The holy grail

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1973Guppie

1973Guppie

10 Year 15 Year 20 Year
Joined
Jan 31, 2003
Threads
953
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10,231
Location
"the whale's vagina", CA
I am sorry, but I just have to gloat about this. Yes, I have found the holy piggie grail. This is an original dash from a 1970 FJ55! No, I am not kidding. To say I am excited is an understatment. I just about s*** myself when I opened the box. My wife doesn't understand. She already told me it can't sleep in bed with us. A huge thanks to Duke for selling this to me (can't remember your mud sig). It is going to a good home for sure. This thing is virtually flawless, a few small cracks, other than that it is perfect. I cleaned it up very carefully with some good leather/vinyl cleaner, amazing how much gunk came off of it on the rag. I must of sprayed and wiped it 6 times. After I did not get any more dirt coming off of it, I sprayed it liberally with a quality vinyl cream conditioner and massaged it into the vinyl with my fingers. It has been surprising how much the vinyl is soaking up the oils. I plan to lube it a bit more this week and hopefuly get the vinyl nice and supple so it does not crack anymore. The vinyl was a bit brittle when it arrived.

and yes, I am completely crazy.

Noah
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the early years stop near 1970 I think, not sure exactly when they changed over, this is the early style and there are no real alternatives, no dash caps, you have to have them professionally restored, which is incredibly expensive and I cannot afford that.
 
silverduc68 said:
does the dash pad vary by year model, or are they the same all through out the years?
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Two varieties, the one pictured which has no dash caps or other alternatives and the newer one.
 
now please hurry up and get a dash cap mold made for the rest of us would you!

I am pretty sure there will be a few takers out there for the caps.........
 
Goebeler said:
now please hurry up and get a dash cap mold made for the rest of us would you!

I am pretty sure there will be a few takers out there for the caps.........
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I am no expert on molds, but I would think the reason they don't do them for the early dashes is because of the small area below, I am not sure if they could make a cap for that, that would work?
 
1973Guppie said:
She already told me it can't sleep in bed with us...
I must of sprayed and wiped it 6 times...
I sprayed it liberally with a cream conditioner and massaged it with my fingers. I plan to lube it a bit more this week and hopefuly get nice and supple...

and yes, I am completely crazy.

Noah
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Just having fun with some selective editing!!!

Congrats!

You might at least inquire about making a mold... Options are always good!
 
1973Guppie said:
I am no expert on molds, but I would think the reason they don't do them for the early dashes is because of the small area below, I am not sure if they could make a cap for that, that would work?
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Oh they could do them. Trust me. It's just no one has.
 
PabloCruise said:
Just having fun with some selective editing!!!

Congrats!

You might at least inquire about making a mold... Options are always good!
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yeah, my wife said to me when she walked into the garage: "are you actually out here lubing your dash?"

then she shook her head like she always does.

:)
 
another interesting point, the guy I bought it from, he mentioned that the 55 had been rotting under a mullbery tree up in canada for years, sounds like it was shaded and very damp, he explained to me that the piggie rotted away all the metal but the vinyl, etc, stayed in perfect shape.
 
I wonder if a vacuum form would be easy/cheap to do just to preserve an outer shell shape? Great score BTW.
 
green73 said:
I wonder if a vacuum form would be easy/cheap to do just to preserve an outer shell shape? Great score BTW.
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I wonder if the people who sell the later dash vacuum formed cap would like to borrow your pristine part as a mold for all the early dash owners who've had to make do with a custom trimmed later dash pad cover?
 
honestly, if somebody smarter than me can point me in the right direction to getting a mold done locally (san diego) and if there is enough interest, then I would look into it, like I said though, it would need to be a local thing and not a large monetary investment for me to move forward. Let me know if you have ideas. I just have no idea where to even start with something like this.

Noah
 
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