Maybe some of the guru's on this site can chime in on my console question?? I am going to refurbish my center console and was wondering what type (color) paint is recommended? The guy that is doing my restoration has painted it glossy black and it looks like crapola! Any help on this one would be greatly appreciated. Ernie

I used a semi gloss and it looked great.

What did you use to paint your dash or the tops of your doors above the door panels? I would use that same paint on your console to match your interior.

If you don't like that idea, find a decent auto paint jobber near you & have them mix up something to match Dupont Lucite Semi Black code 88L. That was the original interior lacquer code used on our cars. They'll need to cross reference it & mix something you can buy in California.

If those options don't work, you can try SEMs Landau Black. It comes in quarts or spray cans, but even the spray cans come out very nice if you do solid prep work. The color isn't identical to the factory black, but it will look very nice on your console.

What did you use to paint your dash or the tops of your doors above the door panels? I would use that same paint on your console to match your interior.

I'm painting the dash and the tops of the doors in gloss black. But I was thinking that if the console is glossy that it won't match the plastic on the sides of the seats etc.

The dash & the tops of the doors shouldn't be 100% gloss black. They are approx 70% gloss. If you use the Lucite paint code, that is a spot on match to original.

Here is a pic from my 67. The dash has original factory paint. I used Lucite lacquer on the tops of the doors & the steering column. It was identical to the factory paint on the dash.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii250/petefay/th_IMG_0073.jpg (http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii250/petefay/?action=view&current=IMG_0073.jpg)

To get the tops of the doors & the steering column to match the factory gloss of the dash, I sanded them with 2000 grit & buffed it out.

One more thing, the sides & backs of your bucket seats should be metal if they are correct '67 pieces. They would've been sprayed with the same paint as the dash, column & doors.

One more thing, the sides & backs of your bucket seats should be metal if they are correct '67 pieces. They would've been sprayed with the same paint as the dash, column & doors.

Pete, I had no idea that the trim pieces on the bucket seats were metal.... In any case, mine will be repro units due to the poor condition of the originals, and I'm sure they won't match the glossy paint that was used on the center console.

The dash & the tops of the doors shouldn't be 100% gloss black. They are approx 70% gloss. If you use the Lucite paint code, that is a spot on match to original.

I went back and forth with going with original or custom, and went with the gloss for the interior. Not looking to build a concourse car that is going to be judged, so I did what I thought I would like best.

Pete, I had no idea that the trim pieces on the bucket seats were metal.... In any case, mine will be repro units due to the poor condition of the originals, and I'm sure they won't match the glossy paint that was used on the center console.

In 66 & 67, the seat backs & sides were metal. 68 was the first year that they were changed to plastic.

I went back and forth with going with original or custom, and went with the gloss for the interior. Not looking to build a concourse car that is going to be judged, so I did what I thought I would like best.

Since your not looking for exact results, my suggestion is to use the SEM Landau Black on your console. It will give you a very nice shade of semi gloss black. If you console is original & the top & door are metal, you can spray it directly over primer. To spray the console base, you should use an adhesion promoter so the SEM sticks to the plastic. I've had excellent results using a product called Bulldog, which comes in a spray can.

Thanks for the advice Pete! Now I just have to get the guy that is doing my car, to redo it! More $$$ for me to spend!!:(

Thanks for the advice Pete! Now I just have to get the guy that is doing my car, to redo it! More $$$ for me to spend!!:(


You can re-do it yourself when the car is back in your possession. The SEM paint comes in aerosol cans, as does the Bulldog adhesion promoter. You can buy them both for about $20 total.

You can re-do it yourself when the car is back in your possession. The SEM paint comes in aerosol cans, as does the Bulldog adhesion promoter. You can buy them both for about $20 total.

I have a feeling that I'll be doing a lot of that when I get my car back! In the last set of pics that he sent me of my car, I noticed that he had painted the hood hinges a very ugly looking silver! I believe that they are supposed to be a natural cast color? Correct me if I'm wrong. Little things like that are really bugging me, but I can't just have him redo everything that I don't like, it will end up costing me a fortune in labor! Not that it hasn't already!

The problem with painting consoles is the pebble grain finish they have. If you start stacking up paint jobs on them you'll loose the pebble grain finish. You have to carefully remove the old paint with out sanding and then spray a light coat of color. The factory painted the interiors a satin finish for several reasons. The sunlight won't glare off it and blind you, the dust doesn't show as much and none of your finger prints will show for a few of them. It least spray the area in front of the dash pad flat to keep the glare off.

The problem with painting consoles is the pebble grain finish they have. If you start stacking up paint jobs on them you'll loose the pebble grain finish. You have to carefully remove the old paint with out sanding and then spray a light coat of color. The factory painted the interiors a satin finish for several reasons. The sunlight won't glare off it and blind you, the dust doesn't show as much and none of your finger prints will show for a few of them. It least spray the area in front of the dash pad flat to keep the glare off.

The dash is painted 60% gloss under the windshield. I called the guy that is doing the restoration to tell him that I didn't want the gloss on the console, and he didn't sound thrilled. He said he could change it, but it would cost me! It should be a freebie, since I didn't tell him that I wanted it painted gloss!!!

The guy doing your resto sounds like a real Prize :(

What Mike said! If they can't do it right or the way you want it, then they should be bagging groceries! If that were my car, I'd list every part needing refinishing and specify the finish desired.

Jerry

The guy doing your resto sounds like a real Prize :(

He's a great guy, but I have been really picky about the whole process. His nickname for me is "Pain in the azz".

As you should be.. PICKY.. who cares.. you are spending money and should have it as you want!

As you should be.. PICKY.. who cares.. you are spending money and should have it as you want!

Damn right Mike!

It should be flat (0% gloss) by the windshield and 60% gloss (satin) everywhere else. Gloss black lacquer sprayed on your 60% gloss parts works. Add flattener to the cup to spray the upper dash.

The 100% original black interior in my ultra low mile Baltimore 67SS (11E dated cowl tag) has at least four very distinctly different gloss levels in the paints in the interior. See pics and descriptions below. I named each pic to describe what it is.

Of course, this is one car from one plant built one particular week, so any other car from any other plant or built any other time could be different. But I can say without a doubt that this is the most well preserved 67 interior I have encountered yet. So unless you find an equally well preserved example from the same plant and week as your car was built, then this car is about as good a go-by as you’re going to get!

The top of the dash “shroud” (between the windshield and dash pad, down to the seams on the sides of the shroud near the doors) has a very dull, somewhat textured paint. I don’t know if the paint itself created the rough surface, or if it was the manner of spraying the paint, but I tend to think it was the method of spraying. But either way it is not just regular old flat paint sprayed in the normal way.

But the bottom of the sides of the dash shroud, the A-pillars, and the door tops all have a fairly glossy paint, definitely more glossy than 60%. 70% might be about right, but it may even be a little more glossy than that. I held up a towel with writing on it in the pics so you can see the reflection showing just how glossy these areas really are. It appears to me to be regular gloss lacquer which was sprayed a little faster and dryer so as to achieve a less than full gloss finish. (You can make regular gloss lacquer look like semi-flat if you spray it right, and on the production line it would make sense to use one type of paint and to alter the application to achieve the desired gloss levels, rather than having multiple different vats of different gloss levels of the same color paint.)

Note that all of the above parts were painted in the Fisher Body portion of the plant. They painted all the visible interior body sheet metal first. Then they masked off all of that except the dash top. Then they sprayed the dash top with the flatter “textured” paint. Then they masked that off too and the exterior of the car was painted last.

The removable part of the dash is visibly duller than the door tops. I'd estimate it at about 60%-65% gloss. Note that this part of the dash was painted in the car assembly plant (and not in the Fisher Body plant), so it was painted out of a different paint vat than the body interiors were painted. It could be actual semigloss paint, or it could just be that the guy weilding that paint gun painted faster and dryer than the guy in the Fisher Body plant.

The backs of the bucket seats and the console appear to be nearly full flat. The finish mimics the gloss level of the vinyl seat covers (without a slathering of Armorall of course). I don't know if these parts were painted in the car assembly plant or if they arrived from outside vendors / jobbers already painted. The best place to see what that paint really is supposed to look like is on the back side of the console lid, where it does not have the vinyl grain so you can see what just the paint looks like. I have attached a pic of that too.

rest of pics

Nice pics Jeff. :thumbsup: My 67 was an original 42,000 mile Atlanta built car, & the paint on the main part of the dash is original, untouched, never restored. It appears to be a bit glossier than your photos show. As you say, it could all depend on many factors including who sprayed it, pressure at the gun, which plant, etc.

I agree with you about the dash panel between the windshield & the dash pad. I was never able to duplicate that finish 100%, but I was satisfied with the results of SEM's Trim black in that area.

I also believe that the tops of the doors should be glossier than most people realize. I took pics of my doors before the car was restored, & matched them identically when I repainted them. (the "before" photos are MIA right now, but I'll try to locate em). My earlier estimate of 70% gloss is probably too conservative. But as I stated earlier, I did wet sand them with 2000 grit & buffed them to get them to shine. If you were to simply spray them with the correct coded lacquer without color sanding them, the paint would appear to be basically a flat shade of that color.

My feeling on the seat backs & the console is that they are both sprayed with the same paint code that's used on the dash & the tops of the doors. IMO, because they are not sanded & buffed, they appear to be almost flat. Again it's just my opinion.

I called the guy that is doing the restoration to tell him that I didn't want the gloss on the console, and he didn't sound thrilled. He said he could change it, but it would cost me! It should be a freebie, since I didn't tell him that I wanted it painted gloss!!!

Do you have a contract with the guy that says what he is supposed to be doing? Was he supposed to do it "correct"? Or did you specify/approve of the gloss on the console previously? Or is he just doing things the way HE wants them to be (hood hinges, console, etc)?

Modifications are fine, if the owner approves, but too many shops don't seem to think "restoration" means to restore to original...

Where in Nor Cal are you Ernie?

Hey guys. Here's a picture of a black console using SEM's Landau Black (plastic base) and Trim Black (metal top).

http://www.chevelles.com/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=52222&cat=4

Ok, here's some much better console pics...

http://s1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj519/Gasgacinch/

Ok. I think I figured out how to post pics in this...BTW: it's getting a little lonely in here