Project Boondoggle (or, so I went and bought a Z!)

[charliekwin]

Been kind of a while without an update.  Mostly dealing with some little things here and there whenever I can find some time.  The throttle linkage had been giving me minor problems for a while, so I cleaned, straightened, spray painted, lubricated and adjusted everything and it's much better.  Flushed the cooling system and added the coolant temp potentiometer.

Also made a few interior bits.  The B-pillar/dog leg pieces and the hatch finisher had all but disintegrated over the years.  I always think I take plenty of photographs while I'm working on this stuff and then find out later that I usually don't even get a good before and after, so take my word for it that they were in rough shape   The dog legs took two tries; the first go around I used the old one as a template without removing the vinyl since I didn't want the whole thing crumbling.  That didn't fit well enough, so I made another pair (no vinyl on the old one this time) that fit significantly better.

The hatch piece actually took three tries.  The first one wound up on the roadside somewhere between home and the office when I left it on the back window.  The second one went in the trash, because it turned out that that piece isn't the simple rectangle that I thought it was.  Third time's a charm!  Everything was covered in the same vinyl that I used for the scuff plates, which is the closest to the original stuff I could find at Joann's.

And then the center console.  The one I have is pretty well beat up -- aside from being dirty, it had some bad paint on it, the armrest was broken, ashtray rusty, etc. -- but I don't really want to spend my limited budget on a new one right now if I can get it to Good Enough, so that's what I did.  The ashtray I cleaned up as best as I could with a wheel and sandpaper, then sprayed it with the wheel paint I used for the tail light panels.  The sliding cover got a coat of Rustoleum.

The armrest was cracked along the middle, so that was glued and fiberglassed together.  Someone covered it in the past with some foam rubber, which I left, but the studs for the screws had all been split open or broken off.  Those were glued back together.  I also stumbled upon a way to replace ones that were missing entirely: acid shop brushes dipped in ABS cement and cut to length.

The rest of the console got a thorough cleaning to remove as much of the old paint as possible.  I glued/glassed some cracks back together and tried to fill in the choke slot, which was only a modest success.  I sprayed the whole thing with Krylon Fusion and am hoping it holds up alright.  It looks decent (and way better than it did), so if it lasts for a year (or even until I can do the dash) then that's good enough.

[charliekwin]

Back from vacation, and finished up the console.  Thoroughly cleaned and touched up the lettering on the switches and indicators (too bad most of them are missing the bulbs and wiring -- more to add to the list).  Raided the office supply closet to get some clips to hold on the shift boot and stuck Raammat and foam in there to beef up the plastic a bit.  Sprayed a couple coats of clear on the console.  It actually came out looking better than I expected it to.  Now I wish I spent more time cleaning up that choke slot.

No more putting it off: that dash isn't going to fix itself.

[Captain Obvious]

You do nice work.

Now you've also got to do something about your console lid. Your shiny console now makes the lid look chalky. "You created a neatness."

[sweatybetty]

8 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

You do nice work.

Now you've also got to do something about your console lid. Your shiny console now makes the lid look chalky. "You created a neatness."

i dont know if this will work with older plastics or not, just an idea if you can afford to experiment. i have a 98 jeep wrangler. the fender flares are notorious for turning chalky. but, if you run a heat gun over them, it will turn the chalky color back to black. it may last a couple of years before you have to do it again. once again, just an idea

[charliekwin]

The flash made the console lid look worse in photos than in person, but it's still not great.  Based on what the bottom of the cover looked like, I'm assuming one of the POs recovered it some time ago.  I don't know what the material is, but it seems like it's halfway between plastic and neoprene.  I've used the heat gun trick before too, it might work on this stuff but I'm not optimistic.  Worst case, the whole thing gets replaced soon enough anyway.

I actually rather liked the no-console look when I was driving around without it.  If the dash wouldn't look funny with the HVAC just hanging out there, I'd consider that a good option.

[S30Driver]

Nice job!

Your ash tray looks great, is that a paint you used or a natural finish?

[charliekwin]

Duplicolor wheel paint and clear on the inside (leftovers from the tail light panels).  Rustoleum on the sliding cover.  

[charliekwin]

Well, here goes nothing!

Pulled everything out of the dash the other night and got ready for what I thought would be the incomprehensibly miserable job of removing the original plastic from the foam shell.  Turns out that a heat gun and putty knife make it fairly quick and easy (and clean) to remove.  I got the top half done last night while waiting for the shower, and took off the rest this afternoon.  Fairly obvious what 38 years of sun, heat and other abuse does to the dash!

I'm planning to fill the cracks this weekend.  Once the cloth and epoxy resin gets here I can lay that on.  Everything's in better shape than I expected, so -- fingers crossed! -- fiberglassing looks like it may go well too.  Still debating on finish options.

[grannyknot]

I never seen this approach before, interested to see how things work out. Have you thought about using one of the full dash covers as now that the original surface is gone?

[charliekwin]

Current options I'm considering:

• Cover the whole thing in Hexis vinyl
• Flock the whole thing
• Cover part in vinyl and flock the rest
• Texture and paint
• Full dash cover

At the moment, I think I like the first three options best, but I'll see what I think when I get more work done and reality hits me in the face.

I know a lot of people who have repaired their dashes leave the old plastic there, but it's old and very brittle and I don't think I could even get it back in the car without cracking again, let alone have it last for years in the future, so the plan was always to fiberglass it.  Considering that resin won't stick to plastic, the plastic is shot anyway, and that fiberglass will add some extra thickness in areas like the gauge pods it made sense to try to strip it off.  Even though the plastic on the lower sides was in good shape, I don't want to worry about any visual or texture mismatches, so it's easier for it all to come off.

[Captain Obvious]

I've not done any dash refinishing work, but looking at my failing dash, it appears to me that the expanded foam underneath is suspect too.

Using your forensic analysis skills, what do you think was the progression of events leading to the dash failure? Do you think it's possible to permanently fix a dash without addressing the underlying foam?

[charliekwin]

The foam is a problem too, Cap. The darkened foam isn't soft or flexible like the yellow foam is.  Totally speculative on my part, but I'm guessing the foam isn't heat stable at the temperatures that it sees from direct sunlight in summer.  The plastic is probably breaking down from a combination of age and UV exposure, and when the foam loses it's elasticity, it's game over.

As long as the new dash skin is strong enough on its own, I imagine a dash could be permanently fixed without addressing the foam.  That's why I'm using fiberglass.