factory wood grain on an 07 Ranger...

[Mike Tonon]

Who else has this?

http://therangerstation.com/forums/album.php?albumid=866

 

[dasfinc]

Who else has this?

http://therangerstation.com/forums/album.php?albumid=866

Thats a dealer ad-on, that is not factory.

So is the XLT badge that is mounted in your interior.

 

[backroad101]

What year is that Ranger? Did you buy it new? Looks like it an add on (dealer or previous owner), unless they snuck it in on the 2011s

.

 

[straycat]

I don't think I would want wood grain on my dash...that's for a luxury car...lol

 

[Mike Tonon]

Haha, lol, just joking, I did all the extras myself. I did the wood grain yesterday and today. I'm surprised at how good it came out, I just started painting and before I knew it, I was done. I bought the truck new, its an 07'. Read my sig for more.

I thought the interior looked kind of boring, thats why I did the wood grain. A lot of Ranger owners paint the bezels silver or do carbon fiber, but they usually only do the radio bezel and I don't think I've seen someone do wood grain on a newer Ranger. The 83-88 Rangers and maybe even later than that had either silver or wood grain bezels. Its a truck, yes, but its my only vehicle and so its a daily driver. Its an all in one for me. I'd like to do chrome around the guages, but thats another project and an expensive one. Good chrome paint ain't cheap.

 

[strvger]

bottom line... looks very professional. great job! i prefer the wood look to either chrome or carbon fiber. but that's just me.

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

man that looks awesome! i saw an edge with a fake aluminum thing sticked to the center bezel, it had it on the door handle areas(the black part), it lookd nice, but being yours painted it looks awesome. i think that the dash color helps it alot.
my brother's 00 has the same interior color and came without shifter knob, so i had this wood knob laying around and gave it to him, it looks really nice, u should get one of those.

its barely seen here.

how u did that btw? LOL

 

[Mike Tonon]

man that looks awesome! i saw an edge with a fake aluminum thing sticked to the center bezel, it had it on the door handle areas(the black part), it lookd nice, but being yours painted it looks awesome. i think that the dash color helps it alot.
my brother's 00 has the same interior color and came without shifter knob, so i had this wood knob laying around and gave it to him, it looks really nice, u should get one of those.

its barely seen here.

how u did that btw? LOL

I wanted to add some character to my somewhat boring interior. Everyones seen silver and carbon fiber, so I figured wood grain. I kind of miss my 87 Ranger with the wood grain too.

The way I did it is just common plastic spray paint. I sanded everything with very fine sand paper, then I cleaned it with rubbing alcohol. I coated it with adhesion promoter and then SEM products 'camel' color plastic paint, just enough to cover. Then I blotted/ streaked it with SEM products 'cordovan brown' with a small piece of foam. Then I misted it with the 'cordovan brown', just to tone it down and even the patern out. Then 2-3 coats of SEM products 'gloss clear'. This is the first time I ever did this and I kind of made up the procedure as I went along, it wasn't that hard. I might have used a darker brown to mist it after. I think that would have made it more eye popping. And I took the radio bezel out and took everything off except for the 4wd indicator and switch. The cigarette lighter and outlet were kind of a pain and I had to glue the cigarette light plastic piece back in after. The gauge cluster bezel I left in, but covered everything very very well. The mist travels and even though I covered everything within a foot and some areas about two feet away, I still had a fine mist on other areas in the truck, which cleaned up easily enough. And make sure you cover the gauge lense very well, this paint is tough to get off and it can seep through paper and what not if sprayed heavy.

If you're going to do it, just take your time and plan on spending more time preping than painting.

 

[02RangerXLT]

That looks pretty cool!

 

[Chris.S.]

I like it!

 

[adsm08]

I don't think I would want wood grain on my dash...that's for a luxury car...lol

I love my faux-wood grain dash face.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I love my faux-wood grain dash face.

+1

Beats the heck out of plane plastic or a fake peice of metal.