Remove and Paint Eyeball Vents Trim

Project:  Remove Eyeball Vents from dash – Paint trim rings

I won’t cover removing the eyeball vents from a NA Miata dash too much. There are various methods covered all over the inter-web. I used a combination of a couple of methods was used and it was still a bit of a pain to do it without damaging anything. I needed to clean the vents behind the eyeballs too, a lot of dust and dirt sitting in there. Some of it has to be 15 years old! I had to do this while it was pretty hot out so the plastics can flex and not crack like it has a tendency to do in the cold. It also happened to be pretty humid this day and I was dripping sweat in a matter of minutes.

Finally got all four vents removed!

The next part was no easier. Upon inspection I saw the collar (sleeve, whatever you want to call it) was snapped to the trim ring and held in place by snap tabs.  I watched a You Tube video of a guy working around the vent  by prying with a screwdriver under the lip.  It worked for him but was causing  to damage mine.  I went back to plan A, the little snap tabs.

I used a flat blade screwdriver to push the tabs in. That was not  working but it was destroying the tabs.  I decided to push the tabs at the bottom then pry them up a bit rather than trying to push straight in.

Ahh yes, that works!  It took a bit of force but the tab moved and released that part of the trim ring. I went around and did this to all 4 tabs and the trim ring came right off. I was able to pop the eyeball vent out after that. Wash the parts; they were very dusty. Here are the driver’s and passenger’s vents all separated.

The next task was to sand the surface of the trim ring to be painted. The ring has a bit of texture already and all I really want to do is remove buildup from dirt and Armor All etc.and create a surface for the paint to adhere to.  I gave the trim rings a bath before sanding them. I chose 2500 grit sandpaper. None of the home supply superstores had this high of grit sandpaper in the store. I found it at Advance Automotive in a multi-pack with 2000 grit down to 1000 grit pieces for about $6.00.  Probably any auto supply store will have it.  I did a light wet sand since I didn’t want to actually sand the texture off.  I used a wet-sand solution of water and dish soap so I wouldn’t get too abrasive.

With the trim ring prepped and dried I opted to forgo any primer.

I used Krylon Fusion gloss paint which is made to adhere to plastics.

The Miata is RED so the trim accent here will be red. I want a darker red rather than a bright red and the trim ring is black so no primer should give me a little bit darker red.

A little brighter than I thought But I like it!

It took about 6 coats of paint to cover the vent rings completely and evenly to my satisfaction.