rear plastic panels

[1chrisapple]

Kinda like one guy on here did with cool duck tape but i cant find that on here agian looked a bunch

[Charlie1717]

Krylon Fusion worked well for me in my old Festy.

[Powerstiva]

^^^^ That looks great!!!!

[1chrisapple]

that does look damn good I must say

[Charlie1717]

that does look damn good I must say

I think Charlie (advancedynamix) Found a color that is super close to stock, I'm not sure what color it was. Mine was a satin color and was on the light side. When I do it again to my current festy I'm going to go for the stock color. The krylon fusion holds up pretty well, the more coats you do the better, but it will scratch if you are hitting it with junk all the time like me. Who cares though just do a touch up with the spray!

[1chrisapple]

heck yea man just trying to make a clean interior on my wifes car. we don't beat that one.but my car is another story

[Zanzer]

I had a set that was extremely rotted from sun damage like you described. I started with 50 grit sandpaper to knock off the really rough/rotted stuff and then worked my way up using finer grits until I got a smooth paintable surface.

[william]

i will agree that the 88-89 seem to hold up better but they are not a direct swap. they have no seatbelt holes no hole and plug for the emergency crank tool if the power belts stop. and also the worst part the are not the same shape at the b piller.
i have 88-89 ones in my 90 they are in great shape. just had to do some cutting on them . and they fit ok

[1chrisapple]

I had a set that was extremely rotted from sun damage like you described. I started with 50 grit sandpaper to knock off the really rough/rotted stuff and then worked my way up using finer grits until I got a smooth paintable surface.

this is what I was getting to I believe would be the best although there wouldn't be a texture on the plastic anymore

[Zanzer]

^^ Yup, that's the sucky part, you have to do the entire panel to make the texture match.


Another option I've been toying with is putting them in the blasting cabinet but I've been trying to find a soft blasting media that can be used to blast plastic.

[1chrisapple]

couldn't u use soda blast it's really for soda blaster but I have used it in a cheap harbor freight barrel blaster but if not in a cabinet that stuff will choke u to death lol

[Zanzer]

I thought about soda as well but didn't get time to explore the idea, I put the project on the back burner due to other more pressing things. Plus I just left the panels out like Nate and Paul since my Festy is the shop car and doubles as a pickup truck sometimes LOL

I didn't want to make some nice clean panels and then trash them with parts and stuff rolling around in the back I figured I'd revisit the idea when it came time to do my GT car.

[1chrisapple]

yea smart thinking

[bravekozak]

Mine are real sun rotted too. Anything that touches them scratches them up.... sucks.

The rear panels in the NY Festiva I found today are pretty nice. Unfortunately, shipping is killer. The mosquitos are killer too!

[Twistiva]

what do you guys do to get these panels to look good again.i thought about roughing them up good to get the old ding plastic scale off and then spray them with some plastic paint. but suggestions are great

I've thought about this procedure but haven't tried it yet on some of mine:

1 - Clean them up real well
2 - Apply some sort of body putty on sun-rotted areas
3 - Sand smooth
(repeat 2 and 3 as needed)
4 - Clean them again
(then, to build up some kind of texture on the formerly sun-rotted areas....)
5 - Apply some kind of fiberglass glue to the panels with a foam roller (not just the sun rotted areas, but over the entire panel to ensure an even texture....I like the faux leather texture but don't know how to match that)
6 - Lightly sand (as required) to minimize excessive stipling/even out the texture material from step 5
7 - Clean the panels
8 - Rattle-can it with paint made for plastics (O-Reiley's actually can mix this kind of paint to match the panels....use the 'non-sun' side for them to match the color to)

Again....I haven't tried this yet but this is my plan.

Yes, this would be a lot of work but I bet it would turn out pretty danged nice. Of all the interior parts, in my opinion, the 4 large plastic trim panels are the hardest fo find in good condition. That and nice looking seatbelts.