Why So Few Moonstone Interiors?

I did that once when buying from dealer stock. I chose dark gray interior over a lighter gray. This time I figured I would order but my preferred dealer got this one in first so I bought it.

 

As for the shifter area, I like the white there for the accent it provides against all the black. Same as @Tideland Prius. I like the steering wheel the way it is. Very comfortable and no cosmetic issues at all.

Here ya go!


Pop out the side plate by the front passenger door hinge.




Pull it toward the rear of the car and it slides right out.




Pop out the pin like the ones that hold the panels under the car. Then gently pull the dash panel straight out. You can see two of the red clips in the picture above. Just work it end to end a little at a time and it'll come out fine.

There are three plugs and a harness clip behind the HVAC controls. I didn't think to get a picture of them, but they are pretty obvious. The harness clip needs a 90 degree twist and it pulls out without needing any force.




Oops! Got the above picture upside down.

After roughly cutting the vinyl, my wife held the narrow end while I started sticking and stretching it from the Start button. This was the HARD part. As you can see below, even with a heat gun, I could not get it to lay smoothly where the panel makes those complex curves at the bottom. I'm hoping that with some solar heat and some persistence, we'll get them ironed out. If not, I have enough vinyl to try again and it's easy to take apart and reassemble.

I agree. I also like the black and white seats in my 4-seater Prime. I also find that the white Softex is very easy to clean. But I've only needed to clean it twice in over 1-1/2 years.

 

Wow, thanks for the pics. That looks easy enough that I am now ready to tackle the project. I just don't know if I want to go with plain matte black vinyl. It looks fine, and functionally 100% better than OEM piano black. But if I am going to spend my money and time, I may want to try something different that's both functional and beautiful. I may have to search for the right color wrap first.

As for the accent porcelain white. I initially did not like it in my 2017 PRIME. But after switching to all piano black 2020 PRIME, I realized that the white shifter panel makes the PARK button more visible in dark.

 

If I rewrap my red Prime, I will give more serious thought to doing it in matte red. I'm just not sure it would look right unless it was a perfect color match to the body. Also, the 11.6" display is harder to wrap due to not having edges around buttons to guide the final trim cuts. I don't know how to trim that display without having to pre-cut the holes to avoid cutting into the plastic. The smaller display is way easier.

 

If I can manage to remove the panel off, I should be able to wrap it much easier than trying that in situ. I will be also trying to wrap the front grille part as well. I just ordered sample wraps of various colors and patterns. I will see what looks good on both application.

 

I used this video. The relevant part starts at around 2:10.

 

How did you cut around the vents on the top and switch panel below? The opening where the radio face goes in seems to be easy. I just ordered Oracal vinyl for this project. But it is a bit pricier than 3M wrap film. I don't want to waste the material.

 

There is a slight gap between those controls and the face of the panel. I creased the vinyl at the gap with a thumbnail. The sliced it with an exacto knife. The paddle switched for the climate control made a bulge. Before cutting around the HVAC control section, I sliced around the top, bottom, and one end of those paddles so the vinyl would lay flat and then cut out the whole area.

What I'm finding with the vinyl I used is that the edges where they wrapped back don't seem very eager to stay stuck. My guess is that the vinyl is pretty thick and there isn't a lot of surface area wrapped back along those edges to keep it from returning to a flat sheet. I hope I expressed that in a way that's understandable. It's kind of hard to describe in words.

You're right that the display area was easy, but the start button area was tricky. I forgot how asymmetrical it is and didn't get as nice a cut as I wanted.

 

Thanks Jerry. Hummm, sounds like I may need some extra sheets just in case I botch a large piece of vinyl. I think I am going to order cheaper films and at the least, practice wrapping smaller parts like shifter panel and/or armrest before tackling the larger panels. My aim is to delete all the piano black surface.

 

I didn't care if it was piano black or what. I just couldn't stand the reflections. Blinding sometimes!!

 

Yes, the reflections and that they are dust magnet are the two reasons I want to get rid of piano black parts. If they came in matte black, or some textured hard plastic like the rest of the black dash plastic, I would not bother changing it.

 

Why So Few Moonstone Interiors?

The high cost of bringing back the moon rocks?

Actually, car interiors are usually dark for a reason, which has to do with the color of coffee.....

 

I spent most of my holiday today on a wrap project. Oh boy, was I wrong to assume the removed panel is easy to wrap? After a good 3 hours of stretching and heating and re-adjusting. I finally gave up. There is no way I can wrap this front panel without creating creases and wrinkles. I don't care so much if they are at the bottom, but stretched over the top portion of the center panel above the vents, there is just too much material to keep them smooth.

@jerrymildred how did you manage to cover the top corners without wrinkle? BTW, I managed to remove the vents and HVAC switch panel from the front panel. Still, the job was not easy. I may call it done with this.

 

Just try to drag it to the left small

TECNO KA7 ?

 

I didn't entirely avoid them. There are a couple small ones. It is REALLY tough to get that stuff to conform. I have a couple cans of matte black plastidip. I might try that. Good job getting the vents out. I started to try that and decided it wasn't worth the risk of breaking something.

You don't drag this stuff. When you stick it, it's stuck pretty well and takes real effort to lift. No sliding is possible once it touches.

 

Like Jerry said, this stuff is very sticky. It is repositionable to some extent before pressing on or by heating, but dragging was not possible, at least to my hands.

Flat surface and smaller objects are much easier. I started with the rear door switch panel which is not piano black. But I did it anyways as a practice. This turned out great.


Then did the front door switch panel. This was also not too hard, but being larger piece I ended up with a few bubbles. Overall, satisfactory result.

Next I did the shifter panel. This turned out more challenging than other to conform curved round corners, but being smaller size I was able to get it wrapped mostly without creases and wrinkles by stretching the wrap as I apply to the curve. A few small bubbles, but passing grade for a first time wrap project. I had a small round piece cut out from the shift knob hole and use it to wrap the shift knob as well.

Then I thought I was going to wrap the center console cup holder piece. But after removing it from the car, I then realized that the extremely complex 3D shape of the piece is way too difficult to wrap in a single piece. Besides, I did not have enough wrap material to do both the cup holder and center panel. The main reason for the wrapping is to get rid of the shinny piano black and silver trim on the front panel. So I skipped the cup holder for now. It is still taken out of the car... I may try wrapping it in 2 or 3 pieces with the left over material today.


Then finally, I worked on the front panel. This turned out to be a beast. The piece of material is very long and irregular shape. And it is not flat at all except the part where vents, radio, and AC control switch panel are. I struggled to get the vinyl to conform to the curves on the edges and if I succeed in one corner then the other corner has too much material to wrap without creating many creases. After 3+ hours of struggling I gave up. End result is many small wrinkles at the rounded edges.

I am not satisfied. I may redo it some other day when I have time, but for now, I have to go with this look. At least, it is much less shiny and less prone to collecting dust. For that, mission accomplished.

 

Is the material for exterior use?
Interior stuff will be thinner. Possibly easier to work with around bends.

 

I like mine as is!

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It can be used for the exterior. When I was looking for the wrap to use, there was no mentioning of interior or exterior use specified. Some manufacturers' wraps are thinner. This one is Oracal 975 textured warp which is thicker than 3M 2080. But I could not find any textured one I liked in 3M 2080 line. If I try again, I may use VViViD+.