REAL factory quality/appearance double din bezel
05-27-2017, 01:08 PM
#1
REAL factory quality/appearance double din bezel So, a while back I bought what I thought was a "factory quality" look bezel about $80 from one of our sponsors (though I think they are banned now, which is good to see). Turns out, it was the same dark gray one you can buy online (Metra 95-3312G) for ~$20. I was pretty pissed to say the least.
Since they didn't respond to me, offer a refund minus shipping, etc. I decided to try to make it look better. The radio I got actually came with the same exact part for free, so I had two.
I used SEM products from the prep, adhesion promoter and light chips to their final coat.
Check out the attached images. Here were the steps I followed:
1) Used gray scotch brite pad to scuff the surface (they recommend their soap, but I opted not to do that).
2) Clean surface with SEM plastic and vinyl prep.
3) One VERY light coat of their textured/chip spray. I held the can back about 18" and barely got enough on the surface to notice.
4) In doing the first one, I found matte black was too flat looking, so I went with a first top coat of landau black. I did two coats of this.
5) I top coated with two more coats of matte black (straight landau was too shiny).
6) The surface was still pretty rough, so I went back over it again with the scotch brite after it dried about 2 hours.
7) I recleaned with the prep and wiped dry.
8) I followed up with to more coats of matte black and that was the final product.
This is shot beside the original gray bezel (much more gray in person than the pic IMO) I started with plus some installed (gray and painted). I also took some shots beside the factory bezel with a fresh coat of trim shine.
I was honestly shocked I was able to match the factory bezel that closely. In the car, I could not pick out the difference between it and the other factory trim enough to know that it was not stock. The original product stuck out like a sore thumb to me.
Unfortunately the SEM products aren't cheap. It works, so it was worth it for me. I am going to be posting my 2nd bezel (I ended up doing both) for sale to try to recover the lost $80 in the first bezel. At the $80 I spent originally, I thought the extra money was for the additional work. I was obviously wrong. It it was prepped like this, I would have said $80 would have been worth it after spending about $70 on SEM products.
I hope this helps. When I tried to search for this about a year ago I had no luck. Hopefully someone finds it useful.
Since they didn't respond to me, offer a refund minus shipping, etc. I decided to try to make it look better. The radio I got actually came with the same exact part for free, so I had two.
I used SEM products from the prep, adhesion promoter and light chips to their final coat.
Check out the attached images. Here were the steps I followed:
1) Used gray scotch brite pad to scuff the surface (they recommend their soap, but I opted not to do that).
2) Clean surface with SEM plastic and vinyl prep.
3) One VERY light coat of their textured/chip spray. I held the can back about 18" and barely got enough on the surface to notice.
4) In doing the first one, I found matte black was too flat looking, so I went with a first top coat of landau black. I did two coats of this.
5) I top coated with two more coats of matte black (straight landau was too shiny).
6) The surface was still pretty rough, so I went back over it again with the scotch brite after it dried about 2 hours.
7) I recleaned with the prep and wiped dry.
8) I followed up with to more coats of matte black and that was the final product.
This is shot beside the original gray bezel (much more gray in person than the pic IMO) I started with plus some installed (gray and painted). I also took some shots beside the factory bezel with a fresh coat of trim shine.
I was honestly shocked I was able to match the factory bezel that closely. In the car, I could not pick out the difference between it and the other factory trim enough to know that it was not stock. The original product stuck out like a sore thumb to me.
Unfortunately the SEM products aren't cheap. It works, so it was worth it for me. I am going to be posting my 2nd bezel (I ended up doing both) for sale to try to recover the lost $80 in the first bezel. At the $80 I spent originally, I thought the extra money was for the additional work. I was obviously wrong. It it was prepped like this, I would have said $80 would have been worth it after spending about $70 on SEM products.
I hope this helps. When I tried to search for this about a year ago I had no luck. Hopefully someone finds it useful.
Last edited by WS6FirebirdTA00; 05-27-2017 at 02:57 PM.
07-08-2019, 09:31 AM
#4
Staging Lane
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Cleveland, OH
Posts: 99
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Thank you for the write up. I was very displeased with Metra's 'dark' color and how it stuck out like a sore thumb. Picked up some landau black to match the ebony, but it's still too grey. Ordering some matte black to darken it up.