Best product to use for prep cleaning vinyl dash pad before painting?

[1979 GMC Sierra]

Hi guys, just looking for info or advice on what's the best product or products to use for prep cleaning a vinyl dash pad prior to painting? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks,

Travis

[TKCR]

I did my OEM dash about 6-7 years ago. This is how I did mine:
Cleaned all the old dye with lacquer thinner. I was doing a color change, but it’s still best to take all the old dye off. I also made a makeshift paint tent in the garage with some big sheets of plastic. That way I didn’t risk getting any dust or anything on the dash while dyeing.
Next scrub the dash down to get any thinner residue off using SEM Soap.
Throughly dry and wipe it down with SEM Vinyl prep.
Then start using light coats of dye.
The last pic is 7yrs later. I just took this photo at the beginning of the year. I went from Burgundy to Charcoal. It looks really dark in the paint tent, but that was because of lighting. Since then, I have added LED light in the garage, so it’s a lot brighter now.
The dye is use is from USA1 Industries. They have all our correct colors for our trucks. SEM has discontinued most of our colors.

[1979 GMC Sierra]

Originally Posted by TKCR

I did my OEM dash about 6-7 years ago. This is how I did mine:
Cleaned all the old dye with lacquer thinner. I was doing a color change, but it’s still best to take all the old dye off. I also made a makeshift paint tent in the garage with some big sheets of plastic. That way I didn’t risk getting any dust or anything on the dash while dyeing.
Next scrub the dash down to get any thinner residue off using SEM Soap.
Throughly dry and wipe it down with SEM Vinyl prep.
Then start using light coats of dye.
The last pic is 7yrs later. I just took this photo at the beginning of the year. I went from Burgundy to Charcoal. It looks really dark in the paint tent, but that was because of lighting. Since then, I have added LED light in the garage, so it’s a lot brighter now.
The dye is use is from USA1 Industries. They have all our correct colors for our trucks. SEM has discontinued most of our colors.

TKCR, thanks for all the info and steps, I appreciate it! Your dash pad looks amazing, even 7 years after you did the job!

[TKCR]

I actually did the entire interior. But the dash was the most time consuming. I wouldn’t want to have to do it again, lol. When I took that last photo in early spring, it was after I installed a new dash molding, so I had to take the dash out. There was only one little place on the very edge of the dash, on the passenger side, that the dye rubbed off when I took it out. I touched it up before reinstalling, but it wasn’t even in a visual area. It was below the A-pillar trim, along the frame.