Dash Trim Refurbish ....
A long journey!
As mentioned in 2024, the next part of this project was to focus on the interior.
Rather than spend for new trim (that frequently doesn't fit quite right) I decided to use that money towards new interior and trunk carpet - that part later. My car is that blend of restomod and although I've tried to keep a high standard of fabrication, etc., there's aspects of it that relate to it's originality. The dash trim is an original 1957 set and I like it in there, including its imperfections - for me it adds to the character of the car.
However, imperfections are one thing, but realistically the trim was looking pretty sad. I decided to refurbish it as best as I could, figuring that if it all went south I could still pony up for a new set.
Here's what I started with, dull, faded and lots of dings. That grid pattern is paint in the recessed squares which I planned to redo.

The first thing I did was to work on the dings and dents. I didn't have the expertise to get it all dead smooth, but the end result was quite acceptable. After working on the dings, I wet sanded with 600 and 1200 paper, then polished in two steps with different polishes. The pictures don't really show accurately, but the finish was improved.
After the pieces were polished I tackled the grid refurbishment. My plan was to paint the entire surface, then lightly wet sand until just the raised grid was exposed, leaving the new paint in the recesses.
I taped off the edges and started with a small section to see how it would go. I used black caliper paint - I like this stuff because it's a very moderate gloss, not flat and not super shiny. The test area was in the lower right of the piece. One thing that I found was that I needed to let the paint cure out for at least a couple of days - the test worked but I could see that the paint gloss needed improvement. In this case I had only let the paint dry for about 4 hours. I also refined my wet sanding procedure.
Here's a piece masked off and painted over with the black caliper paint.
Initial progress. Those spots where the paint didn't clearly get removed were each addressed individually.
I was quite happy with the end results, but it was pretty tedious. Final wet sanding was with 1500 paper, initial wet sanding was with a small block and 600 paper, carefully and lightly, going only far enough to expose the grid.
