I wouldnt suggest sanding your pieces, just use a paint stripper (I used Easy Lift Off). Most model paints will stick very well and will leave a nice smooth finish given you dont sand it. I would highly suggest using a clearcoat, because in the month or so that i've had my painted console, some of the high contact areas have gotten dirty and have a few nicks.

Which kind of clearcoat did you use? Im probably gonna redo mine again, should only take a couple hours


heres the original post
https://www.rx7club.com/vforums/show...threadid=13831

1FAST7

what about a carbon fiber kit? any company make that for the RX7? Carbon-Fiber would look awesome.

1FAST7

1FAST7

BlackR1, i saw your pieces, they looked awesome!!!

dgarvich

Tora Sport makes a carbon fiber kit...

Zoomspeed

How did you replace all of your stock gauges with aftermarket ones?

dgarvich

You'll have to be more specific on that question, I'm not sure exactly what you want to know.

Basically, I removed the stock gauges and I bought replacement gauges from AutoMeter (through Jeg's and Summit Racing). Then I mounted the after market gauges in the stock gauge cluster plastic and I am now in the process (if weather will EVER permit) of wiring all the gauges to work with my car. That's turning out to be tough, though.

Does this come close to answering what you were asking?

Zoomspeed

I thought all the stock gauges are mounted on some big flat circuit board. Is that not true? Did you cut holes in that circuit board to fit the new gauges? Did you tap into the stock gauge wiring for the autometer ones? What did you do with the odometer in the stock speedometer?

Thanks for any answers. I was thinking about doing this when I found out that the colored gauge faces for the FDs dont' fit well, but I wasn't sure if it was possible.

dgarvich

Yep, they're all in one bigger board. Thing is, if you're going to replace *all* of the gauges... See where I'm going? Then the board doesn't have to exist any more so it becomes (yet another) spare stock part.

The only problem I can see is when you try to only add a boost gauge in place of the stock oil pressure gauge or something along those lines. But, people have done that as I've had several emails sent to me about people replacing their stock fuel level gauge with an after market fuel level/boost gauge. That's pretty cool, I think.

They say you can cut out part of the board and get away with it if you want. I wouldn't know anything about that but I've seen it said.

Like I say, this has turned out to be a difficult mod. It has been more time consuming than stripping my engine down to the block and starting over. I haven't driven my car in two months and I haven't cranked it for 3 weeks. Found out today it's flooded because of fluid settling in the bottom of the rotor housings and now I'll have to remove the plugs and all the other crap to get it un-flooded.

You can see more about this mod at my web site (click See The Site in my sig) where I've listed prices and part numbers for the parts I bought. One change, I would recommend going with a tachometer that was *made* for in dash use. I wanted the functionality of the dash top mount type, but it's going to require drilling to mount. I didn't want to do that...

Man, I must feel chatty tonight... sorry about the length of this post!

Zoomspeed

Cool, your sight explained everything. One last questions though.

Where is the odo reading stored at? Do you just wire up the new speedometer and the odo reading pops up on the new gauge?

From your description of the site it doesn't sound like a weekend project. My FD is my daily driver so I have no idea when I'm going to find time to do this. Oh well, I'll find the time eventaully. Maybe over winter brake or something.

Thanks

silver93

Black R1 -

Your interior looks GREAT! damn nice job -

Did you end up liking the original "lighter" gunmetal or the darker color?

What did you do about a clear coat? I was going to just go to the auto store and buy some

thanks

J300z28

BlackR1, your interior looks great. Personally I like the way you had it first better. I guess I like it because it was brighter, but the second also looked great. Gives us all something to consider doing. Thanks

G 's 3rd gen

Definately want to see some pics of your finished project Donnie. The only one of my stock gauges that work properly is the fuel indicator.. I am ready to rip that crap out. Also am going to scrape/paint my interior too. Looking forward to seeing your results!!!!!

dgarvich

The odometer reading is a short coming of changing the gauges. I'm not sure where the numbers are stored, but the new speedo with the new odometer will start at 1 mile.

What I'm not sure about is if you plug the stock one back in if it will record the new miles. My car is a race/project car so I wasn't too concerned about recording the mileage, although most folks would probably be VERY concerned with that.

I'm going to take pictures eventually, we've had something like 4 weekends straight with rain here. And this long weekend (I had four days off) we've had rain all day every day. Flooding in places. So I haven't been able to do everything I wanted to. I had planned on having it finished this weekend, but...

I'll keep the site updated with detailed writeups of how I did EVERYTHING.

Zoomspeed

Well poop. I guess I won't be doing this project unless I find someway to carry over the odo reading.

silver93

I just finished installing freshly painted interior pieces and am SO glad i did it!

I was going to go for the light gun metal tamiya paint, but couldn;t find it anywhere around here. I ended up using Testors "Metal" color called "magnesium". It is very close in tone to the silver on the car.

Along with the silver accent on my momo shifter, the car has a whole new look - i highly recommend doing it if you're thinking about it.

Touring FD3S

Thanks for all the help guys. I am only a few gauges away from finishing the a/c relocation, then repainting, so all of the help is appreciated. And like the rest of you, I will probably go with grey/silver, assuming I can get rid of the rest of this ugly *** tan interior.

Silver93- You should know by now not to brag without showing pics, so where are they???

silver93

as soon as i get some film and get it to the 1hr.
i don;t have a digital camera!
i'll post though, for sure..

BlackR1

Thanks for all the compliments guys...

i'm gonna stick with the darker gun metal, and im gonna do some work with the AC/radio panel and cut out a space for my A'pexi Turbo Timer (the tiny one with the AF gauge) Im gonna flush fit it so the timer will be integrated into the console, and then painted over to match the console colors. Finally, i am gonna take the panel pieces to a body shop for some industrial strength clear coat :p the panels will now be indestructable and give me an extra 2hp to the wheels.

The body shop clearcoat seems a bit overkill, but it will be worth it, considering my new design. In addition to the turbo timer integration, i'm customizing the little storage bin (my car came with only a tape player) to integrate the AVCR and possibly a gauge, with some faint inner beveling and outlining, to make it appear as if the AVCR was a stock option for the car. The professional clear coat will add maybe 50 bucks more to the total cost, and the end result will be very nice im hoping.

BlackR1

congrats on finishing the job silver93, how was your experience? the only hard part about i had was making sure i didnt break any plastic pieces (wound up breaking a few tiny ones)

Post up some pics! I stared at my interior for a long time after finishing the install...it looks great on a black interior/black car...i'd like to see how it'd look on other cars