Piano black on a budget :)
Discussion
Well its about time I posted these up in their own thread. I decided at Christmas that I really didn't like the standard finish in my Vantage (especially not after having the piano black satNav in my previous 4.7 and seeing Sukh's lovely Carbon black ski slope)
So I decided to set about achieving my goals. First off, look at official parts, I can handle the swap out myself...... OK new ones are silly money and in my opinion a spares sites price for one part was completely unjustifiable. More on that later.
So, first part....remove all the centre console.
The next part is to strip everything down to the bare minimum. Separating the Radio knobs, buttons and everything else is a little bit terrifying but if time is taken its quite simple and logically put together. The coin tray was an utter pig, my car has cameras fitted and the controls are hidden away in there.... so I had to dismantle it in the car.
Send bits off to be painted; when they come back wonder quite what you've done and start to assemble the expensive jigsaw (carefully as to not scratch)
Pat yourself on the back for having a good memory..... especially around which buttons and screws (there's a lot of them) go where:
Start to put the bits back into the car, again being super careful:
Paper here to prevent damaging the leather surround (and some double sided tape to make sure there are no rattles - sticky cover kept on one side):
More double sided tape for the pesky SatNav rattle:
Standback and admire your work:
Before and afters:
Regarding the centre part of the radio not being piano black (I was worried about this), the contrast isn't too bad at all. I've since located an official radio Fascia so will get it fitted soonish. I'm hopeful to take the part number and get a price off AM. (In fairness a few dealers tried to get the price of just the radio plate but their catalogues show it as only complete with all the modules and controls (£1500))
The other part of my dastardly plan if AM can't help, is to swap mine out and give my original to the bodyshop to be sprayed piano black, locate the vinyl font and icons AM use and voila I'll have a full spare piano black set so can offer a swap out service. Total cost for doing all this was a £100.
I had the steering wheel recovered as well, my alcantara was bald as can be. I sent my arm pad away with it and asked for a matching stripe in the centre to put my own touch on it and I was delighted with the results. I used http://royalsteeringwheels.com who were a joy to deal with, I think it was about £140inc return postage.
I'll get a better picture soon:
So I decided to set about achieving my goals. First off, look at official parts, I can handle the swap out myself...... OK new ones are silly money and in my opinion a spares sites price for one part was completely unjustifiable. More on that later.
So, first part....remove all the centre console.
The next part is to strip everything down to the bare minimum. Separating the Radio knobs, buttons and everything else is a little bit terrifying but if time is taken its quite simple and logically put together. The coin tray was an utter pig, my car has cameras fitted and the controls are hidden away in there.... so I had to dismantle it in the car.
Send bits off to be painted; when they come back wonder quite what you've done and start to assemble the expensive jigsaw (carefully as to not scratch)
Pat yourself on the back for having a good memory..... especially around which buttons and screws (there's a lot of them) go where:
Start to put the bits back into the car, again being super careful:
Paper here to prevent damaging the leather surround (and some double sided tape to make sure there are no rattles - sticky cover kept on one side):
More double sided tape for the pesky SatNav rattle:
Standback and admire your work:
Before and afters:
Regarding the centre part of the radio not being piano black (I was worried about this), the contrast isn't too bad at all. I've since located an official radio Fascia so will get it fitted soonish. I'm hopeful to take the part number and get a price off AM. (In fairness a few dealers tried to get the price of just the radio plate but their catalogues show it as only complete with all the modules and controls (£1500))
The other part of my dastardly plan if AM can't help, is to swap mine out and give my original to the bodyshop to be sprayed piano black, locate the vinyl font and icons AM use and voila I'll have a full spare piano black set so can offer a swap out service. Total cost for doing all this was a £100.
I had the steering wheel recovered as well, my alcantara was bald as can be. I sent my arm pad away with it and asked for a matching stripe in the centre to put my own touch on it and I was delighted with the results. I used http://royalsteeringwheels.com who were a joy to deal with, I think it was about £140inc return postage.
I'll get a better picture soon:
LordBretSinclair said:
I've just gone the other way though and changed from piano black to cf for the ski slope.
I really like that, quite agree it looks better than the PB with your leather.cayman-black said:
If i get a rattle in my dash i will call you!
Great job.
I've got one down by my right somewhere, ruddy AM's!Great job.
Davel said:
Brave man!
I'd have really messed up on that...
I've done a fair bit on cars in the past so I wasn't too phased by this; its a case of taking your time and not yanking on anything. Obviously I could do it a bit quicker now. The only dilemma I had was the boot release and lock, I couldn't remember which way around they went and of course got it wrong. I did have the sense to test it before I put everything back together.I'd have really messed up on that...
ChristAlmighty said:
Very nice job. But leave the centre control bit unpainted, as I did. It matches the ashtray cover and looks good (imho).
Ps. Glass buttons for the win!
I think Glass buttons will be this winters interior upgrade Ps. Glass buttons for the win!
AdamV12V said:
Amazing piece of work and a very beautiful car but cant understand why you are on a budget? 
PS : it might have been easier to call LBS and just swap parts then everything for both of you would still have been OEM!
PS : it might have been easier to call LBS and just swap parts then everything for both of you would still have been OEM!
bigfella70 said:
Great piece of work by the OP. Massive achievement to have stripped the console down then completed this work successfully. Huge satisfaction from doing the work yourself and with the added bonus of saving ££££ . Well done sir !!!
Bigfella covers it nicely. I'm happy to spend money where it needs spending but changing a working dash to my preference can't really be classed as £3k of needing doing. This cost me less than £100. Its also a great feeling to have done it myself. The same with the steering wheel, the little leather center marker is very much my touch and is better than a bald OEM wheel imo. The money saved paid for my decats, mot, insurance, tax and this years service (as well as having my car how I want it - ther's nothing to not like 
)
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