Painting a vinyl saloon ceiling to cover soot

[maury]

Stains from my kerosine stove have blackened my ceiling. Is there a way to clean this or paint it?

I was thinking of priming with an exterior primer and then creating a textured faux finish using a home bathroom grade paint. Thoughts appreciated.

[capt jgw]

They make paint for vinyl car upholstery, any auto parts store will have it. If you can't clean it, that would be the proper paint, it's made for that material.

[Cheechako]

The soot will prevent good adhesion, clean it first with something that wont deteriorate the vinyl. And yes, vinyl paint. It will just come back though if you use the stove.

[SomeGuyInaShirt]

Have you tried using TSP? If I use TSP and a microfiber cloth I find it very effective at removing black stains from interior fiberglass. Maybe give it a try. You can usually find it in hardware stores or possibly paint shops. It's recommended to clean with it prior to painting so even if it doesn't clean your ceiling perfectly you should still use it for paint prep. I think TSP stands for Trisodium Phosphate. Worth a shot.

[HeywoodJ]

Wood ash makes a very good cleaner for combustion products, and is generally not harmful to what is being cleaned. You want nice, fluffy white/grey ash, not black charcoal/soot. Make a slurry with some water and use a towel/sponge to rub into sooty areas. Doesn't even take much elbow grease. We have a wood-burning appliance and use the ash from that for cleaning all kinds of soot marks.

[wrwakefield]

I have had good results using water based Krud Kutter for cleaning our painted vinyl headliner.

Our headliner is a thick, embossed vinyl material which the previous owners painted with a quality, low luster latex paint 20+ years ago. It still looks like new, and is easy to keep clean.

In case this is useful.

Cheers, Bill

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by capt jgw

They make paint for vinyl car upholstery, any auto parts store will have it. If you can't clean it, that would be the proper paint, it's made for that material.

This is the correct answer.