Wow It looks great but that glove-box door looks better than factory new!!!
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Marginal progress today ... got some daylight left, but i have the feeling this is about as far as i dare to go.

went to the bodyshop and found some foam tape to reattach the glovebox trim. I didn't see the need for a solid piece of foam tape like the original had, the tapes today are far better than they used to be.

so, this stuff was about the right thickness, and i layed it out like so:


here's what the guys at the body shop recommended:


so that's the success ....

here's my problem:

I painted the door last night with a satin black paint. Upon closer inspection the original is actually a metallic black. I got to thinking that the satin would not look good considering how nice the dash pad will look when i re-dye it.

so i hit it with the scotch brite, wiped it down with some lacquor thinner, and resprayed it with some metallic black i got at the body shop.

the new paint reacted badly with the stuff i sprayed last night ... it is all crazed and some has lifted.

not the look i'm going for .....

I'm going to try wet sanding it and see if i can just spray over the top to get it to lay down right. If that don't work, ill have to sand everything off and start over.

not a huge problem, but a problem none-the-less.

i guess a guy is supposed to wait a while before he changes his mind....

 

I thank you. The dash bezel is new, as is the glove box bezel, which explains why they shine so much. A little secret, I ordered nail polish off of ebay...before I get crap from everyone, let me explain. It is a chrome based funky nail polish for lord knows who, but it looks darn near to real chrome. This is what I am going to use on the edges of the vents that aren't manufactured anymore. I got the hint from a Mustang owner that used it for the same purpose. I'll get some pictures up as soon as I try it out. I have a few pictures of where the bolts are that hold the dash on. I'm sure you could find better, but maybe this will be enough to get you talking to yourself, and believe me, you will talk to yourself. I don't cuss, but if I ever saved up for a rainy day, it would have been pouring. I have gorilla hands and arms and it was very little fun watching blood run down my arm from the sharp edges under the dash. Anyway, getting wordy. I think you did a great job on your interior. I hope I can get mine back together as well as you have. Taking it apart is easy....

 

Ive seen you guys talking about possibly recovering your dash pads. If you ever wanted to ship me yours to recover Id be more than happy to do that, Ive already done 5 so far.

 

that looks like a lot less fun than i had anticipated .... hummm...

thanks for the pics, that will get me started on knowing where abouts to look for bolts, makes more sense why i coudlnt find them right off, had never thought of looking underneath the dash pad in the middle ... never worked on one like that before.

good to know, thanks!

as a mini - update on the glovebox door. I sanded it down and resprayed it. the new paint still reacted with something beneath it, but only in a couple spots and those will be hidden underneath the trim piece, so i'm still deciding if i'm going to attempt to fix it or not.

after i got to thinking about it, the trim was being held on by a couple huge blobs of silicone along with the tape that had failed. I'm guessing the PO just squirted some sillycone on there to glue it back up after it fell off or something.

don't know how many of you have experince with silicone and paint, but the results are rarely good. I'm thining that the spots which are still giving me problems might be due to the silicone, in which case, i've got it about as good as i'm ever going to get it so further attemtps at fixing it will probably yield similar results.

i'm gonna mock the trim piece up tomorrow and see what it looks like, if it hides the problem areas, i'll probably call it good enough.

i also hit the back side of the door with some rubbing compound today. it shined up pretty darn good, so i'll probably leave well enough alone with that side. Which, for me, is preferrable anyway because it still has the sticker advising the owner which maintenance schedule to follow, and i doubt i'd be able to reproduce that sticker.

I'll try to get some pics of that tomorrow as well

thanks again to everyone for the kind words!

 

I just went though your thread and your work is UBER impressive!

my dash pad is in very nice shape, so i'm just going to respray it to make it shiney. but if i needed it covered, you would be receiving a big box in the mail from me!

wish i would have known that you do interior work, i would have send you my visors.

not sure if you are making that a business for yourself or not, but if you are, you should put together a signature line with a link so people can find and hire you.

your work makes mine look like a 3 year old playing with crayons!

seriously guys and gals, if anyone reading this thread needs some interior work, send this guy a PM!

 

Made a little more progress here today, it is coming along quicker than i had though.

I repainted the front of the glovebox door so that it will match the rest of the dash when i repaint that. The inside of the glovebox door was in pretty nice shape so i just hit it with some rubbing compound to shine it up a bit and then put a coat of wax on it to seal it up. It is actually super shiney, much more so than the picture shows.



here's the sicker i was trying to save ... maybe it's no big deal, but it is just another little treasure to show off .... this truck has really survived the times well, especially for this part of the country.



Next up was the gauge bezel. got that removed and am hoping to have it repainted in rather short order. Going to call in another favor and have a friend bead blast it so that it will etched for paint. I did another one this way and it turned out awesome, so i have high hopes for this one as well



So i spent an hour attempting to remove the dash pad. removed all the nuts and could not for the life of me get it to break free from the dash. Something keeping it from releasing in the corners.

So i made a risky decision to re-spray it in place. Figgured the risk was rather small. the only place to get overspray was the winshield, which is broken and needs to be replaced, the dash face which i am repainting anyway, and the a-pillars. Tagged the a-pillars a bit with overspray, but i think it will rub off as it is pretty light.

turned out as good as i had hoped.


After that i scuffed the dash and wiped it down to get it ready for paint. Hurt my feelings to scuff it all up like that, but sometimes it has to look worse before it can look better.



it's do-or-die now boys and girls!

So i had about another 20 minutes to play around so i thought i'd try an experiment with the gauge cluster. I thought i'd try rubbing out the scratches on gauge cluster lense. I've done it on headlights so i figgured it would work with the gauge cluster as well.

again, the pictures don't show it very well. But here is a couple pics showing the improvement. compare the scratches that show up around the camera flash




I'll be doing the whole thing for sure. I'll post up a picture of the product I used.... and yes .. it's another 3M

I painted the ashtray door tonight too, but taking pictures of black paint in the dark is nearly impossible ... so i'll try it again tomorrow.

 

I warned you about the dash pad, eh? You did a great job on it still being in the truck. I also can't believe how the clear lens turned out. Your interior is going to look like you spent a ton of money on it. These are great tips and the results look fantastic.

 

no joke about the dash pad .... i think the best way to restore one is to not have to as you said ... you will speak to yourself. even with my girl arms and hands it is difficult to get to everything.

for anyone attempting a dash pad, you need either a deep well 11/32 socket, or in a pinch a 9mm ... nothing else will work, at least on mine, anyway.

I'm going to have to get creative with my masking skills before i get to paint the dash face.

i forgot to post up a picture of another treasure i found in the truck, an old oilchange reminder. not sure why but i really find this stuff facinating.

just another indication of the truck's low mileage history.

thinking about going to the J/Y here tonight ... i gotta figgure out something with my heater controls. the vent/heat lever is missing

.... maybe there is something in a local yard around here .. im not sure. most of these old dogs got crushed when steel jumped a couple years ago. guess i'll find out.

considering a switch to white face gaues too. a little scared about taking the guage lense off.

thoughts, anyone?

 

You should be able to find a set of heater controls pretty easily. If not, check the classifieds on here and I'm sure someone will have one. As for the lens, just squeeze the little clips on the back of the lens and push them out. It is as easy as that. You can reuse them when you are ready to put the lens back on.

 

had a half-day of work today, so i got lots done on the truck ... and some other things around the house as well.

so i wiped everything down again and hit it with some primer. I forgot how much i HATE to mask things off .... i'm sure i could have spent more time and done it better, but no complaints.



then an hour or so later it got a coat or two of black metallic.



then a couple more thin coats in the next hour or so and i got something like this


and this


don't get me wrong, it isn't perfect.... i need to learn to slow down and wipe everything better. i think there is some oil hosing up my paint. sorry it's a little fuzzy ... stupid camera.


i did sand it down and re-spray it after this, but you can still see it a bit.

I finished the gauges while i had some down time waiting for the water tank to fill.

went from this:

to this:


no joke! these were taken from the exact same angle ... the lense REALLY cleaned up!

here's what i used.


just rub by hand with the glazing compound and buff with a soft cloth. I used a cut up bath towel, but microfiber would be better. Then i hit it with some cleaner wax to try and seal it up. Sometimes acrylic can turn yellow over time after you polish it like this ... i guess time will tell. If it does, i'll just do it all over again.

That's it for today. next up is the gauge bezel. but for now it is back together enough where i can use the truck. I got a load of shingles and a garage door to pick up so it will be nice to get it back on the road.

Progress might be a bit slower here for a bit. The wife probably wants some of her stuff done too i'm thinking. and i'm going turkey hunting next weekend, so might not see much for a couple weeks.

i suppose eventually i'll put in a new rubber floor and then over the winter i'd love to get the seat recovered ... but that's big bucks, so i'm not in a huge hurry.

so far, without the visors being done, i'm probably just a tick over $100. not a bad turn around for that kind of cash layout. the visors, i'm afraid, will be about $120 by themselves (ouch).

from this:

to this:

for about $100 .... i'll take it! At least it is good enough for me!

 

Man I couldve done your visors for half that price. If you want my heater controls I can ship them to you. 2 of the mounting tabs are broken, but the chrome ***** are new,and arms are all good. Im ripping all my stock heater stuff out this weekend.

 

You better hurry, spring is almost here.

 

PM sent.

thanks!

 

Your truck is looking great, wish I could work on mine.