My AAR project

[B5fourspeed]

Great work.Did you test fit your rear light markers with the light socket in place?

[anlauto]

Yup, I was going to say the same thing. The factory actually left the lower driver's side area bare steel, but yours has a much more "finished" look....over restored if you will  great job....

P.S.....if you got an oven that big, you must be able to bake a lot of cookies at one time 

[6Pack70]

Thanks    I'm gonna start repairing a couple pieces of the plastc bezels and get into the gauge cluster this weekend.  Also gonna install Tony's Parts ash tray.  Just getting started and I'm already excited to see how the entire dash, as finished subassembly, is gonna look.   

[larry4406]

Great detail in this thread!  Thanks for posting!

What kind of oven do you have that accepts a dash frame!?!?

[6Pack70]

Great work.Did you test fit your rear light markers with the light socket in place?

Yes, I fit them as a complete unit and man they were really close to the trunk extensions.  I also noted that when they were still installed on the original rotted out quarters, they were a pretty tight fit also.

[6Pack70]

Yup, I was going to say the same thing. The factory actually left the lower driver's side area bare steel, but yours has a much more "finished" look....over restored if you will  great job....

P.S.....if you got an oven that big, you must be able to bake a lot of cookies at one time 

Guy must have been loaded who painted these things.  It had almost no paint at all on about half of the frame.  They probably didn't want grounding issues when new either but geez.   I wanted it to look nice as a whole when its done and not look like it was slammed together in a rush. lol


The oven I used is at my work.  I try to do all the prep work at my house and if time permits, I'll bring some things into work, shoot them and bake them in the ovens there.  You could fit a couple cars in their oven.  I believe it actually produces a better looking and more durable finish on some parts.   

[6Pack70]

That texture looks great.

Thanks!!  I did a small test on dented glove box and it came out nice.  My up close pictures make it look really grainy and heavy textured but its really not.   Its pretty smooth and even.    I tried to keep it simple, make it look pretty accurate and keep the $$$ down.  I wanna drive this Cuda and enjoy it.   

[RUNCHARGER]

I think baking the paint is a good idea.

[6Pack70]

Just setting up some of the dash items.  Tony's Parts ash tray came out pretty sweet.  My dirt cheap (eBay purchased) rivet tool put some scratches on the black paint and dented the ash tray a tiny bit because I used it with the wrong tips.  They were for a slightly bigger rivet so they marred my paint a bit.  I can touch up those areas though.  I used a couple of very light coats of Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze paint on the glove box latch just freshen up the color a bit.    I'm still working on the original plastic bezels for everything. 

[6Pack70]

Couple more

[Dakota]

   Thanks for sharing the photos.   Now that the NY weather is chasing me indoors, I'll be putting my standard dash back together soon too.  Your pictures showed up at the perfect time.

You're doing some really nice work.

[6Pack70]

Thanks.... I appreciate it.   That cold snap yesterday was crazy!!!  I put the heat on low in the garage, turned on Velocity, drank my coffee and just tried to get as much done as I could.  Honestly I'm gonna have to wait until the holidays pass to spring for a beautiful dash pad for this thing. Lol

[6Pack70]

Disassembled, cleaned and detailed the heater control unit, headlight switch panel and radio bezel today.   The factory texture paint came off the plastic easily with some careful razor blade work.   Then a roughed up with a fresh purple scotch brite pad and a very thorough wash with warm soapy water and blow dry.   Toughest part was figuring out how to protect the factory silver circles around the headlight, dimmer and wiper switches.   Then it hit me.... bolts and washers.  One washer in the delete location had to be drilled out with a step bit and the taped in place to protect the silver. I removed the factory decal/foil and cleaned it gently and reinstalled it with a small amount of 3M trim adhesive.  Here's some pics.   

[6Pack70]

Switch Panel

[6Pack70]

This is what I used for the texture paint.  It's not a dead nuts match for the original super small crinkle paint.....but it looks really good.