B pillar opinions

[Nova_Tek]

When the car goes for a respray do I:

a) Buy new B pillar vinyl in black as is fitted currently

or

b) Take a more modern approach and spray the B pillar area with black paint to make it look as if a vinyl has been fitted. Doing so would mean no fadng vinyl, will always look new, no peeling and will most likely be a tad cheaper as it won't need much paint.

I'm a man that like's things to be as original as possible but painting seems to be very tempting as it's 2 birds with one stone tbh.

Cast your votes NOW! :thumb:

[L33 LEG]

I would buy the vinyl and if you cant find any for sale, get a similar colour vinyl instead. i think spraying it would look a little odd tbh, would rather it be colour coded than that. in my opinion of course :)

[brainsnova]

new vinyl ftw.

[Nova_Tek]

Want to keep it black as it goes well with the other black trim plus the windows will be light smoke. But I can't really decide whether to buy or spray.

[L33 LEG]

Itl cost a couple of quid from a sign writers to get some made up, surely that'l be better than spraying black?

[Nova_Tek]

I know which is why I need help in deciding. The benefits of the spraying are much longer term which is what I like. Wonder if it's been done before. Trying to visualise the 'sprayed' vinyl and how it would look. You'll only be able to tell when right up against it.

[L33 LEG]

Theres no reason why vinyl wont last for years aswell though. best bet is asking for pictures of cars with sprayed pillars and go from there.

[Nova_Tek]

Thought I'd get some opinions first before asking for pics. Mind you if I did get it sprayed and it looked poo then I could just cover it with proper vinyl lol

Keep voting people still wanna see views on this :thumb:

[Balley]

I did mine with fablon on my moor door and on my 3dr Sx

[Nova_Tek]

Fablon?

[Balley]

yeah as in stickyback plastic

[Balley]

I will post a pic in a sec

[Nova_Tek]

ok, picture sounds good :)

[Balley]

http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz102/balley77/DSC01145.jpg

Theres my fablon

[Balley]

Bad pic am afraid

[Nova_Tek]

Yeh not the best pic but I see what you are saying.

[DAFTJOHN]

Long and short is you can't get original vinyl so paint it or paint over the vinyl. It'll never be original

[craig green]

If you stand back & look, to the untrained eye it will look as it should with it painted. Upclose you will know, but lets face it, the car won't look right without something dark between the pillars & tying in the fuel cap, window surrounds, handles & gutter trims.

Btw I would choose a textured dark grey over black or the old faithfull Rover hurricane grey.

[marc69]

go to homebase and buy black vinyl for 8pounds, the worst bit is the fitting, very fiddly unless you remove the rear windows. It took me several attempts but fortunatly there is loads on the roll. It has been on the car for nearly a year and has not faded, the only thing to watch is that it is not stretched over the indent on the pillar as when it shrinks it will just rise level.

[Southie]

Mind you if I did get it sprayed and it looked poo then I could just cover it with proper vinyl lol
lol That's what I was going to suggest and you could always sell the vinyl if you do like the sprayed version.

[Royston]

I Painted the SR's used 1/4" 3M tape to mask the shape of the original vinyl

[Benn]

Vinyl is grey, so why would you paint it black?

Either fit the vinyl or paint it grey...

[Nova_Tek]

My Vinyl is black Benn on my Merit and for 14 years (time we have owned it) it's never had a respray. Black looks good in between the windows, gives that part of the car continuity which will works well with all the black trim and when the light smoke tints go in.


I Painted the SR's used 1/4" 3M tape to mask the shape of the original vinyl

This is how I would want the sprayer to do it, actually mark up the shape of the vinyl so the dimensions and shape look the same. Do you have a pic of your sprayed pillar?

IIRC PabloSR sprayed the lower quarter of his SR in grey to mimic the lower body vinyl (kind got the idea off there)

[Balley]

go to homebase and buy black vinyl for 8pounds, the worst bit is the fitting, very fiddly unless you remove the rear windows. It took me several attempts but fortunatly there is loads on the roll. It has been on the car for nearly a year and has not faded, the only thing to watch is that it is not stretched over the indent on the pillar as when it shrinks it will just rise level.

I used a hair dryer to put it on, easy

dnt buy it from homebase it 8pounds, Wilkso its the same for £2.50

or Ebay

Just search fablon !

[Pistol Pete]

Why put the vinyl back???

[Nova_Tek]

That's what I'm saying is it worth putting it back or spraying it.

[Pistol Pete]

If the car is going for a repaint why cover up that nice fresh paint??!! lol

[Nova_Tek]

Coz to me I like it the way it is, plus if I decide to paint it they will probably paint the pillar black rather ten gold first then black.

[Royston]

Haven't got any of the pillars available quickly, here are a couple of pics of the lower half done in grey.

I carefully masked all the edges with the 1/4" 3M tape to represent the original vinyl on both the pillars and the lower half.

I then masked off the rest with newspaper, to reduce overpray, you can see the inside of the door edge masked off.

It wasn't hard but took ages to do, painting it was the easy bit, I still have a few pits of overspray on the lower half in door jams, etc.

Pillars was easy by comparison with the lower half.

I used an industrial 2 pack with a matting agent to reduce the gloss, it worked a little, is still fairly glossy, but I don't mind! overall effect looks good, in my opinion p.s. I'm not a paint sprayer by trade;)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v697/1297cc/DSCF1722.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v697/1297cc/DSCF1739.jpg

General shot.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v697/1297cc/DSCF1748.jpg

[Nova_Tek]

Looks great Royston, especially that you did it yourself. Mine will only be the pillar in black, but seeing ones like yours and how original they look not many people will be able to tell.

I may give it a go and get the bodywork people to spray that section black to the shape of it. At the end of the day if it looks pants then I'll get a sign writer to knock up some vinyl.