[Slowpoke70]

Anybody out there have a pic of a restored or good original Malibu Dash?

I want to know what parts had the Chromed look to them and what as black (or other main color). I searched through the archives and there was a wealth of information about the SS dash, but not much about hte Malibu.

I particularly want pics of the instrument panel and radio areas as mine is very worn here and I'm not sure what was what from the factory. I'm going to be pulling the dash out in the summer and doing a cosmetic restification with SEM Landau Black and Testor's Argent Silver paint because that's all I can afford and I'm tired of seeing the worn out dash in front of me.

I just want to get it somewhat close to stock-ish looking even though it has a big hole for a DIN stereo, but it's not a show car anway....

Thanks.

 

[pop d top]

Sorry I can't help you with a picture, but I did the same thing to the "sweep" dash in the '72 El Camino I used to have. I'm gonna guess that yours is like mine was, in that most areas were OK...just worn or scratched...in some areas all the "chrome" was worn off. Usually those areas were only PART of a line or lettering that had SOME silver still on it.

If this is the case, then MY suggestion would be...Take some pictures of yours as it is NOW...doing closeups for what ever details will be covered up when you "Black" the piece. Then go at it with the silver paint with a fine brush and a toothpick, and refer to your pictures when needed. In general the "raised" areas...the lines and lettering...get the "chome" treatment and the rest is black. Also, you might try give the piece a good thorough cleaning with soap and water rather than painting it black. I cleaned the instrument cluster on my Camaro and it got all nice and black so all I had to do was touch up the silver stuff. If it doesn't clean up, you can always paint it anyway, and the paint will likely stick better to the nice clean surface.

 

[Slowpoke70]

Thanks for the advice. I will be cleaning it with soapy water but there are some parts that are just too scratched up and should be black and are showing chrome. So it all has to get redone.

What I'm doing now is taking pictures of certain areas up close. Then painting the parts that look like they were Chromed to me with a tiny brush and the Testor's paint. Then taking pics again.

That way when I black it all I will have at least some documentation of what looked like it came chromed. I'm sure I'll end up doing silver on a few too many parts, but oh well.

 

[gigem]

Here is an eBay auction with some pictures that might help you.

FYI, I thought the SEM "landau" black was too shiny (for me, anyway), so I used SEM "satin" black.

I was happy with how the Testor's pen worked everywhere except for the chrome border that goes around the outside of the whole dash area. The recessed areas a re very difficult to get into, and I ended up getting silver paint in areas that I didn't want to touch. I've wondered if I couldn't have taped it off and sprayed it and gotten a better result...

 

[Slowpoke70]

That Ebay car doesn't seem all that correct. Maybe because it is unrestored? The area raise line around the AC/Heat controls was pretty obviously chrome on mine, rough, but it had Chrome.

The area you talked about, the part that goes aroun the whole instrument panel, that part is blacked out on the Ebay car too.

Thanks for the tip on the SEM Satin black.