for mine, I had a wood grain trim for my dash kit, a lot of u might say aluminum brush, but I find the wood trim to be a lil bit classier...

if u have pictures, do so to post them and show everyone ur interior dash

 

if you use a high quality kit, a wood dash can look great. CF and AL are kinda played out, IMHO, although if done right they can look good too. Otherwise, keep it clean.

 

I like the painted aluminum. But i do have the carbon fiber but dont like the way it looks stuck ontop of the dash and other parts.

 

I have the brushed aluminium kit..love the way it looks. I'm really not too fond of wood...even though it looks good on some cars.

 

that's what i'm worried about also; the fact that it will just look stuck on. so i would think the thinner, the better, but it is probably still gonna look cheap, right?

 

depends on the interior color with me. black leather deserves aluminum trim. tan deserves high quality wood grain no doubt

 

It looks fine around the radio and shifter but on the window switches it looks like stuck on crap. Im taken it off in the spring and painting silver or maybe a chrome dipped haha i dont know if that can be done.

 

100% wood grain

 

Black Marble.

 

I think I prefer a stock dash. I like my black on black. I would consider painting it but only if I could somehow do a smooth glossy black finish. Finger prints would show up like crazy though.

 

that black marble looks great njmaxseltd , very classy

 

no kit is my preference

 

I'd prefer the stock black dash, but I'm pretty happy with my graphite painted dash.

 

I would have to say alum. or painted to match the outside of car. base coat clear coat..........

 

stock if fine..everything else looks cheap, or out of place..

 

i love my wood grain, but a all black dash looks soo much cleaner

 

stock for me

 

i like stock, but if its painted the color of the car, depending on the color of the car, it can look really nice. I'm planning on painting mine the charcoal they use on the Titans, and maybe getting my seats done similar to the 04 spec V's with the silver with black mesh, then I might paint my trim the same charcoal color. still pondering.....

 

Yours look really nice!!! I might try this since I'm bored with the stock black look. What kind of paint did you get?

 

Thanks. Those are old pics, I've done it over recently. Looks much better. I used duplicolor wheel paint, the color was graphite. That was the first attempt. Second try I used the same paint, only 3 light coats of clear enamel. I will try to take pics of the new dash this week if you're interested.

 

Yea for sure. I'd like to see. I already painted the instrument cluster guage bezel with the graphite wheel paint. Looks like this:


So I'm thinking of painting the black pieces the same color.

 

I like it... its suttle, but u can still see the difference...

 

black interior with the wood trim looks classy, if you want sporty go with the aluminum

unfortunately i have **** brown interior

 

thats a nice color Dr. Max.. you've got me thinking..

i have the brushed aluminum kit.. it looked good at first, now im almost sick of it... theres dings, dents, and scratches and it looks almost out of place and tacky now ... just painted my gf's 99 dash silver tho, and WOW, talk about 10 times better looking... that coming from someone who has owned a dash kit. paint your dash (do a good job), forget dash kits!

 

Thanks...I'm thinking about painting the rest of the black trims on my dash and doors as well. Maybe if I end up staying in town this weekend and end up getting bored, I might go ahead and do this.

 

Paint >> all stick-on kits (except Tom's)

 

Next week I'm gonna hit my trim peices with some high gloss. Shine it up real good. I think it'll still look pretty classy.

 

mzmtg why isnt your climate control painted?

 

The manual climate control is difficult to do because of the buttons. You can try painting the buttons but that's a project on its own. Plus the button holes are just exactly big enough for the buttons to go up and down. The added layer that the paint will give might make those buttons not go up and down as freely anymore. I'm also not sure if you can disassemble the buttons from the climate control panel. Lastly, it is going to be complicated to paint around the numbers along the fan speed control ****. The auto-climate control is a bit different and it seems like it could be painted w/o much added work but the buttons might require painting as well for proper matching.

 

??? pry the buttons off, cover up the space carefully with tape...or something, be creative. im still confused... i wouldnt be able to leave it like that, all or nothing

but whatever too each his own

 

Each button has its own symbol and its transparent so that the LED behind it will make the buttons illuminate! How are you going to tape around that? The work is probably not worth the outcome considering how the outcome would actually look like. I believe someone have tried this a while back, I could be wrong, and concluded that leaving the climate control alone is the best choice. Now lets say you are to paint the climate control panel only, now you have black buttons sticking out of the light colored panel. To me that look is blah! Now for darker coloring, the black buttons shouldn't stand up that badly.

 

lol i wasn't talking about painting the buttons, that would be way more work than what its worth. when i redo my dash (with paint) ill show you. the black buttons wont look bad, like i said ive done a 99, painted around the buttons, the buttons were black and the dash was silver and it looks freakin great, ill take a pic soon. the buttons matched the black interior, and gave it nice contrast to the dash.. it would be too much if the buttons were painted the dash color.

btw DR, im now in a tossup between silver and graphite. thanks, haha

 

Graphite is good with beige interior. But can be good if you have an all black interior. Makes the dash stand out more.

 

have you seen it in black interior (this is what i have)? im thinking it would look good... a subtle, but nice combo

whered you get that paint? autozone?

 

Yep autozone. I would also get some clear protective coating and apply it last for obvious reasons.

 

yeah i thought of that, but i dont want it too look too glossy. hopefully itll be alright

 

Look at my cardomain...

 

Did you clear coat those? Also, if you don't mind, can you take a close up pic (day time) of the climate control? I want to see how the black buttons go with the graphite color. Thanks.

 

looks good lilac.

 

Thanks mendon99.
DR-Max, no... the older pics are not of the clearcoated. Since them I have re-done them and added a few coats of clearcoat. I will take a few pictures this weekend after I clean up my car a little bit for the first time in a month... I hate the winter.