I finished all my planned bluing of my interior today. I had decided that since I was n't going to do the seats, I was going to do the center console. So I dyed from the arm rest back today. Here's a few pic.

What the rear portion of the console looked like today ...

 

And the finished product. Sorry for the sub-par quality. I'll try and get some natural light pictures soon.

 

Very nice, very nice. You just need to do the seats now, but that still looks awesome.

 

Whoo! The engine compartment stuff too & other things I see in your sig. Real nice! You say that's dying? What kind of dying is that?

btw, man, time to do that baby seat! Hehe. Clashes real bad...

 

Whealy,

You are a maniac and should probably be put into some sort of mental rehabilitation facility for members of the RX-8 cult menatlity.

Seriously. You're car is one of the sharpest I have seen and it certainly makes an incredibly blue statement!!!

Keep up the great work!!

 

Looks very professional, what process do you use to "dye" those pieces? Are they made of leather?

 

Looks great , let us in on product used , procedure , degree of difficulty etc.

cheers
michael

 

awesome!

after that middle panel you can then work on your kid's car seat!

 

back at it again whealy

 

hmmmm

 

I’ve done several posts on the “bluing” of the interior (as most of you know!) and I’ve usually documented to dye within each. But I’ll try to sum up my findings to this point.

I’ve been using this company’s product for all the interior blue dying. You need to keep in mind that I have only been using this since mid December. But since that time, my problems have been very minimal in using this stuff.

The biggest problem I have had is in doing the shifter ****. I previously posted a pic of my broken defrost buttons where you could see the top edge of the shifter had been chipped. Doesn’t make much sense if this is a dye. Well on that particular piece, I did not use the primer as my best guess of the material makingin it up was that it was actual leather. The instructions said not to use the primer on leather. In my last effort to repair this piece, I used the primer over chipped area. We’ll see if that makes a difference. I find masking the slippery chrome piece pretty difficult as well. I won’t be surporised if I end up relacing this part to re-dye it, but again, I think it’s all about the question of using the primer.

As for how I ended up here, last weekend I did the rear arm rest cover. I also decided to do the trunk passthrough. I figure if for some reason I didn’t like the trunk passthrough being blue I’d just replace it. Well I really liked it. Especially in light of the fact that I don’t plan on doing my seats. I thought the splash of blue in the back looked good. However, the remainder of the console looked strange with the combo of black and blue. My preference would have actually been to blue carbon fiber the remaining black areas (between the two arm rests), but that would have meant molded pieces as that’s where the front arm rest slides. The carbon fiber thickness would have prevented it’s movement. I really wasn’t interested in spending the cash to do a one use mold. So I went with the blue. I must admit, I’m much happier with it than I though I would be.

As for the difficulty in using stuff, none really from my perspective. And I have no experience in this area or painting in general for that matter. The toughest part has been the disassembly of the parts needed to be dyed. Obviously the door trim pieces were a major project. I scratched the rear door in a few places taking off that trim as there weren’t any instructions on removing it. So I’ll repair the “winging” it I did there with the paint pen I got a few weeks ago. Yesterdays project was complicated by the exterior surfaces that I wanted to dye seamlessly flowing into the interior surfaces under all those covers. I ended up doing the inside as well as the outside. I think it looks better that way. But determining what needed to be dyed too a little effort to not waste dye and get the job done the first time.

Hope that helps.

 

gay

 

I like it, well done.

 

Mr.Blue car and you are yet to purchase a blue decal from me i'm ofended

 

Mr. Polak
I will make it up for you on his behalf. I just ordered bunch of decals for my blue 8.

Mark

 

That's MR BLUE CAR to you .. oh wait, that's what you said.

As a general rule, I don't add any sticker to my car. I don't even like to put our plate stickers on for renewal. Of course you have to put those on. That being said, I have seen the posts on how nice your stuff is. If I change my mind on the subject, you will be the first vendor I call!

 

Oh my god....nicest i have ever seen....very NICE!

 

wow....i mean....WOW!!...you have out done yourself Whealy...looks really great and professional....

 

For masking off the tiny chrome area try using a small artist's brush and some rubber cement.

When I first read about dying/painting trim pieces I thought it was crazy but your pictures look fantastic! Surely you are giving someone at Mazda ideas for a future RX-8 Special Edition.