Colorbond on interior trim

Every time I use this stuff it looks great, but it damages easily. Is there any kind of sealer that can go on it for an extra layer of protection?

I've not used Colorbond so I don't know about a sealer.  But I have used SEM.  All of the interior of Big Blue, save for the dash, has been coated in it.  And it is holding up very well.  It isn't as good as original, but it is pretty good.

Thanks Gary.

I think the step I missed when doing the painting is scuffing the surface with a grey pad... So as I was moving the panel around I would bang them on stuff and noticed the paint was getting chipped (for want of a better word). This is probably due to the underlying substrate being a little flaky..

Yes, that would be a problem.  If the underlying substrate doesn't have "tooth" for the coating to adhere to, or if the substrate flakes off, the coating will chip.

I once media-blasted a piece of interior plastic with the idea that it would both remove the flaking stuff and leave more of the texture that they have than sanding.  It worked, but my choice of media, coal slag, was poor as there were sharp pieces in it that penetrated the plastic and left sharp protrusions.  However, if something smoother was used I think that could be a good prep as it does get rid of the flakey stuff and it does leave a bit of texture.

On the other hand, SEM now has their Texture Coating, and they say "Texture Coating is a unique blend of flexible materials for restoring the textured finish on bumpers, dashes, fiberglass tops and other plastic parts prior to painting."  So that's probably the way to go to get texture back.

I've been using SEM bumper coater... it has worn off in contact areas (door panels). Dash has one bad spot after installing last week but that was probably due to me installing it too soon (20 mins vs 48 hours ).

Thanks for the feedback. I don't think there is anything I can do about it now. I will leave it all as is and see how it wears.

If it wears badly I will attack with with a grey scuff pad in the spring and try again!

If I am remembering right, I think Christopher Lott uses SEM and would paint all of his pieces in warm weather several months ahead of when he wanted to install the interior. He said it helped the toughness to cure that long before installation and use. Most of us don’t have the luxury of that much time, but most of the trim is not vital to vehicle function either. It’s just a thought if you do end up re-doing it. I used Duplicolor on my hard plastic dash shell with SEM sand-free prep. It is tough as nails. It has withstood puppy thrashing and kicking grandkids feet and still looks like it did when I painted it. But that is on the brittle plastic. I have not painted any of the soft parts with it yet…