Thread: Carputer on a Budget: 2002 WRX ver. 2.0

It would go under the sandpaper a few more times after that last pic. A little bondo goes a long way, each time I'm filling, I'd only be mixing tiny amounts.

I finally feel that it's ready for some primer. Here's the first coat. I sprayed a thick heavy coat because there were knicks and pits I wanted to fill from my removing of the blue paint.

Using this filler primer.

Sanded the primer with 320 and 600 grit paper, then sprayed on more coats. Did this about 3 or 4 times.

That night I brought it inside and wet sanded it with the 600 grit paper to get it ready for paint the next day.

I then painted it with paint I think I've had for like 10-15 years. It's a silver/chrome paint that didn't match and took fooooorever to dry. I would have to go and buy new paint, after I sanded the bezel down again.

Btw, here's how the computer looks in the spare tire. It sticks up but there's enough clearance so that the lid will close.

Looking good .. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the words of encouragement, JohnnyO. I'm look forward to see how your project turns out too.

Well, I'm happy to report that carputer ver. 2.0 is up and running inside the car, but that's pretty much it. Took it for a test drive last night, still need to download and install driver for my gps receiver and figure out how to get my ai-net input to work as an aux input before I can enjoy things. Also found out yesterday my monitor has 2 video inputs, that's a plus.

But before I get ahead of myself...

I needed to buy paint, so I went to Walmart. They had a nice selection, I thought(plus they let you spray it to test out the shade). I picked up 2 cans, one that was a little lighter than factory and one that was darker. What I didn't want to do was spend a fortune buying and trying tons of different shades of silver paint and try to match the factory color perfectly. All the silver trim would get painted anyways, I just didn't was it to look "out of place." Well, after a week of playing with the paint, I couldn't get to a point where I was happy with the results. I kept saying "This will be the last time I paint it," but then I'd mess up or I' try something new. I got a cool brushed aluminum look by wet sanding things, but could not get the whole bezel to look uniform. Then when I finally reached the point where I did decide it was the best I could do (when I used up the whole can of paint) I realized it was the gloss of the paint I did not like. So 3 days ago I set forth to find either a flat, semi-gloss, or low-gloss silver spray paint, not something you can easily find at Walmart. I went to the local automotive chain stores, Autozone and Advanced Auto, and also went to a local shop that specifies in automotive paint. I picked up 2 cans, one for less than $5 at Advanced and one for over $11 at the specialty shop. The $5 can was the shade I ended up going with. Both the cans were "bumper paint," made for plastic bumpers on cars/vans/suvs and were low gloss type. One day of spraying a few coats, and I was done , until I messed up when I cleaned up the button holes. But 2 days of painting was ok with me.

Here is the bezel after wet sanding the primer and ready for painting.

Here's a couple shot of the early painting stages. You can kinda see where gloss ruins the look of the paint.

I have to paint outside, even in the chilly days/nights, so I came up with this heat booth after a coat of paint didn't dry well at all.