I welcome your opinion’s on the following:
Question 1: I’m trying to decide whether to use a burlwood vinyl overlay for the instrument cluster. they are in good shape, just faded, and I’ve tried the ‘brown shoe polish’ trick suggested by WCCC in some article online. The Steering wheel pad had to be replaced, used WCCC’s overlay. wondering if the difference between steering wheel and faded dash will be a detraction.
Question 2: sound deadening/insulation. I’ve purchased an original type underlayment kit, but that just covers the floor and trunk. what budget minded approaches do you suggest for sound deadening/insulation for doors, roof, etc. suggestions? what’s been done/successful by others with the same constraints?
some pics of dash components being restored:
before:
steering wheel: hand restored with 2 big cracks top & bottom. hand drawn plastic insert inside/outside of wheel with sliver pin-stripe accent. hand painted wood. WCCC vinyl insert.
This is a conundrum. Since you already did the steering wheel center in the burl vinyl, I’d kinda lean towards doing the same on the dash so everything matches. But I definitely understand the hesitation since it’s a different wood pattern than original. We’re always on the search for a better solution to this problem. One of my coworkers at WCCC mentioned that he’s got something in the works, but that’s an unknown right now.
I wonder what people out there have tried to bring back the richness to the faded dash pieces. Would staining work? Some kind of semi-transparent paint? Shoe polish? I dunno.
thanks. yea, if the steering wheel center piece hadn’t been in such bad shape from the sun, I probably would leave all the pieces matching.
I would love to know if there have been any tricks to get that burnt-umber richness back into the faded dash panels.
Also, I’m going to do some non-destructive/reversible experimentation on using chrome-vinyl wrap on the chrome’d areas on the dash bezels. If I can get it to work and stay, it will be durable, good looking and super-inexpensive way to get the plastic-chrome restored versus the standard expensive or low-quality chrome paint options. I was waiting to hear back from someone at WCCC that had been out on vacation about their/your process, but that’s been a few weeks now.
Appreciate the kind words, I guess it might seem silly to get bogged down into restoring things like he backside of the instrument cluster, but I just can’t seem bring myself to put something back in the car that has surface rust or peeling paint, even though it will never been seen, nor probably even deteriorate much more in my lifetime.
I would not use the overlay on the dash. I wouldn’t have used it on the wheel either (although it looks nice), but that’s just me.
Re: the sound deadening - I would just use the factory pieces. I know some people like to “dynamat everything”, but I don’t know how quiet you’re going to make the car.
And the guy here who deals with the dash rechroming stuff is Cleve, he is back from his trip if you want to talk to him. Ask him about the woodgrain as well.
We do have a very nice complete original XR-7 dash in our display case (with bezels and gauges and switches and everything) but it’s for an A/C car.
I’ve been meaning to give this a try on my dash: http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/stains/minwax-gel-stain. It’s supposed to work on non-porous surfaces. I think even a light coat would freshen up the look while keeping the original grain texture intact. If I get up the nerve to do it, I’ll post the results.
Leon - Very cool. Which pattern did you think was closest? Now I wonder if they’d make a custom pattern that is exact. You’d think they could make one by scanning a dash panel.
here’s a 1st attempt to chrome the dash bezel using vinyl chrome. got some micro-crinkles along the inside radius’s but overall, not bad, I think.
Thoughts?
Yes, more pictures (hard to see the detail well in that picture). I’m wondering if the adhesive on the vinyl chrome will be up to the task during the summer months when a car may end up hot inside?
There’s no doubt it’s not show quality, not even close. but it was my first attempt and it’s reasonably easy to remove with gentle heat from a nice heat gun. I’m convinced I can come up with a technique to all but eliminate the micro-crinkles on the front and inside radius of the large loops. also, I had some 3-dinmensional visualization challenges on getting a working size of the vinyl sheeting cut down before starting. hence the some piecing. I’m not that middle section between the Speedo and Tach is possible w/o some piecing, but quite honestly hiding the intersections in the inside bends is all but invisible.
