Blackout parts - Stripping Plastic Finish

Hey everyone!
I know there are already a ton of threads about de-chroming or blacking out the interior of our trucks so bare with me. Also, I am no expert on this so please do not expect so.
For the backstory, please refer to post #2.

AJT defect:









Shift surround refinished. Cupholder left for comparison:


Both refinished & installed:


SR5 Radio bezel:



Blasted silver radio bezel: (needs more blasting)

 

Backstory:
As many of you, I am prefer the least amount of chrome on/in my vehicle as possible. When I bought my first Tundra (2020 Platinum CM) there was many different conflicting colors distributed around the interior.
I started my de-chroming journey with a quick order from AJT but, as everyone knows, they have been having an issue with their color consistency. I didn't have the patience to wait for a small company to recognize & correct the defective orders for a large group of people so, being that they weren't overly expensive, I decided to test refinishing techniques on the discolored peives that I had received.
I ended up tossing them into my sand-/media-blasting cabinet, which made it look terrible at first, but I realized they weren't lost after they were wet from cleaning. I did a bit of research and found that olive oil returns the natural oils back to plastic. To my surprise, it worked. For how long, I do not know but it's been a month and no issues.
My truck was going in for some work and I requested the dealer to switch my steering wheel controls & radio bezel from silver to the SR5 black. I was a little disappointed when I got my truck back and they had only changed the radio bezel. It was a little more disappointing that the "black" SR5 ended up being more of a dark grey with speckles. At that point I had just added another color.
Since I had the dealer give my original parts back, I started inspecting the original silver part... it has a black back. That's when I made the decision to toss that peice into my blasting cabinet to strip the silver finish off of the black plastic.
When I finish with the radio bezel, I'll get started on the steering wheel controls and door card silver plastics.

 

Save.

 

You should dip the parts, the spray can looks splotchy to me, but what do I know? Squat, thats what.

 

This thread is about stripping the parts to their bare black plastic, not coating them with a finish that will get messed up.

 

Good job on the refinishing, they look great. I'm surprised to read that AJT is having issues, though.. I've bought a bunch from them and haven't seen any defects.

 

They look like splotchy spray can black in the pics, weird, thought for sure you painted and did not mention it.. I wonder if that is a side effect of the digital camera, or they really do look swirly because that is just how the plastic looks. That may be the case, as the plastic was molded to be covered up, not exposed. Are the splotches visible in person?

 

AJT does make some good products. By no means am I'm trying to bash them as a company. I've heard of quite a few who have had the same issue. I'm very satisfied after refinishing them.

 

The splotchiness that you are referring to is why I refinished them. After blasting and oiling, they look great!

 

Yeah, I just looked through that other thread. Sure enough. Hopefully they make it right for everyone.

 

They do!! Awesome job!

 

When I got mine in, there were similar markings/defects so I emailed AJT and inquired. I was told that all of them will have some type of ghosting, byproduct of the injection mold process. and that I should just spray them to fix it. Odd response, but instead of sending them back for a refund, I just sprayed them, looks good, they way it should have when I received them. Def think that they should address this.

 

I never did reach out to AJT about my issue because I saw many people have the same problem and I decided to solve the problem myself the day that I received them. I didn't want to mess with the 'deal with how it is or send it back' since I could do nothing with the OEM chrome peices. If 'ghosting' was a result of injection molding there would be more products out there with that characteristic; it seems to me that it's a result of quality control.
Eventually that spray coating will scratch and/or peel. I try not to coat over things - unless cost/hassle prohibitive - for that reason. For example, I plastidipped my chrome handle inserts because I didn't want to spend $400+ on colormatch handles.

 

This new 3M 2080 Wrap Film is pretty killer.

Tried the paint method first but it started to chip over time.

Filled in the recessed areas of the bezel with acrylic, sanded, then vinyl wrapped it.
This is a fairly simple wrap project & holds up well through the heat of summer and everything being chucked in the drink wells.

This DIY KIT below has the Acrylic & enough 3M 2080 Series Vinyl to do the drink bezel plus the shifter trim.
I just need to edit the tutorial for it.



TUTORIAL on airbag / steering wheel trim panels removal.


Acrylic & Vinyl Kit - $19.50