Refinished the dash

[TJFJ]

Nothin' fancy, just refinished all the knobs, cleaned the paint off the knee pads, sanded, primed, and painted the dash, and stripped/primed/painted the gauge bezel and glovebox door. New rivets and the tranny/t-case badge was back in place.

Also had a carpeted shelf that ran across the dash. Stripped the carpet from that, fiberglassed it, and coated it with truck bed liner.

Before:

After:

Got the 37s on too.

Tube work starts in May. the 3/4 tub is getting replaced with tube and skins and the front/rear doors and hard top will still be functional.

It'll also get Saginaw power steering then.

 

[antFJ]

holy s*** a million times better! fantastic

are those new dash pads? howd you get them so black and nice? paint? if so can you take pictures of the cans of paint you used for your bezel/glove box as well as the pads so i know what to look for - i'm a visual kind of guy

 

[TJFJ]

Thanks.

Here's a pic

On the left is the Rustoleum Almond I'm using for the body color.

Middle is flat black vinyl and fabric paint.

Right is the Dupli-color T919 Ultra Silver.

The dash pads are the same pads that were in the before picture. I just flexed them in various directions to get the paint that was on them to crack and flake off then I coated them with Goo Gone and started wet-sanding them with 220 grit sandpaper. I had reservations with the sandpaper but the nylon bristle brush just wasn't working. I tested the sandpaper in an area, didn't see damage, and went on doing the entire piece.

After the pieces were dry (couple of days) I hit'm with Dupli-color's flat black vinyl and fabric paint. (tested the stuff on the smallest piece in case I wasn't happy with it) I thought about using bumper black but this works great. No idea how well bumper black would work. The vinyl and fabric paint may not be the best solution, but it worked well on the boat I refinished for my mom years ago. I did notice a slight bit of cracking when I flexed the pads after the paint had cured, but once installed the pads don't get bent anything like I was doing to see if the paint would stay.

Before and after of the pads. The bottom pad is after I flexed it in various directions to crack the paint that was on it. After that I hit it with 220 grit.
Finished pad is on top.

The bezel and glovebox door are shot with Dupli-color T919 Ultra Silver. I just took the glovebox door with me to the parts store and got the closest match they had. This is pretty close.

I'm also going through the Warn X8000i the same way. Strip, prime, and paint with the closest match the local auto parts store has. I took the solenoid cover into the store and matched Dupli-color Storm Gray to the paint in the inside of the solenoid cover.

Pics of the winch (still need to refinish the motor side.) I got new decals from Warn but need to get a new badge for the solenoid cover as well as a couple of seals. Between not having the new badge and seals I haven't been in a rush to refinish the motor side. Also need to refinish the drum.

Before

After:

I should also add that I used Never-Dull to polish the ash tray bezel. It had surface rust and Never-Dull and some elbow grease made it disappear.

The choke cable was rebuilt with new sheathing (had some extra bike cable sheathing in the garage) and I went ahead and installed a new ferrule and cable end on it while I was reworking it.

The passenger grab handle was stripped to bare metal, roughed up, and sprayed with truck bed liner. I chose this over paint because of wear resistance.

I also went through the front heater. Cleaned the heater core, tore it down to individual pieces, and refinished each piece to include the duct from the blower motor to the heater core and the two ducts that pass up to the defrost vents. Picked up some self-adhesive insulation to seal where the duct from the blower motor enters the heater box and installed that. The upper plastic pieces were shot with the vinyl and fabric stuff, all the metal was shot with Rustoleum semi-gloss. The lettering for vent/heat/defrost on the side of the heater was given a once-over with a silver Sharpie. I tried a paint marker but couldn't prevent the paint from running down the letters. I tried everything I could think of to label those raised letters - even correction tape. A silver Sharpie was the compromise I settled on.

It's low-buck, but it'll look good and last.

 

[cml25]

Beautiful Work! The winch is going to look brand new!

 

[splib]

Nice work!

How close is that Rustoleum almond to the Cygnus white?

.....and whats that red thing in your driveway?

 

[TJFJ]

Thanks, guys.

splib, the almond is a hair darker than the stock Cygnus white.

My dad (who gave me the vehicle) is color blind and can't see the difference.

I wanted a beige/tan for it but nothing too dark. The tan/beige colors I looked at had too much green in them for me. This almond will work well.

When I refinish the top, which won't happen until probably fall or so, I'll shoot it with white and the difference between the two colors should (hopefully) be noticeable to even my dad.

He's not fond of the "white" as he calls it. "I liked the blue. It was the black and blue bruiser."

The red thing is the point and shoot family rig.

5.3L/TH350/Dana 300 with twin sticks and 4:1 low range, 10-inch stretch behind the doors, Tera60 axles (4.56s/ARBS) 35-spline chromoly shafts up front, 35-spline Moser shafts in the rear.

 

[antFJ]

TJ you do some nice work thanks for the info!

 

[nc_fjizzle]

That's some good looking work there. I can tell ya like things done right!

 

[tmarx]

Amazing difference and looks great !

 

[badkarma]

Looks great! I wish I had that patience.

 

[DSRTRDR]

looks nice, but in my truck it would be full of dust within 3 seconds of wheeling

 

[motor220099]

Nice post. I need to do the same with my bottom bumper pad and this will help plenty.

 

[BDelling]

How did you do the knobs? I need to do the same.

 

[TJFJ]

Thanks, guys.

How did you do the knobs? I need to do the same.

I cleaned them with Purple Power and an old toothbrush, dried them, and used the two paint markers you see pictured with the knobs to paint the lettering.

2000 grit sandpaper was used to knock the paint off the tops of the knobs.

The electrical switches were cleaned with electric motor/contact cleaner, an old toothbrush, and an air compressor.

Badkarma, do it Johnny Cash style. One piece at time.

 

[imabigbangkindaguy]

Awesome!! Was the shifter instruction plate hard to get off the glove box face? How many coats did you use? On the Gause assembley did you remove the glass or just have it taped off?

Thanks,

Richard

 

[fjjonnie]

Looks great! keep posting pics.

 

[lone gunman]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TJFJ]

Awesome!! Was the shifter instruction plate hard to get off the glove box face? How many coats did you use? On the Gause assembley did you remove the glass or just have it taped off?

Thanks,

Richard

Richard,

I used a drill bit to drill out the rivets - nothing spectacular. I'll replace the shift plate at some point.

For the gauge cluster I disassembled everything and cleaned each piece. Glass was removed from the bezel as well as the high beam indicator.

It's simple stuff to do, just takes time.

No idea how many coats. I primed, sanded, more primer, bit more sanding, then paint. The silver went down well, think I used three coats of silver then one good wet coat.

 

[TJFJ]

Started working on the steering column and wheel.

Same deal with this as with the knee pads.

 

[CruisetheLand]

Im vomitting on myself. Time and patience like you say. Incredible work my friend. Thanks for sharing. In the process of trying to get my pull knobs off. The set screws are rusted and stripping out, looking like Im gonna have break out the drill. Im looking at refinishing my knobs with Toyota white paint touch up pen I bought at Wal-Mart. Havent seen it used on mud yet but I figured what better than well, Toyota White. Planning on posting as soon as I get around to it.