D8B Paint Colour

[NigelC]

As I had nothing better to do this weekend thought I would give my D8B a little makeover. I decided to give the Side and Front Plastic Panels a respray. For anyone interested I found the closest colour to be Volvo Dark Grey. Hopefully its called the same thing worldwide (Im in the UK).

I am getting a little worried as I am spending a little too much time lately cleaning and buffing my D8B I think I might need to lie down in a darkened room!

[Phil.c]

That's good to know, my two have just one spot that's worn off, not worth bothering with yet, but maybe i'll be calling in at Halfords in five or six years

I hope you sprayed it from a good distance to get that matt/vinyl look.

Phil

[anyhorizon]

Now, if I see one of those sticking faders posts, I'm gonna scream!!!

Peter

[NigelC]

Hey don't worry I am not so stupid as to not completely mask off the board! However its probably easier to disassemble the parts. And I would never have risked painting the metal areas and what would be the point as all the screen printed scales would get painted out!

I also painted the ridged metal strip across the meterbridge as this had some chips on it.

Yes I sprayed from a fair distance but had to experiement a little as too close and it goes shiny! Plus you have to be careful the atmospheric temperature is not too cold. But I have it looking new. Make sure you give the surface a light sand with fine grade sandpaper and clean thoroughly first. Otherwise it will peel off.

I used some plastic primer first for ultimate adhesion. Do you know ages ago I tracked down the phone number of the manufacturer of the parts (who happened to be in the UK) and asked for a paint reference. Only the colour they gave me was incorrect (more like the light grey colour used for the Logic Control).

[yeskeys]

why not paint some new colors? let's get artsy fartsy with our beloved family member and put some new clothes on it! then of course we'll need pics...

[SteveT]

In the U.S., the closest color I have found is "Duplicolor" FB109 Dark Charcoal Bumper Coating. While not puuuuuuuurfect.... it is very darn close!! I bought mine at Autozone, but I am sure you can find it in just about any good automotive store.

SteveT

[Jondav1120]

Add some matt lacquer over the Volvo Dark Grey and it is an amazingly close match. Just done the ribbed top panel and the front panel......two side panels to do!

[Phil.c]

The paint on a lot well used areas on one of my desks has lifted due partly to wear and sweat, this is over 25 years or so, it's a pity there are no readily available graphics to replace these, I think the closest would be model slide and rub on transfers etc, a bit time consuming as each letter needs to be added separately, the lining can be masked and sprayed.

[Carlo]

Hi Phil, Are you referring to the metal surface? Mine too has the paint lifted and i was considering to change the whole surface since its not nice at all. Some parts are as if the d8b has acne

[Jondav1120]

Hi Phil,
I too have been wondering what can be done about the paint blistering on the top surface. As you say, I think it is probably caused by sweat reacting with the paint over time. Mine has a small amount of blistering around the heavily used master fader. Having done a bit of googling on the subject, I found this site https://decalprofx.com/examples.html and I'm seriously wondering whether this could be used for the decals.....just needs some brave soul to completely strip the d8b and try it!