Thanks to Al in LA for these instructions (and picture!)
- Cheap plastic/rubber gloves recommended
- Old clothes you don't care about recommended
- Spray paint: Krylon recommened
- Masking tape and newpaper
- a Quarter or Dime
- a small screwdriver helps popping the face off the side vents.
- one of those white masks over your nose so you don't breath in those lovely chemicals.
1. REMOVE VENTS: The vents come off by sticking a dime or quarter underneath the bottom edge of the vents. You want to push in, down then up again. After playing with them a while you will figure them out. This actually is one of the more difficult parts to it. There is one latch at the bottom for the side vents, two in the middle of the center vent and two on the sides of the little defroster vents. Pop the louvres off the center vent by pushing in the sides. The side vents require you to take the face off. If you stand the vent up, it kinda looks like a mushroom. Just below the top there is a break in the plastic held in place by 2 holding "brackets". Snap one the brackets to be able to remove the face. 2.CLEAN VENTS: After you pop them off, clean them before you paint. Rubbing Alcohol works well. 3.PREPARE VENTS FOR PAINTING: Tape off and newspaper the appropriate items/places. 4.PAINT VENTS: Use Krylon, a water based paint it is recommended. Others have used oil based paint and even vinyl paint. I don't know how their's turned out so they can't be recommended.. Water based paint is thinner than the others and easier to apply. Spray paint by swinging your arm in a back and forth motion left to right. Prop up the vents so you spray forward not down. Start s praying/End spraying to the side of the plastic because the can will spurt out globs at the beginning and end. APPLY THIN COATS ONLY. It shouldn't look painted until you have coated it 5-8 times; it should just look dirty before then. Adjust the angle of the plastic so you can evenly cover all sides of the curves. You will most likely coat it 20 times before you are satified. If begin with one piece and rotate through all 5, the first one should be ready to repaint by the time you finish the fifth. The entire process will take several hours if there are no mistakes. Should probably let the paint dry 24 hours before putting them back in the car. 5.UHOH, BOOBOOS!: If you do boo-boo, find some Easy-Off oven cleaner to use. Scrub the paint off with an old toothbrush and/or those sponges with the green rubbing backside. Spray the Easy-Off on, let it sit a while and scrub off. The longer it sits the easier it is to scrub. Then Repaint following #2-4 instructions 6.PUTTING VENTS BACK IN CAR: Take dry, painted vents and snap the louvers back into the outter circular vents. Then take the vents and snap them in the dash where you took them from.