Painting the inside of a car body

[Ryan S.]

Hi All,

Something I've always struggled with and haven't really seen addressed on the boards here is when and how do you paint the inside of a car body.

Priming is a given but do you paint the inside before or after the outside? If using different colors for the interior and the exterior how do you mask against over spray or runs over the in/outside paint? I'm just curious what peoples methods are and any tips or tricks are sure to benefit many. Thanks for humoring me on this.

Cheers!

[VW Dave]

I always shoot the underside/inside first, to ensure that drip rails and window openings get good coverage. If items such as a headliner need to be a different color, I brush paint them later.

Edited March 5, 2010 by VW Dave

[Jordan White]

Simply talking about the interior here.

What I do is spray the interior color first. When that paint dries, I then run tape along the cabin sides, over the windows (on the inside of the body), so when painting the outside the paint can't get on the inside. Hopefully that all makes sense!

[Marc @ MPC Motorsports]

Ryan,

I brush paint the inside of a body after I have applied BMF and any other outside trim. I use Testors Acryl Aircraft Interior Black for the main body will use it for the headliner area if the car has a black interior. Otherwise, I'll use an acrylic Testors or Tamiya paint that is color coordinated to the interior trim.

I use acrylics here as they are safer on a lacquer paint job if you accidently get some on the exterior finish because the solvents will not attack the base cost.

Hope this helps,

Marc

[crappiefisher]

I always try to paint the inside of the car, just where the interior is, i paint the headliner, roof pillars, etc. the color of the interior. I recently looked into making a cloth headliner.

[Jon Cole]

Finish exterior bodywork, apply first prime coat.

If there is a headliner, mask exterior; spray headliner in flat color.

Wet-sand and prime exterior final coats after first masking inside body.

Prep & spray all exterior.

Once fully cured, use medium size brush to paint inside body flat black. The idea is to "hide" things like inner fenders, you don't want the eyes drawn to these areas.

On a Nascar body, spray the inside Gloss Gull Grey, when cured, prep, prime, and spray exterior.