- My model of MX-5 is: 1993 S-Limited
- I’m based near: Yorkshire
- I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Interior restoration
Hello All,
One of the previous owners of my S-Limited had decided to change the interior colour scheme to a two-tone setup, keeping all of the original red parts but having the door cards and the lower part of the dashboard (Including the glove box) painted or treated to give it a black finish.
I’m guessing this would have been done back in the 90’s in Japan as this paint or treatement or whatever it is is now coming off in several high-contact areas.
I’ve also taken a few pictures to illustrate where this black finish is coming off, and how it was applied:
My question is how can I remove this black stuff completely and restore the interior back to it’s original red colour without damaging the surface underneath ?
Has anyone dealt with anything like this before ? Any recommendations on what products or solutions to use to remove this without being too abrasive ?
Any advice is welcome.
Find a less obvious spot to test any of these which I have had success removing paint from plastics, not on car trim though, but principle the same.
NO to Nitromors or anything like that.
Meths, Alcohol should get off any acrylic paint
Mr Muscle oven cleaner
Lighter fluid
Acetone nail polish thinners (or possibly the non-acetone type; also cellulose thinners, both these types may affect some plastics though so test.
There are commercial paint strippers for plastics, I’ve never tried any of these.
There are some more left-field methods on the web like baking soda paste or vegetable cooking oil; no idea if these actually work but since ketchup can clean stained metal why not these ideas ?
For all the above I again recommend a small patch test, and for the liquids I would gently rub on with kitchen roll or similar rather than dousing heavily. Also wear gloves with most, even meths will strip the oils from your skin.
I would expect the various trims to be on a variety of hard and soft plastic so you would need to test each type. The wear on the photos suggest the paint isn’t that thick so I think you have a good chance. Wear shown suggests anything you use to loosen the paint bond could be followed with a good scouring action.
Thank you, that’s a huge help ! I’ll have a go with some of these on a small patch and see if I get anywhere.
would it be easier to repaint it back to the original colour?
I don’t think it’s really worth the effort to be honest, especially if you consider how hard it would be to mask bits or outright remove them.
Plus I’m not convinced it’s a good surface to paint considering so much of it is coming off.
I have a eunos v spec. I used acetone (nail varnish remover) to remove the horrible sticky black coating on my dash so that I could cover it in alcantara.
