Since the hardest part of a reproduction dash is done just waiting for production and shipping, I have turned my attention to the part that really shows the most: the dash face pad.
Doing the pad out of the original padded vinyl would be extremely difficult and they would still be fragile. Color matching would be close to impossible. However we could do it in a soft touch injection molded plastic. We could get the texture shape and color spot on and it would be much less likely to get damaged. unless you stuck your thumb nail into it it would be hard to tell it wasn’t padded underneath. Who would do that anyway?
But it is the details that always get in the way. Early build standards had little taped in lenses for turn signal brake lights and high beams. Later '67s and all '68s used really nice looking little framed lenses, and a frame around the wiper switch where it came through the dash. (any got a late '67 that could take a picture so I can see if it is the same as '68?) The vast majority of dashes were the later style but even the guys that have that version know that the lenses are all burned and shrinking and replacements are really expensive and super hard to find. So it looks like we need to do those lenses.
That brings me to the next part. The aluminum trim around the outside of the pad. There are two versions of the '67 and two of the '68. (AC and non AC)
If you had good originals you could use them and maybe clean them up but will you want to? Ford supplied it when you bought the service replacement part. It wasn’t really designed to be removed and reinstalled. It was actually crimped on to the pad.
These things add cost and time. What do you guys think makes the most sense?