Couple Questions

[MrScary]

First on the tail lights where theres the orange colored blinker area. Can the clear piece over it be removed and reinstalled? I'm wanting to paint my tails all red and thinkin it might not work with that piece there.

Also on the fake woodgrain interior pieces, can those be removed easily? If so how?


Thanks alot in advance

[NikFu S.]

If you paint the taillights it will look like ****.

The interior trim cannot be "easily" removed unless you want to pry it all apart.

You can however buy various inlays to cover them and keep the interior value intact.

[It's Just Eric]

Ignore nikfu's overlays comment. Dash overlays are, as I see it, expensive crap. all the ones I've seen were low quality. Removing the woodgrain parts really isnt that hard, it takes mabey two hours to get it all out. I have a very in depth write up on interior removal here


...Also happen to have a set of the grey...not woodgrain...that was available in the L models for sale

Also as far as the tail lights go...Not sure why you would want to paint them....But I', pretty sure the clear section is plastic welded onto the red one. If you were planning on making that part red, try a vynal. easy, removable..looks fine from a few feet away. Now if you were painting the whole tailbar to match your body color...thats kindof intrestingish I guess...but keep in mind that there will still be the lined in the body where the tail bar is...so it may not have quite the clean smooth look your after.

[NikFu S.]

Originally Posted by It's Just Eric

Ignore nikfu's overlays comment. Dash overlays are, as I see it, expensive crap. all the ones I've seen were low quality.

That may be, and I agree with you, but I don't see the point in ripping out perfectly good factory inlay to replace it with something else.

[It's Just Eric]

A- not ripping...properly removing
B- trying to remove stick on dash overlays...likely to ruin the stock
C- Most dash overlays have ALOT of lines and areas that you can still see the original woodgrain through

Originally Posted by nikfu

...perfectly good factory inlay to replace it with something else.

I removed my grey facroty inlay and replaced it with the lighter woodgrain. Actually, I did the whole entire interior, from one factory option to another. Alot of people have swapped the newer woodgrain into their 92's
Some people have painted over their woodgrain...which if its done right, comes out good. I dunno, I think its better to either replace facroty with facroty or modify the factory parts the right way.
But..Im not going to get all bet out of shape over it...Besides, he just asked if they come out easy or not...


Since it isnt covered in the write up, I midaswell link to the gauge peice
(Its under instrument panel removal)
Also while your in there, theres two screws (Besides the one shared with the gauge trim) to hold in the climate controll unit, and a screw (as well as a large clippy thing) holding in that vent. Undo any electrical connections, theres plugs in obvious places. The CD cage comes out easy enough...Theres a decorative black plastic ring thngy that goes around the cd player. pry that out. Behind it are a few screws holding the cd cage in. Remove those and the cage slides out enough to unbolt the stereo from it.
The ash tray pulls out obviously, and the shifter trim needs to be pushed toward the windshield then pried up. No tools needed. Unhook the electrical connector for the door lock switch, if applicable

[SilverSpear]

DO NOT TOUCH THE TAILLIGHTS, KEEP THEM AS THEY ARE

As for the interior, take them apart really carefully, and paint them the same color as your car's, believe me it will look great!!!

The only thing which teases me in Japs is the use of cheap suede materials and colors.... I have been contemplating the 2006 Toyota Camry at my friends' workplace, the faux wood interior looks reaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllly cheap!!! they used aluminum finish interior and bright wood color at one time!!! imagine it! Yuuuuuuuuuck!

[Nemesis Destiny]

Something I'd been thinking about would be using the interior woodgrain bits to make a mold or jig for something better, not to just stick on top, but completely replace. Either real wood, aluminum, or something like that. Might be expensive, but it would be worth the expense IMHO.

[It's Just Eric]

The complex shape of the peices is extreamly difficult to replicate.Too many curves, contours, holes ect. you may be able to make a mold and recreate it in plastic or mabey fiberglass, but thats doubtfull at best. Keep in mind the part you see is the only simple part
But yeah, having them painted looks pretty good, as long as you paint them with the right paint and go through everything correctly

[MrScary]

Yea I was planning on painting the interior pieces. I have a Liquid silver one and I'm gonna go with a black and silver theme. Also I think I'm gonna go ahead and do the tails all in red, if they look like junk I don't care all that much

[NikFu S.]

Originally Posted by MrScary

Yea I was planning on painting the interior pieces. I have a Liquid silver one and I'm gonna go with a black and silver theme. Also I think I'm gonna go ahead and do the tails all in red, if they look like junk I don't care all that much

If you are going to do it you might as well get clear corners in the front to "match", but I don't see the point as (I hope) you won't be coloring your reverse light covers.

If you have a silver, and you paint your fake wood pieces silver, I think it would look alright.
Not my cup of milk, but it's your car. Do what you want. Just don't let it end up on Ebay if it becomes a disaster.

[Nemesis Destiny]

I saw a 94 in Laguna (and was looking at buying until I noticed) that someone had tried painting the woodgrain silver. It looked like crap. Maybe they used bad paint or didn't know what they were doing or whatever, but it was absolutely terrible. Kind of discouraged me from wanting it at that point.

They'd also tried painting the centre grill to match the rest of the car, but didn't get the colour quite right, which also looked like ass. Then there were the stickers all over the car that read "Subaru World Rally Team" and such. Scary stuff; I can only imagine how that poor car was abused. Not to mention the exhaust work... straight pipes from the resonator on back... I didn't even want to fire it up.

[SubaSteevo]

See my dash:
pic 1
pic 2

I get compliments all the time. I removed all the trim pieces, painted them silver, then put the aluminum dash II overlay kit on. The hardest piece to remove was the trim on the climate control, a couple of the clips broke which hold it on, so I had to glue it in place. To keep paint around the lettering I carefully cut out around the words for AUTO etc with clear tape.

[MrScary]

That looks really good. I'm actually gonna go with flat black most likely. And I'm also thinking about paint the headlight housings black. Yes and I am not painting the back up lights, just the orange turn signal section.

[It's Just Eric]

Suba stevo...Good idea painting silver before the overlays..Hides alot of the imperfections. I kinda like it
Id try a clear red vynal over the amber part of the tail lights there. I dunno...paint may work if its thin enough...But I think te vynal might be the better choice (Sadly)
And painting the headlight housings...Im guessing you mean under the lenses. That might look prett cool, but Im curious as to how it would effect the working sof the headlights
While you have the headlghts apart, you could do the smallcar clear lenses or even use a little rubbing compound on the stockers to unyellow them a bit.
Flat black paint on the interior stuff works fine. Looks decent too. Subaru thought so, so they did the exact same thing for their L models.
Little paint tip- if your taping off really small / intracate designs, you might find it better to use vasoline. using either your finger, a q tip, or a tooth pick (listed from least to most detailed) apply the vasoline to any area that isnt to be painted. Paint as you normally would. Once the paint is dry and fully hardened (Extra emphasis on that part) simply wipe the part off. the vasolined area come clean

[SVXplorer]

Is it legal in Minnesota to change the colour of your turn signal lights or headlight covers? Or, for that matter, is it legal in any/every state that you ever plan to drive your car in? In Ontario, there are laws against painting headlight covers, so if it's illegal here, it could be illegal elsewhere. (Production tinted headlight covers are okay, though.)

Just something to think about.