Nice update, Rick. Thanks!
Regarding "Why did he go to all that trouble when new, beautiful dashboards
are available?" - I agree with you - part of the joy is in the doing.
I did a similar re-boot of a Spitfire dash, but nearly 30 years ago.
Happy motoring!
Lee
On Mon, August 12, 2019 15:15, Richard Lindsay via 6pack wrote:
> Hello Friends,
> With my '75 TR6 heading to the paint shop for a nice two-stage Carmine
> Red respray, I find myself getting excited about the reassembly process. I
> have a new beige interior waiting to go in after I get the brown carpet
> installed. Let me share a few pictures to better tell some of the story.
>
> First up, here is the interior, stripped and ready for reassembly. The
> inner paint is Rustoleum burgundy paint, tinted darker with leftover black
> paint. The goal here is rust proofing, not 'pretty'. All of the metal is sound
> and rust free.
>
> http://aubard.us/75_Triumph/20190311_151429.jpg
>
>
> The carpets will be dark brown with black gators on the handbrake and
> gear lever. Here's the tunnel cover, already upholstered and waiting to go in.
>
> http://aubard.us/75_Triumph/20190324_090543.jpg
>
>
> The black vinyl bits of the dash are all new and in their boxes waiting.
> The original wooden dash was water damaged and de-laminating. The walnut
> veneer was peeling off. Here's how it looked upon arrival at my shop.
>
> http://aubard.us/75_Triumph/P1000380.JPG
>
>
> I carefully removed the instruments, lights and controls then lifted
> away the plywood dashboard. After cleaning, my first step was stabilizing and
> restoring the wood. I did so by re-cementing all the lamina of the plywood
> with Gorilla Glue for Wood. Once that process was complete and the glue cured,
> I painted (read:
> saturated) the entire dashboard with Minwax Wood Hardener. Two coats of that
> product left the original plywood substrate (almost as) strong as new, if
> ugly. I next sanded all surfaces in preparation for the next step: new veneer.
> Okay, by now you're probably thinking, "Why did he go to all that
> trouble when new, beautiful dashboards are available?" The answer is simple.
> Its a labor of love. The pleasure is in the 'doing' as much so as
> the result. Okay, with that out of the way... While waiting for glue and
> hardeners to cure, I tested stains on scraps of veneer. Sadly I didn't
> document the colors I used but I remember it was two Minwax stains, appied one
> over the other. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I thought about the Carmine
> Red paint choice (original) and the beige
> upholstery (color also original) then looked through my stash of veneer. I had
> a sheet of walnut but it was straight grain and offered little 'interest'.
> Also laying about was a sheet of curly maple veneer. I found it
> interesting so I tested the stain choice. My decision was made. Back at the
> plywood I cleaned away all sanding dust, painted on a coat of glue and applied
> the veneer. I rolled out all the air bubbles then weighted down the veneer
> with every book and gallon paint can that I had sitting about. Two days later
> I trimmed the edges and roughly cut the
> larger openings with an Exacto knife. A couple of hours with the Dremel and a
> sanding disk had the openings routed in. A small grind stone in the Dremel
> finished the small holes. My garage was covered in fine sawdust as one might
> imagine so I swept and vacuumed for another day. With the veneer carefully
> sanded with #400 sandpaper, and vacuumed clean, I applied the first coat of
> stain. A day later, the second and final color was applied. Two days after
> that, the first of three coats of urethane clear coat went on. Here's how it
> looks.
>
> http://aubard.us/75_Triumph/20190116_111637.jpg
>
>
> The color is not quite as vibrant as the camera's flash makes it appear,
> but it does complement the beige upholstery. The über clever ones among you
> may notice that I did not cut the hole for the dash light rheostat! It is to
> be omitted. The instruments are going back in with non-dimmable LED lamps. And
> speaking of instruments...
>
> The gauges and lamps came apart for cleaning, testing and refinishing.
> They were a mess, as anticipated, but no repairs were needed.
>
>
> http://aubard.us/75_Triumph/20190113_111736.jpg
>
>
> The black trim on most of the chrome bezels was damaged. I stripped it
> off, cleaned the chrome and reassembled a couple of the gauges. They just
> didn't look right so back apart they came. I primered then sprayed all the
> bezels with satin black and that did the trick, especially against the lighter
> wood dash. Here's how they look, awaiting reassembly.
>
> http://aubard.us/75_Triumph/20190113_125147.jpg
>
>
> New knobs and switches are in hand. The wiper switch had died, as had
> the headlight master switch. The warning light bezels cleaned up okay so they
> will (probably) be reused.
>
> That's it for now. If interested, I'll share engine, wheels, brakes,
> suspension, etc., restoration stories. Until then, I hope you enjoyed the post
> as much as I enjoyed reliving it.
>
> Rick
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