Stock silver dash with OEM CD player: silver, dull and boring.

It's a little tricky, but with a very thin flathead screwdriver blade, I removed both bash panels. The shifter boot is attached to the lower panel, while the stereo assembly is bolted to the rear of the upper panel.

The dash looks gutted, but I've really only removed two pieces.

I ditched the OEM AM/FM CD player, and replaced it with the Sony MP3 CD player from my last car.

Installing an aftermarket CD player requires fitting the black trim ring with pocket. It was at this point that the silver dash panels began to look completely out of place, so I decided it had to be all black.

Taking the dash apart is pretty simple. After removing the shift knob, the next step involves using a very slim flat-head screwdriver to pop the lower panel out. The red hazard button unscrews from the back of the panel, and the blank circular button to the right of the shifter easily pops out from the back (on non-North American models, a cigarette lighter takes up that space). There are also 3 screws on the back that hold the shift lever boot on place.

Here’s the lower panel right after it was removed from the dash:

Here’s what it looks like with all the stuff removed. I got the two gashes in the panel during an incident while moving a desk in my car a few months before. I decided not to take the time to fill them in right now, but I’ll do it sometime in the future.

Before painting, I used 320-grit sandpaper to rough up the surface. I didn’t remove all the original paint, but I thinned it out a lot with the sandpaper. Then I wiped it all down with mineral spirits to get rid of any dust or oils from my fingers.

Next, I used Krylon Fusion in satin black to get the look I wanted it. It looks shiny in this picture, but that’s just due to the flash on my camera.

I painted the button separate from the panel, then popped it back in after they were both dry.

Here it is with the flasher button back in place. I think the red-on-black looks far better than red-on-silver.

At this point, it’s ready to go back in the car, but it’ll have to wait until the upper section has been taken out back, prepped and painted.

Removing the upper section is a bit more time consuming. After it was out, I unscrewed the stereo mount, A/C knobs and buttons, and unclipped the air vents. Here it is with the first thin coat of paint drying.

As I mentioned before, since I have an aftermarket stereo, there’s a trim panel that goes around it. It’s made of black ABS plastic, but it didn’t quite match the sheen on the dash panel. I decided to wipe it down with mineral spirits and give it a quick coat of paint so it’d match the surrounding panel.

The panel has been re-assembled and is ready to go back into the car.

In all, I spent about $4 and it took maybe two hours of actual work, including drying time for the paint.

The shift knob is a RAZO RA114; black leather with red stitching, that matches the steering wheel.

Side-by-side comparison:

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