Durability of painted dash pieces?

[endo]

I never thought I'd ever consider doing any painting on the dash, but I finally had an idea: install a denali dash bezel and then color match the cupholder surround and two pocket/12v/cig ligther surround to the Denali semimetallic gray color on the dash bezel. I'm not talking about the cup holders/pockets themselves (those would stay black) but rather the surround piece. I would want to smooth this part before painting (I'm assuming).

So basically I'm wondering if the paint will hold up as well as the OEM stuff? I have absolutely no experience painting anything beyond interior walls of a house. All dash pieces get their color from being painted at the factory, correct? Would I be able to use a rattle can to achieve this color, or is it too unusual?

What I will likely do in this case is just order new versions of these interior parts, I'm guessing they'll cost less than $100 altogether. (Not to mention I soon hope to install a CD changer in the lower pocket, so it'd be nice to not have to cut the originals up in case I blow it).

[seth350]

Theres a sticky around here that someone wrote up about painting dash pieces. You can look there for info :D
All you have to do is sand the parts smooth and then paint with some automotive paint. Also, you will need some clearcoat and maybe some primer. You can get it at Autozone and its cheap. I think its called Duplicolor. And all you do is sand the parts smooth, unless you want to keep the texture of the pieces. Then I would use some primer. Then give it a good 3-4 light coats of paint. Let it dry and then give it about 3 coats of clearcoating.

Thats what I would do. Hope this helped.

[1badgmc]

It won't be as durable as your factory dyed dash, but if you're careful with it and take care of it the same as you do the paint on the outside of your truck, it'll last fine.