Instrument and clock panel restorations

[miketyler 15]

I have finished up my car and am pretty pleased with the results. Along the way I amassed a collection of instrument and clock panels and plan to restore them over the next few weeks. I had a question on paint for the purists out there.

 

I used a Rustoleum satin finish on mine and looks great but was wondering if original panels were actually painted with lacquer and painted that same dark grey metallic color as lower dash and interior panels. Or maybe were just a flat black? Same for the back side of rim blow wheels? Were these simply done a flat or satin black or were they consistent with the fine metallic grey throughout the vehicle interior?

 

And last, I know there are a few on here that have had some great results applying 3m Di-noc vinyl product. For those that took the time to check samples, what Di-noc color number did you find was the closest to the dark walnut?

 

Appreciate any knowledge shared here

[indianfiremach 170]

Marine teak for the 3m di-noc. It's a lot of work but great results. There's some tricks to applying it, pm me your phone number if you'd like me to walk you through. I've done a number of them and each once gets better. You have to let the air escape in the emblem area to prevent bubbles, and keep the woodgrain panel extremely clean (after you've cooked off the original woodgrain and media blasted / primed with two separate primers).

 

I've used a semi-flat paint for the dash panes. They are not the same color as the plastic dash pieces and lower dash from what I've seen.

[Maui Shtang 10]

Sorry to ask a question when you were asking for advice.

I have a 69 Coupe and the plastic curved piece that sits below the Dash Panel on the passenger side is broken in half, do you know what it is called and are they available to buy, I've looked through CJ Pony with no luck.

 

John

[Kris 90]

If the piece you have is the black plastic piece without the clock it is called the clock delete panel and it is not reproduced to date. The only one reproduced is the one for the clock and it has only been on the market a short time.

 

http://www.cjponyparts.com/scott-drake-dash-bezel-with-clock-hole-right-hand-drive-1969-1970/p/DT10R/

[Maui Shtang 10]

That is it, I will just add a clock.

 

Thank you very much

[stangs-R-me 121]

John,

 

If you have the plain black plastic dash, you will need more than just the clock panel backing Kris has pointed out. You would need the woodgrain panel, clock, clock lenz, etc. Plus you would probably want to get the matching Instrument cluster for the driver's side so it does not look goofy.

 

You would be best off searching e-bay for a used plain black plastic passenger dash panel. This was probably the most common passenger dash panel in 1969-70, so it should not be too difficult to find a good used one.

 

You could also try to repair your existing panel with a fiberglass mesh repair kit on the back side. I did this back in the early 80's with a console out of a car that was in a bad wreck (much more complicated than that dash panel) and it turned out decent.

 

Doug

Edited August 5, 2014 by stangs-R-me

[miketyler 15]

@IndianFire - thanks for the info. Did you mean that you found the 3M "marine teak" vinyl to be the best match for the walnut color and wood grain design? I see I can order samples from tiptopsigns but was hoping to move forward with ordering a large roll this week