d8b Forum

As I had nothing better to do this weekend thought I would give my D8B a little makeover. I decided to give the Side and Front Plastic Panels a respray. For anyone interested I found the closest colour to be Volvo Dark Grey. Hopefully its called the same thing worldwide (Im in the UK).

I am getting a little worried as I am spending a little too much time lately cleaning and buffing my D8B I think I might need to lie down in a darkened room!

That's good to know, my two have just one spot that's worn off, not worth bothering with yet, but maybe i'll be calling in at Halfords in five or six years

I hope you sprayed it from a good distance to get that matt/vinyl look.

Phil

Now, if I see one of those sticking faders posts, I'm gonna scream!!!

Peter

Hey don't worry I am not so stupid as to not completely mask off the board! However its probably easier to disassemble the parts. And I would never have risked painting the metal areas and what would be the point as all the screen printed scales would get painted out!

I also painted the ridged metal strip across the meterbridge as this had some chips on it.

Yes I sprayed from a fair distance but had to experiement a little as too close and it goes shiny! Plus you have to be careful the atmospheric temperature is not too cold. But I have it looking new. Make sure you give the surface a light sand with fine grade sandpaper and clean thoroughly first. Otherwise it will peel off.

I used some plastic primer first for ultimate adhesion. Do you know ages ago I tracked down the phone number of the manufacturer of the parts (who happened to be in the UK) and asked for a paint reference. Only the colour they gave me was incorrect (more like the light grey colour used for the Logic Control).

why not paint some new colors? let's get artsy fartsy with our beloved family member and put some new clothes on it! then of course we'll need pics...

In the U.S., the closest color I have found is "Duplicolor" FB109 Dark Charcoal Bumper Coating. While not puuuuuuuurfect.... it is very darn close!! I bought mine at Autozone, but I am sure you can find it in just about any good automotive store.

SteveT

Add some matt lacquer over the Volvo Dark Grey and it is an amazingly close match. Just done the ribbed top panel and the front panel......two side panels to do!

The paint on a lot well used areas on one of my desks has lifted due partly to wear and sweat, this is over 25 years or so, it's a pity there are no readily available graphics to replace these, I think the closest would be model slide and rub on transfers etc, a bit time consuming as each letter needs to be added separately, the lining can be masked and sprayed.

Hi Phil, Are you referring to the metal surface? Mine too has the paint lifted and i was considering to change the whole surface since its not nice at all. Some parts are as if the d8b has acne

Hi Phil,
I too have been wondering what can be done about the paint blistering on the top surface. As you say, I think it is probably caused by sweat reacting with the paint over time. Mine has a small amount of blistering around the heavily used master fader. Having done a bit of googling on the subject, I found this site https://decalprofx.com/examples.html and I'm seriously wondering whether this could be used for the decals.....just needs some brave soul to completely strip the d8b and try it!