Project Overview:

Ok, so I bought a Cherokee Limited. That doesn't make it a Lexus. And in my opinion, there's only one thing worse than luxury wood grain in a car, and that's fake luxury wood grain. I knew as soon as I saw it that the fake wood grain had to go.

My options were to try to match the interior grey, use black - which would easily go with some of the other stuff in the Jeep, or color-match the exterior paint. I'd seen vehicles that have matching interior paint on the interior trim (like the PT Cruiser) and I thought it looked pretty slick. So I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm glad I did.

Dash Before		Dash After
Door Before		Door After

Product Selection:

Product selection was really simple: find paint that matched my Jeep. So, a quick trip to Napa and I was underway. They had everything I needed; the paint, masking tape, sand paper, and tack cloth. I picked up a few other items such as the fasteners and washers from Ace Hardware.

Other Notes:

All you really need to do this project is a bit of patience. Even if you don't go with the more expensive color-matched paint, you can easily cover up small body work with rattle-can paint with just a bit of time and work. If you take your time and do it right, it can turn out really well.

Installation:

	First, I removed the center dash. The dash is attached with 6 retaining clips. There are no screw-type fasteners that hold it in place - it simply pulls right off. Honestly, I was fooled at first, because I thought the "wood grain" portion and the grey outer were different pieces. But, it's all one piece. The outside portions are painted to match the interior. Removing the dash for this project in conjunction with my stereo installation killed two birds with one stone.
	Next, I pulled off the left rear door panel. You have to remove the screws that hold it in place first. There are two in the arm rest and one in the door latch/lock assembly. On a door with manual windows, you'd have to remove the crank too. Once the screws were out, I just tugged on the panel to get it out. Once it's free, you have to disconnect the wiring harness (power door locks and windows) and disconnect the door lever and lock rods from the latch/lock assembly. You can see the wiring harness connector block and latch/lock rods in this photo.
	In the process of removing the door panel, I broke 3 of the clips that hold it in place on the door. The parts that attach to the door panel (the round, disc-like portion) look extra "chewed up" in this picture because I had to use needle-nose pliers to get them out of the door panel. I figured I'd be breaking more of them on the other panels (and I was right) so I went to the Jeep dealership to order more. The guys at the parts desk recommended I use a door panel tool. $10 at Kragen. Considering the clips are almost $2 each, I bought the tool! I still wound up breaking 3 more clips, though, even with the tool.
	Once I had all four door panels off, I flipped them over to see how the wood grain trim piece connected to the door panel. There are 6 hollow posts on the back of each trim piece on each door. Four of the posts are melted down to "mushroom" out over the holes they fit in, and (weakly) bond them to the panel back itself. So, to get the trim pieces off, I'd have to figure out a way to "un-mushroom" the posts.
	To get the door trim pieces off of the door panels, I used my Dremel tool with a cutting wheel to cut off the mushroomed posts. I cut as high up on each post as possible, but far down enough to be sure the post would push back through the hole in the door panel.
	This is a picture of the left rear door panel with all 4 mushroomed posts cut off. Notice all the plastic debris from the removed posts all over the back of the door. I used a small brush to get as much of it off as I could. It comes off easily. Also notice that I tried to keep each each cut as close to the surface of the door panel as possible. I didn't want any deep gouges, and I wanted to keep each post as long as possible for re-attaching them later.
	Once all four mushroomed posts were cut off, I simply popped the trim piece off of the door panel. I then repeated this process for the other 3 door panels.
	All 5 pieces removed and ready to start the painting process. This is also a good "before" shot to compare the finished product to.
	Before painting, I needed to sand the surfaces of all 5 pieces. I didn't want to accidentally sand off any of the grey (interior color) paint on the dash piece. So, I protected it with some masking tape. This was not a precise masking job. I just made sure I covered the paint without covering the area I needed to sand. I also knew that this masking tape would be getting wet, and that any time spent trying to mask it precisely for painting would be wasted because the water would loosen the masking tape.
	To do my sanding, I used a bucket of warm water with a bit of dish soap in it. The dish soap acts as a lubricant for the sandpaper. Although this is wet/dry sandpaper, it's best to wet sand when painting. The water helps carry away the material you're sanding off. I used 600 grit sandpaper to "rough up" the surface of each piece. This gives the primer a good surface to adhere to.
	Once I had sanded all 5 pieces, I pulled off the masking tape from the dash piece and dried all of them thoroughly. Then I carefully masked the dash. I was sure to completely cover the entire grey portions of the piece so I didn't accidentally get any silver on it. Once I had it masked off, I put on two coats of the clear primer. I waited overnight after the first coat, but just because it was starting to get dark outside.
	This is the first coat of color-matched paint. It's best to apply several light coats when painting, rather than one heavy coat. Trying to do it all at once is a great way to ruin a paint job with paint runs. On the first two coats, I concentrated on getting in all the nooks and crannies on each piece - mainly the dash.
	Here are the pieces after the third coat of color. Before putting on each coat (including the primer, color and clear) I sanded each piece lightly with 1200 grit sandpaper and cleaned it off with a tack cloth. This gives the next coat a good surface to adhere to. However, it's important to note that sanding a pearl or metallic flake paint ruins the sparkly effect of the paint. So do not sand the final color coat! The first coats of color are only there to give the color a good base and add "depth" to the color. Between the final coat of color and the first coat of clear, I just used the tack cloth to remove any dust that had settled.
	The paint (color coat) on two of the door trim pieces wrinkled up a bit, as you can see in this photo. Paint wrinkle is usually caused by either contamination (oil or water) on the painted surface or too much humidity in the air as the paint dries. I just sanded the wrinkles down and shot them with a couple layers of silver again. No sanding in between. It doesn't take much at all to cover up where you sand to remove wrinkles like this.
	Once the color coats were on, I put on 4 coats of clear. Adding clear coat to paint gives it depth. The more clear, the deeper the paint. High-end paint jobs have a lot of clear coat on them, and it looks like you could jump in and swim in the paint. Adding clear coat also gives you a thick layer to "chew up" when cutting, buffing and polishing the paint. You don't want to cut through your clear and into your color coat - especially a pearl or metallic paint. Look closely and you'll see that the pieces have a very slight "orange peel" surface. It's very easy to see on the door trim piece, second from the right in this photo. That's why you ...
	... sand, cut, buff and polish them! I started with a series of 1200, 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper. Again, I used warm water with dish soap in it. I sanded very lightly - just enough to remove the orange peel with the 1200 grit, then enough to smooth out the sanding markes from each previous grit. I then used 3M fine cut compound, 3M swirl remover and Armor All car wax to finish off each piece. 3M makes great paint finishing products, as does Macguire's.
	The finished product is worth the effort. Each piece was glossy and smooth with a nice level of depth. The orange peel was gone and the pieces actually look better than the stock paint. The final sanding and buffing process took me about 4 hours. It's a very slow and deliberate process. You don't want to rush here and ruin hours of work. Take your time. It's really worth it. Compare the finish in this photo with the finish in the pre-buff photo.
	With all 5 pieces painted, buffed and waxed, I was ready to re-install them. My plan was to attach the trim to the door using self-tapping screws and washers. I brought one of the trim pieces down to Ace Hardware to pick the best size. #6 x 1/4" screws and matching #6 fender washers seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
	I started with the right rear door. I popped the trim piece back into place and hand-started a screw with washer in each of the cut off mounting posts. I was concerned that even thought the screws were short, that they might start poking through the surface of the trim. I also didn't want to risk cracking or splitting the trim pieces. So, I was careful and went very slow when tightening them down.
	As it turns out the first screw I put in started to push out of the surface of the trim piece. Since I was going slow and careful, it didn't actually break the surface. It only put a small bump in the plastic. It was a bummer since I'd spent so much time working on the pieces. But, in the grand scheme of things, one small bump in the interior trim on a rig that would eventually be beat to hell on the trail is pretty insignificant. I backed the screw back out and put an extra washer on it. I was then able to tighten it down. So, I made a quick trip back to Ace Hardware to pick up 16 more washers so I could put 2 washers on each screw.
	I didn't have any more problems with screws being too long on the rest of the door pieces. No cracking or splitting. No bumps. I was still very careful with each screw though, just in case one started poke through. I didn't want to get complacent and ruin one of the pieces.
	With all door trim pieces replaced on the door panels, it was time to put them back in the Jeep. I replaced the damaged door panel clips with the ones I'd picked up from the dealership. I started with the right rear door. I reconnected the latch and lock rods to the latch and lock door assembly, and hooked up the wiring harness. I positioned the door panel on the door, lined up the panel clips with their holes and used the butt of my hand to pop them back into place. Finally, I replaced the screws in the armrest and latch/lock assembly.
	I followed the same process for the remaining doors. I actually forgot to reconnect the latch and lock rods and wiring harness on the left rear door. I had to pull it back off to reconnect it all. Don't be in a hurry! Make sure you take your time and get it right the first time. With all four door panels in place, the doors looked great.
	Before I could replace the center dash piece, I had to finish installing my new head unit. Once I had the stereo installed and had checked it to make sure it worked, I popped the dash piece back in place. I still had yet to complete my vinyl floor installation, so the center floor console was still out of the Jeep. I knew I would have to pull the center dash piece back off in order to replace the floor console, but I put it on anyway. I wanted to see how it looked, and I was tired of worrying about scratching it up while driving around with it bouncing around loose in the back.
	Here's the center dash piece back in place. This serves as another good "after" shot. I'm very pleased with how it all turned out. Taking my time with the paint really paid off. The dash and door trim look like they came that way from the factory. This project also served as a good "confidence builder" for future paint and body projects, like hood vents.