Upholstery paint removal

[deviot]

Hi,
My thunderbird has had a part interior colour change done. The centre console and the top door trims have been painted with some sort of paint. Unfortunately it has gone sticky and I want to remove the paint. I have tried a bit of thinners on a small section and it seemed to work ok, but I'm worried this could cause damage.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Dave

[Joe Johnston]

Not knowing what was applied makes it difficult for you and us to try and decide what to use. I have removed paint and dye from vinyl parts and the best I can tell you is to try several thinners and use what will work with out softening the plastic. My order of using products is: strong detergent, WD-40, mineral spirits, alcohol, enamel reducer, and finally lacquer thinner. An environmental friendly paint remover may also work, but I would try that as a last resort as most paint removers are very harsh. If you already have something that works, keep using it but be careful and make sure it is dry before additional applications.

Good luck as this will be a messy job.

[Guest]

Dave,

From least to most aggressive I would generally use the following chemicals;

Mineral spirits
Naptha
Xylol/Toulene/Xylene
Acetone
Lacquer Thinner
MEK (methyl ethyl ketone)
Paint remover (my fave is POR-15 paint stripper)

On upholstery I know that lacquer thinner will dissolve vinyl, however if used carefully and sparingly lac thinner will do the best job to remove the old dye, especially if new dye or paint will be applied after. Identify a small test area surface and figure out what works, then proceed slowly to larger areas.

Most often I use a small finger size piece of 3M scrubby. Dip the scrubby in a pan of chemical and gently scrub the paint/dye in a small circular motion. You may find that once a stronger chemical breaks down the dye finish, you can come back with a less aggressive chemical and a rag to do the final cleaning.

Use rubber chemical gloves and good luck with your chemistry experiment

[Anders]

If you try Thinner on the center console, you WILL damage the structure of the vinyl. Been there. Did that...
Mine is also painted before, in order to be better in tone with my interior, which is something aftermarket from the ´60s. But as I really want to save as much original parts as possible on the car, I will just repaint it later on when I come to the interior. Having said that, my center console have a hugh dent on it´s rear part. I guess it have not stand the climbing over it over the years. I hope I can bring back the shape or I have to look for a replacement. I really never saw this dent when it was in the car, but when I took it out, I was sup priced how big it actually was

[simplyconnected]

OMG Anders, what are you DOING in the back of Ruth?

[Anders]

I wish I did anything…

[scumdog]

If you can remove the item from the interior of the car you could try this:

Soak a rag in brake-fluid and leave it draped over whatever you want to remove the paint from, it may take a day or so.

It will lift the paint without damaging plastic, vinyl etc.

Wash it off with lots of water.

Make sure you NEVER get brake fluid on anything you want to remain painted.

[Dakota Boy]

There really is a layer of vinyl on the center console?

I always thought that was just painted metal. I suppose the package tray up behind the rear seat is the same then.

I've found a new item that has really worked well on my vinyl door panels, rear seat arm rests, etc....

http://www.squarebirds.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=16274

[YellowRose]

Upholstery paint removal

Yes, that is a vinyl covering on the center console, and also around the bottoms of the front seats. I had mine taken off, and the center console covered with yellow vinyl and the center section painted white. You will also see, in the first picture how bad my steering wheel looked until Jed Zimmerman made it look like new again! You will notice the white plate under the radio, as I carried the white from the center of the dash pad all the way to the back seat. That is the plate that I modified and put the map light into. Later on, we added the long stemmed yellow rose to the center console and I can light it up at night with the map light. I had those bottom seat metal pieces covered with black vinyl taken off, the vinyl pulled off and chromed. It really sets the seats off I think. One final thing.. If you look at the passenger side panels, the kick panel, door panel and rear panel, you will see that there is an outline in white of a Thunderbird wing... My idea, as all the interior and exterior paint design work was. Yes,, as I recall the package tray had the same black vinyl material on it, and was replaced with yellow vinyl. Here are some pix.

[Guest]

For some reason Ray couldn't find a pic of his new steering wheel to post, but I just happen to have a pic of his new wheel saved to my archives.

Edit note; the first time I viewed Ray's post, his 3rd pic didn't show up. But after I posted, then all 3 of his pics showed up and indeed Ray does have a pic of his new wheel. Oh well, another pic of his new wheel is shown below.

[Tbird1044]

Ray:
I really like the look of the chrome trim pieces below the seats. Really makes them stand out.
My rear package tray and piece just above the rear seat has the vinyl peeling. You were able to have these recovered? I figure I would work the guys that are going to install my seat covers. Just curious how the recovering worked out. Your car looks great, so I assume it worked well.
Nyles

[YellowRose]

Upholstery paint removal

Hi Nyles, Thank you. I liked the way it turned out also, and I get a lot of comments about how well the interior looks. Yes, I had them pull the vinyl off the package tray and replace it with yellow vinyl, and it worked out well. I also had them put on a embroidered '59 Tbird in the center of the package tray between the two seats. There are matching embroidered Tbirds on each seat back rest also. If you look close you will see a long winged Tbird with turquoise in it on the aluminum C pillar piece. I had those two pieces chromed and then mounted those Tbirds to the plates. Here is a pic taken before I replaced the black seat belts with the white ones encased in clear plastic. My apologies, because I have gotten this thread off track.