What would be a good choice for finishing the metal part of my dash? Acrylic enamel? Urethane? Should I even go as far as using a BC/CC? Don't know too much about these different types of finishes yet, your advice please!

Thanks,
Steve

I wanted to add that I have enough acrylic enamel and acrylic urethane in black to do it, just not sure which would be better for this.

[This message has been edited by snydes (edited 09-07-2001).]

I tall depends on your self BB/CC looks good and shiny but I could see that. Acrlic enamel for old trucks. Black laquer or other color hand rubbed would look like the original. Is all in what you like.

I wonder if I would get too much glare in the windshield if I went for a hi-gloss look on the top?

Just a thought,
Steve

Hi Steve.....I used a product sold by MTA (Corvette parts) for 59-99 satin black....it matches my '69 Chevelle dash metal perfectly where I'm repainting the glove box door. It's called Performance Choice Color Coat and has a #600976. If you use a primer, just make sure it's compatible and test it on a scrap piece of metal......Lee

Hello Lee, yea I'm kinda thinking that a gloss would be a bad idea, satin black would probably be best.

Steve

I think that you are right about the gloss paint. The biggest problems that I'm finding with the newer paint is incompatiblity problems. Years ago, you could shoot just about anything over lacquer, but not over enamel. These new paints are different and you have to be careful. Pure lacquer paint would be the best choice if you can find it as the old dashes were painted with it. Check compatablity first before shooting a large area. I had to take my glove box down to bare metal and then use the correct primer, but I did like the paint I mentioned.
Lee

snydes,

Not sure what year car you have, but I would guess they're all pretty much the same. I just went through this exercise on my 69. Originally, the top of the dash had something called a 'suede additive' in the paint. It gave it a somewhat textured appearance to reduce glare. It is pretty much unavailable these days. I was constrained to using rattle cans, so I did the following: I painted the whole dash in semi-gloss black. Then I took a can of flat black spray and 'fogged' a couple coats on the top of the dash only. Took away a bit of the semi-gloss look and of course the fog coats don't lay down nicely, so it looks a tiny bit textured. I'd have to say it turned out fairly well. If you're doing a concours restoration, I wouldn't recommend it, but for any other purpose, it would be fine. Biggest problem I had was keeping fisheyes out of the paint on the front of the dash; that Armor All keeps sneaking out. Really have to wash the dash well with thinner or prep sol before painting.

------------------
Bill Pritchard
69 SS396 Convertible
"Life is short; eat dessert first." - Ogden Nash
My low tech web page (http://home.att.net/~bpritchard/index.html)

Yea, I have decided I want to go with the satin black route, but I'm not sure what products I want to use. I have enough acrylic enamel and flattener that I could use to do it, thats what I am leaning towards right now. I talked to my paint guy and he can get me some black lacquer but he says it's hard to get lacquer anymore. I won't get too worried about the texture, just as long as I don't get a bad glare and it looks good I'll be happy.

Is the bottom part of the dash (the part that unbolts from the body) supposed to be the same as the top as far as gloss goes? On mine it's hard to tell anymore.

Thanks,
Steve

Steve, I don't know the year of your car but on my '65 I used Duplicolor low-gloss black (DE1634) engine enamel with ceramic to repaint the dash. I tried several lacquer interior spray can paints from Paddock, etc, which were either too glossy or fogged-up because of humidity or temperature. The low-gloss black is just the right texture and sheen for the dash, in my opinion. It is also the easiest to touch up or spot finish if you have a scratch. I can e-mail you a picture of my finished dash if you want me to.

Rod

[This message has been edited by Hotrod65SS (edited 09-12-2001).]

Steve in my opinion I would ues a single stage urethane paint system like ppg's dcc concent color. The single stage paint is basically bc/cc combined in one system, meaning you dont have to clear coat. If you want a low gloss appeal just add flatter, a good low or satin finish is about a 10-2 ratio of paint to flatter. The bad things about acrylic enamel is you need to add an harder to the paint. You can paint without the harder but when you come to repaint or touch it up the enamel will react with each other and cause lifting which you will have to strip the entire dash down to bare metal to fix. As far as a primer especially if you sandblasted the metal, put a wash primer on first they are usually green in color then apply your expoy primer. PPG's wash primer # is dx1791. Also if you dont have the interior out of the car when painting enamel sticks to every thing and is very hard to remove and plus a strong odor. Lastly lacquer paint is for the birds dont use it. Single stage is in my opinion the best route but if you must use enamel just make sure you use the harder. And stick with a name brand like ppg dont use their cheaper product line as they dont tend to hold up, get color fade back and the shine disappears. This is especially true for the acrylic enamel.
Good luck with your project..Eric