Topic: Interior Dark Charcoal Metallic - A DYI How To

[IndyFive-O]

I am in the process of doing my entire interior, including painting the dash, door panels, and rear panels with the original, correct, Dark Charcoal Metallic. I spent countless hours searching the forums for the correct paint and technique but had to piece together tips and tricks from several sources. I just finished painting and thought I would share my experience to hopefully help others who want to tackle this.
After taking apart the dash and removing the rear panels it’s time to get to work.

The paint I used: SEM Trim Black as a base / Dark Charcoal Metallic aerosol from NPD.

Strip everything to bare metal.
I stripped everything bare in order to maintain the grain pattern stamped in the metal and to have clean, fresh metal on the dash. My first advice is not to bother with the stuff you get at the big box hardware store, it takes forever to loosen up the paint and makes a gummy mess that you have to clean off.  After doing one panel I went to the local automotive paint store and picked up some Kleanstrip Aircraft Stripper – this stuff is awesome and made easy work of the dash and other rear panel.

Basecoat
You have to use a basecoat to get good even coverage because Dark Charcoal Metallic doesn’t cover well at all, it’s loaded with clear. I used SEM Trim Black as a basecoat because I found that’s what a lot of people used and were happy with it. You can use the SEM over bare metal too, eliminating the need for a primer which would contribute to filling in the grain. The key to painting the grained panels is several light coats letting them dry in between, you have to be patient as it may take 6-8 light coats to cover.

Apply the Dark Charcoal Metallic – The tricky part
Here’s where I had a hard time understanding all the info I was finding on the forums. I couldn’t understand exactly how to lay down the charcoal. Everybody said dust it with light coats but I played around with some test panels and it was spotty and had a very rough feel. Then I tried to lay down a “wet” coat but this stuff dries so fast that turned into a mess. But I finally figured it out and that’s why I thought I would share, because it really isn’t that hard I was just overthinking it.
The trick is keeping the spray about 18-24” away and “dusting” the panel  1 pass and STOP. Wait a few minutes for that to set up and dust ONE more pass and STOP. It’s hard to just stop and not try to get coverage, your instinct is to spray until you can see it, but you need to be patient and let it build. I made 5 passes per panel. It doesn’t look like you’re really doing much but you are, don’t get carried away. I messed up both rear panels and ended up re-stripping them and starting all over before I got the hang of it the second time around. The key is knowing when to stop and leave it alone.
It dries quickly and when you run your hand along the surface it feels rough, like you screwed it up. Just leave it alone, don’t play with it, it will be alright. After about 24 hours the charcoal “lays” down and gets smoother, considerably smoother. After 24 hours I took a clean microfiber and “buffed” it all down to further smooth it out. After doing that it felt just as it should, nice and smooth and it looked great.

Tips:
Spray light coats letting it set up in between so you don’t fill the grain
The NPD paint dries REALLY fast, it was 65-70 degrees in my garage and the stuff was setting up within a minute
I had a problem with the NPD cans “spitting” drops. When that happens its game over because you can see the spots easy. I went back and stripped a rear panel a third time because of this – talk about frustration. A couple things I did to eliminate the “spitting” from the cans is I hung the panels instead of laying them flat, that allowed me to keep the can vertical – not sure how much this helped but I was OK after I did this. I also heated the cans in hot water, to improve flow in addition to shaking them constantly. I even reheated them after a couple dustings just to insure I didn’t have an issue, I think this was the key to getting rid of the spitting from the nozzle. Just in case, I kept a paper towel wet with isopropanol alcohol in my other hand and wiped the nozzle every couple sprays.

After a lot of homework, a frustrating learning curve, and hard work I think I nailed it and am really happy with the way it turned out. Hopefully this will save somebody the frustration and shorten the learning curve for those of you thinking of tackling this project.
And Thank you to Mr. Speegle helping me with my questions regarding the process.

[J_Speegle]

Thanks for posting...... No pictures??

Members like pictures

[jwc66k]

After a lot of homework, a frustrating learning curve, and hard work I think I nailed it and am really happy with the way it turned out.

Ah yes, patience Grasshopper, patience.
Jim

[nham3407]

Great info. and thank you for sharing.  I never could find a good "How To" on this previously. Again thanx.

[IndyFive-O]

Thanks for posting...... No pictures??

Members like pictures

Gladly, I like to show off my hard work!

Here's before, everything was gloss black, the dash, doors, and rear panels.


Stripped to bare metal. I treated the slightly rusty spot on the top of the door with some rust converter before laying down the basecoat.


Here it is all painted. The pic looks a lot lighter than it really is. Notice how dark the raised portion looks that goes around the panel insert, the light reflection makes it looks different.


Close up


Here's the dash, done with the same process as the other panels. Stripped bare, basecoat SEM Trim Black, then the Dark Charcoal Metallic. EXCEPT, when I layed down the the Charcoal I kept a wetline because I wanted it smooth and glossy. I honestly am not sure what finish is "correct" but I like the way it looks.


Here's a close up shot of my door taken BEFORE I did anything where you can clearly see the original Dark Charcoal Metallic - Pretty Cool. Comparing what I did to the original it looks like I ended up a shade or so darker than original, which is fine because, unless you compare side by side, you would never know.


Here's my contraption to cut down on the overspray mess, I made this from 1" PVC then covered with a cheap plastic drop cloth. I didn't glue it together, just pushed everything snug, and was able to take it all apart and store it.


This it the other part of my gagrage, what a mess. I covered the floor with paper and plastic.

[Bob Gaines]

How did you paint the bottom of the doors? Transition line.

[IndyFive-O]

How did you paint the bottom of the doors? Transition line.

I used the weatherstrip line as a break.
It is darker in person, when I get the interior back together it will put a lot of black reflection instead of all that alum faced deadener.

[Bob Gaines]

I used the weatherstrip line as a break.
It is darker in person, when I get the interior back together it will put a lot of black reflection instead of all that alum faced deadener.

A lot of people do. From the factory the transition line was a little bit to the inside of that weatherstrip line on the door. People frequently use that weatherstrip location because it seems to make more sense cosmetically. The different in board assembly line transition between exterior and interior really only matters for those wanting to make it look like original assemblyline.

[IndyFive-O]

I didn't have much of an option as the previous owner used the weatherstrip as a divider when the car was painted.

[Bob Gaines]

I didn't have much of an option as the previous owner used the weatherstrip as a divider when the car was painted.

Not really . If you wanted to do it, you can sand the transition line down and blend the two together. It takes a few steps because you want the raised edge to be that of the interior color and not the other way around. I have had to fix the line on a number of occasions to correct mistakes I made 20+ years ago (evolving learning process) on cars I did as well as for cars I acquired that were restored by others etc.  Of course it is only necessary if you want it like the factory.

[J_Speegle]

I didn't have much of an option as the previous owner used the weatherstrip as a divider when the car was painted.

Could have applied some exterior color or a close color - using just overspray then apply the Charcoal.  The order would be backwards from the factory though the look would be more correct

This is one of those details Bob and I want back and forth with one day at a show. It was lucky that were were enough original unrestored cars to confirm what was originally done. Sometimes you win a discussion sometimes not - He's won plenty of them   Same day we focused on the San Jose seat rotation number

[blackjadeboss]

Excellent job!

Wondering if anyone has a paint code to spray this out of a gun?

[J_Speegle]

Wondering if anyone has a paint code to spray this out of a gun?

Did you check the Library for articles or use the search feature?  Found it using both methods