Post pictures and your findings. I’m curious to try this also.
Many years ago I recovered mine with black upholstery vinyl and contact cement and I loved the way it looked. I always thought the originals were some kind of thermoformed plastic that looked pretty cheap to me. Because I did not wrap the edges some of them have peeled off so I am redoing them. Did the speedo/tach piece last night and hopefully will get to the other two today. The 3M 90 sticks like crazy but it can give a lumpy appearance because of the uneven way it comes out of the can. I use acid brushes to apply the Weldwood and it goes on nice and flat.
I recovered that same panel with one of the vinyl kits, but didn’t get the greatest result in the lever depression (S2). It doesn’t look bad, but I know it could be better. I still need to do the center and glove box panels.
Jim,
I’m interested to see that you’ve had some success with covering the fascia panels. So many of the cars offered for sale that have been the subject of high level restorations seem to exhibit the “sagging skin around the eyes” look typified by the example I picked at random below:
The adhesive seems to fail around the gauges. Have you seen the same thing? This has put me off messing with the gauge panel on my car for fear of turning a slightly shabby look into a “didn’t get any sleep for the past week” look…
-David
Hi David, interesting and no I have not had anything like that happen. As I mentioned above my panels that I did almost 30 years ago have held up well except for some of the edges where I did not wrap the vinyl around to the back side, an error on my part. Here is a photo of my center section that I took when I installed my auxilliary O/P gauge in the background. This was just a few years ago so the recovering is about 25 years old. As you can see the Weldwood contact cement holds up pretty well. You can also see the peeling I’m talking about under the heater controls. I’m glad to give you or anyone else who might be interested in how I do this, not difficult but it is a bit tedious and time consuming. I also recently did the interior on my '77 Corvette and it came out well so you can say I have a lot of experience, lol.
Step 1 came out very well. I changed the clamping procedure a little to use clamps I had on hand and used 3M 80 (formulated for vinyl as the adhesive). My coloration is a bit off due to the cleaning process but I expect the Surflex to correct that. All in all very pleased. I plan to keep it clamped as I wait for the Surflex.
Thanks for your help Terry!
Rick OBrien
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Could it be done using vacuum? Stick it in a vacuum bag and go for it?
OSJI, the interior supplier in Muncie, Indiana sells vinyl that’s a decent match, but probably best to do all three sections (regardless of supplier). I believe it’s convertible top material. As stated above, the fabric backing has to be separated from the vinyl…very tedious and slow undertaking to avoid stretching the vinyl. The different reflectivity between the panel and the AC unit is from the flash…normally not apparent. By the way, the remote electrical panel for the Bob Skelly electrical system modification is visible in the photo…reduction starter and ignition relays are on that panel.
