You read it right! Recon-it Right Products is LIVE! Viper Products and The Interior Guy, LLC. have teamed up to bring you the New Midwest Distribution Center located right here in the heart of the Midwest, Springfield, Missouri.

This will give all you guys located in or around me the ability to get your products faster, more efficiently, and for some cheaper by knocking down on the shipping costs. You can visit us right here right now online at ReconitRight.com .

I’ve been putting this together now since the Mobile Tech Expo, when a fire was lit under my butt and I decided I wanted to tackle this little monster. Well it’s been kinda slow going with a few road bumps along the way but I’m pretty confident I’m up and ready for operation now.

After the expo one big snag I ran into was the huge influx of business Tom got hit with at Viper Products. Which is an incredibly good thing, but wow it blew us away! Viper Products business all but tripled in volume and Tom literally ran out of product for me.

So after time and patients on my part, (which if you know me I have none, I guess its that OCD in me or something, but hey I get it done lol )I’ve got most of the product I need to get started with most small orders and a few larger ones and as you all keep trickling in I’ll just keep adding on and getting bigger and better.

I’m here to tell ya guys I’m pretty excited about this little adventure here. I have got so much to bring you and so many great products. Not only am I going to have Interior Restoration Products but Exterior Detailing Supplies as well. Now the Exterior Detailing Supplies wont be widely available at first but just hang on cause this rides gonna get wild I’m telling you.

I want to bring you guys everything that I can get my hands on that is top of line product, officially tested and proven to work top notch. I want you guys to have the best of the best. I’ve spent years in this business doing my research and after many trials and errors, I’m here to try to eliminate all doubt about this industry.

So don’t hesitate to jump on over to ReconitRight.com and SIGN UP and take a look around at the products and get familiar with all thats there. Now when you register I have to approve you before you can order so give me just a few. I check in several times a day so it won’t be long before your ordering from one the largest suppliers of Automotive Restoration Products in the nationRecon-it Right Products, Viper Products NEW Midwest Distributor!

Plastic is one component that makes up most of the inside of a vehicle and can be one of most difficult to repair and paint. That is if you don’t replace the piece first. To be really honest when it comes to some of the plastic trim pieces, door panels, and kick panels its cheaper to replace the pieces then to repair them. But I do mean some, there are many instances where a little heat in the right spot or some dye applied to the surface can hide or repair an imperfection and save from replacement and that’s what I’m here today to talk about repairing and painting those cosmetic repairs on plastic interior panels.

Let’s say we have a scratch down the door panel and it’s deep enough to feel with your finger nail. This type of cosmetic repair can be fixed with a heat gun, a matching grain pad, dye, and some finesse. The finesse is a big thing too. You can make a bad thing a really bad thing really quick if your not careful.

When heating plastic to repair a scratch you have to melt it to almost the liquid stage and press your grain pad into the plastic very gently but firmly to achieve the right effect. If you press to hard you will make a dent in the panel and not enough you won’t get the grain imprint in the plastic like you want and you won’t melt the scratch together either. You melt the plastic like I said almost to the liquid stage.

First things first don’t sand the fuzzy’s off or try to sand the scratch down prior to melting, use the plastic that’s there to melt back into the scratch where it came from.

I will usually heat and press a few times, basically melting a little at a time. It also helps to cool the plastic with a chill bar after a couple of attempts so not to stretch or dent the plastic. Learned that one the hard way on a rear quarter of an Expedition. When there is nothing behind the plastic to support your melt then the plastic will push in if you don’t take your time and cool things down between attempts.

Cooling also helps to set the imprint so when you go to remove the shinny spot, which I’ll talk about in a minute. you won’t distort or even loose your grain because the plastic is still to warm.

When you press the grain into plastic try to remember not to use your thumb if you can, use the grain pad laid in your palm, this will help also to cut down on denting the plastic panel. I have a little rubber squeegee I use at times to lay on the back of the grain pad to give me a level surface to press on.

Now once you have melted the scratch back into the plastic you’ll be left with a shinny spot in the plastic where you have melted it. To get rid of this take a scotch brite pad and scuff lightly over the area, not to much or you’ll distort your fix. Once you have scuffed the area a little extra and the area’s around it, it will need to be cleaned thoroughly before dye is applied.

Painting plastic is just that applying a coat of paint over the top, some think you can actually “DYE” plastic. Well unless you have a way to penetrate the surface of the plastic then your only painting the surface and I don’t know of any penetrating paint for plastic. But just out of habit you’ll hear me say dyeing plastic too here and there.

So… you have to get the plastic as oil and dirt free as you can or the paint won’t stick, period. When your prepping plastic use only a fine grade sand paper or a scotch brite pad to scuff the surface. If you use anything heavier in grit then you will see the sand marks or scuff marks guaranteed. I use my special prepping solution for all my prepping but I have used wax and grease remover and lacquer thinner but be very careful with lacquer thinner and plastic, if you let it set to long it will melt the plastic or even distort the grain so really wax and grease remover or my prepping solution is all that is needed. If that’s not handy then dish soap and warm water.

Applying your paint can be done by either spraying or wiping it on. I usually spray everything except for my primer. I use a wet paper towel to apply my sticky primer or grip base, whichever you may use with your water based paint. Always apply a primer or adhesion promoter prior to painting plastic. It will make your repair last a lot longer I promise.

If all was done right your scratch should disappear right before your eyes when the dye is applied.

Now as part of repairing plastic you may come across a piece that is broken slightly and an actual plastic repair can be done to save a piece without replacement. This is accomplished by what you call a plastic welder. Some of you guys probably already have one and use one on a daily basis to repair bumpers and such. This is one tool that is a must when repairing a broken piece of plastic. Super glue won’t hold and epoxies can be a mess and probably won’t hold either and that’s where a plastic welder comes in. It does exactly what you think it welds the plastic back together by melting new and existing plastic into the crack.

I’ve used mine a few times and have had great success.

Now like I said before mending a cracked piece of plastic needs to be cost effective. If the piece can be replaced for cheaper then you can fix it for, then replace it, don’t spend all afternoon fixing a crack in a piece of plastic that someone could have bought at a junk yard or new for cheaper. Heck there have been times when I still get the job because a replacement part needs to match, so I paint it to match. A lot more cost effective.

One other thing not all plastic pieces can be repaired and look right, it’s just the nature of the repair. Your not going to make every plastic repair look absolutely prefect. Sometimes it’s the grain pattern in the plastic or just the plastic itself. If you can hide it well then go with it but if it just looks as bad as it did when you started you probably need to replace the piece.

Most of the colors are close to the original colors of the interiors of most of the vehicles on the market but always test an area first before you start any project to insure color match.

I will say this on Black, mostly the Landau Black will be the choice for most of your repairs. It just matches better with sheen and all.

Red’s and Blue’s be prepared to use maybe twice as much dye in most projects due to the transparency of the dyes.

Always clean and prep prior to applying any Sem aerosol paints. Soap and warm water always works great! Scotch Brite pads are usually all that’s needed for scuffing the surface, any harsher and sanding marks could be left and will show through and leave you with undesireable results.

Apply a coat of adhesion promoter to the surface before you paint, this will also help to give you maximum adhesion and a lasting repair.

For all your Sem Aerosol colors check out TCP Global’s Auto Color Library. They have a great site for everything automotive whether it be the outside or the inside. Just scroll down on the left you’ll see Vinyl and Leather Paint under the heading Aerosol Paint Center. They will also mix custom colors for you!

Talk to ya soon,
Mike “TIG”

As I was sitting there on the dock this weekend I couldn’t help to think of what I was going to write this week. I started thinking of some jobs that have been somewhat of booger for me, and I couldn’t help to think of the fist time I painted silver plastic trim. You know where the paint rubs off or scratches off and leaves you the black plastic underneath.

It was on a Mitsubishi Eclipse door trim. I freaked out, and the reason being is that I mixed all my paints by eye and I remembered with exterior paints how many different shades you got with metallics, a bazillion…. The only shade of metallic I had on board was straight silver, gold, and pearl. Man….I thought how am I going to get this to look right. So off to mixing I went…. By looking at the plastic trim piece, it was silver metallic, but with a brownish gold look to it, and darker then straight silver. I started with silver, added a little brown, then a drop or two of black to darken it, and a little yellow oxide to give it that yellowish gold look.

When mixing metallics, one thing to keep in mind is using the color white, if you need it lighter, then try adding a little pearl white or more silver if you added to much black or if it’s to dark. The reason, you will milk it out and lose your metallic look. White is just not good with silver, but there are cases where you will use it, just add a little at a time.

Now with testing metallic paint you can’t just dab a little and dry to see if your colors right. Reason being is that the metallic flake in the paint will lay flat and show darker then it really is, what you want is the metallics to stand up and sparkle. So the only way to check your color is to spray it. Spray a little spot, light coats, and see if it disappears against the color your going for, if it does then your there. You can almost see if your ok by just looking at your mixer, but by spraying a little you’ll be for sure.

Prepping the area is pretty simple, but there are some do’s and don’ts . Most of the plastic trim, I’ve found, don’t have a large amount of dye on them. Now, I call it dye because you use your vinyl dye to paint the plastic, so I’ll probably go back and forth calling it dye and paint. Anyways, if you take a scotch brite pad and your prepping solution, ( alcohol, acetone, THP substitute, ammonia, and water ), and spray the plastic trim piece and scrub, most if not all the paint will come off, and at the same time your scuffing the plastic for the dye. You can strip it all off or leave a little depending on the amount of paint missing, the prepping solution works a lot like Sem Sand Free in that it feathers the edge. But if you need your Sem Sand Free then go for it, it works on the smaller stuff just as good ( like just a scratch or something ). Don’t use sandpaper with a heavier grit then say 400, or you will leave sanding marks that will show up in your finished product. If you have a scratch thats needing filled or just sanded out, you can use a heavier grit but always finish with a finer grit to remove the marks. Wipe it clean, with a lint free towel so to not get fuzzies in your job.

Once prepped, mask the area off, apply your grip base or sticky primer, then spray. Now with spraying metallic paint, or dye, you always use light coats and don’t hold your gun too close or in one spot for too long. You will get what they call modeling your paint. What this is, is a dark shadow in the paint. What causes this is the metallic flakes laying flat and showing you a dark shadow in your paint. So light even coats, and dry between. This will give you the effect you need and make the finished product look like it’s supposed to.

Topcoats are another thing too. When your done your work will have either a glossy finish or a mat finish, look around the vehicle to see if you need either or. Always topcoat your work, but make sure you get the right sheen. I’ve noticed both, so check it out, if you spray it with mat and it’s supposed to be glossy it will show and won’t match the rest of the vehicle.

That Mitsubishi Eclipse by the way, turned out really good and yours will too with a little practice and know how. I hope I gave you the know how on painting plastic silver, now it’s up to you for the practice.

Talk to ya soon – Mike “TIG”

Well I said in my last post that I would give you guys a post on my daily activities, and here’s the first. Thought I’d share a little of what I do on a daily basis, to let you all know in a little more detail of the repairs I do on a daily basis. The way I’m gonna try to do this is to not just list the vehicles I worked on and tell you what I fixed and so on, but I’m gonna pick a couple that either gave me fits or I feel would be a good one to talk about. Some will be long and some short, but I hope to give you a lot of info.

As you see the title of this post is GMC Yukon Denali Console Lids, this is one I run across pretty much on a daily basis and one that can be a booger to fix. I thought today this would be a good one since I worked on 2 of them just today.

The console lids peel ! The dye they use from the factory is I feel just a little to delicate to be using for a console lid, but never the less, they are repairable with the right dye and the right know how.

My pictures might not be the best, due to the fact I’m using my phone and the lighting is not the best, but you can get a general idea of what I’m doing.

These are before and after shots of the GMC Yukon Denali console lids that I have repaired. If you can see in the first shot the areas around the lids and just above the larger lid there are areas where the dye has peeled off. Its exposed the black plastic underneath and just looks, well bad.

I first clean the area really well with my prepping solution and scotch brite pad, now this is just a preliminary clean to get all the grime and silicone off so the tape will stick. Now I use the green tape, as you can see, it seems to stick better then regular masking tape, it’s got more sticky to it. I also use the 2″ wide tape, it’s a little harder to handle but I like it because it’s wide and I don’t have to use paper. ( 3M 2″ GREEN MASKING TAPE )

I mask off the wood grain trim and the CD player, this ensures my job will look tip top when I’m done. Now depending on how well your gun control is will depend on whether you need more then just tape. You can cover the seats with towels ect.

Once the area is masked off, I start my prep. I take my prepping solution and my scotch brite pad and clean and scuff the whole console area. The areas where the peeling is I will try to peel some of the areas off with my scotch brite pad so to give it kinda a strait line, not just a bunch of chunks out of the dye, this is a prelim to my next step. Wipe it down or blow it out good, and don’t get the flakes from the console area on the seats, it will stick if it drys on there.

Now here is a crucial step and it can be a pain in the butt if you use too much or the dye doesn’t cooperate. Take a strip of 400 grit sandpaper, fold it in thirds, and grab your Sems Sand Free ( Sand Free – Aerosol ). This is the only way to get the edges of the dye to feather. If you were to just use sandpaper, the dye would just peel and keep peeling, not giving you a good smooth edge which will show if you don’t use this step.

Spray an end of the sandpaper and sand the areas where the peeling is. You will see the edge of the peel melt and start to smear around. Sand until it is dry and starts to roll up, lighten up on the sanding and stop. Look at the area and see if it’s smooth, if not repeat. Now heres the tricky part, if you use to much of the Sems Sand Free the dye will start to pucker and then you have a larger area to fix. So don’t just go hog wild, this is a pretty delicate sanding trick, just take your time and let the chemical flash out before you apply any more. Sand all the areas that have peeling going on, but don’t sand the rest of the area with the Sems, you can I guess but there really no need to and you might get to much chemical in one spot and create more work, the next step will scuff the other areas for dye.

Next take your scotch brite pad and dry sand the rest of the console area, this will scuff the area for dye and remove any ruff areas from the Sems.

Alright, now you need to clean the area again to get all the sanding bits away and so you have a good clean surface for the dye. Wipe the area down with a lint free towel and your prepping solution sprayed on the towel, this will remove any fingerprints, and the rest of the grime.

If you use a plastic primer, apply it now. I usually use a wet paper towel to apply my primer. I use a grip base, which is a water based sticky primer. This gives the water based dye a glue like substance to adhere to and helps with oil migration from hands. Basically makes the dye stick.

It’s time for your water based dye. I use water based because it’s water based they use from the factory. Remember me talking about using too much chemical and the dye puckers, well thats what will happen if you use a solvent based dye, so only water based, no rattle cans.

I mix my dye by eye, and I came up with a little formula that works pretty good. I mix my dye to match the darker gray dash, then add silver. It matches really good, sometimes I have to tweak a little with some yellow oxide and white, but normally not. Don’t forget your crosslinker and make sure your strain your dye.

Spay about 3 coats of dye, drying in between. Usually the areas that were peeling will disappear pretty quickly, but I try to put about 3 coats just to be safe. Sometimes around the areas that had the damage I will turn the air down on my gun so that little droplets of dye come out, this gives it a little texture and helps to hide the damage.

Finally, topcoat with a low gloss topcoat with a little slip additive added to it to give you a soft feel to the finished product. Peel your tape off, and there you go a new console, if you did it right.

All I can say is that this is a tricky little repair, but if you take your time and pay attention, you will have a new console when your done, and one that will last.

If you’ve got any questions don’t hesitate to comment or join my forum and post it there. Talk to ya soon

Mike ” TIG”