[VortecZ]

I smoothed and painted the dash in my '04 Avalanche about a year and a half ago. I decided to try something different than what everyone else is doing and it worked great.

1. Clean, clean, clean with plastic cleaner from automotive paint store.
2. Scuff with scotchbright pad (red)
3. Clean again with plastic cleaner.
4. Light coat of plastic adhesion promotor from automotive paint store.
5. Three coats of a good clearcoat (PPG)
6. Wait a couple weeks to cure out really well.
7. Wet sand with 1000 grit to perfectly smooth.
8. Three coats of PPG basecoat.
9. Two coats of PPG clearcoat.

The idea is to get the dash really smooth and paint it like you would any other body panel. My theory is that clearcoat is more flexible than primer is and does the same job of filling in texture and imperfections in the plastic. A year and a half of daily driving in central Indiana and it still looks perfect. The biggest problem is the glare on the windshield but you get used to it pretty quick. Another thing to mention is that it shows dust way more than flat finishes do so you have to keep it clean all the time.