Dash Done

I bought my '66 last summer. I've slowly been restoring it. I'm not doing a frame off, 100% restore, just keeping it stock-ish.

I'm about 2/3rds finished (with round one). I will post a complete play by play when I'm done, but I'm really happy with the way the dash turned out. I show it to friends and family and get the usual, "Yeah, that's nice", and then on to boring subjects like kids and politics. Boo.

I figured I'd pop up a couple of pictures here, obviously playing to a sympathetic audience.



Hacked dash the day I found it in some guy's garage. Not horrible. Two ashtrays, a sorta tach, amp and oil pressure gauges.



Left side. Big hole was an ashtray, plus various other holes. You can also see part of the tach that kinda worked sometimes.



Middle of dash with a pretty cigarette lighter and a giant crooked radio cavern.






Welding, filling, sanding.



Primed. I sanded and filled one more time after this picture.

I am going to paint the Jeep red. When... I don't know. Last summer I painted the interior of the tub with black truck bed liner. There was very little surface rust so I sanded it away and sealed it. Turned out great.

I was sick or not driving it and tripping over a primered dash in the garage. Can you see where this is going?

Yeah, I painted the dash black. Blasphemy to the resto crowd, I know. But a glossy Ducati red over my lousy body work would make me sad every time I got in the thing.



It turned out a lot better than I thought it would.







The texture of the paint hides imperfections, as does the matte finish. I need to touch up some of the remaining red spots under the dash, rotate the ignition switch and a few other details, including the heater control.

But I think it looks great and that's the only opinion that really matters!

 

I think you did a great job. Is that a mat black?

 

" yeah, that's nice"








looks real good !

 

Nice work and it is relatively straight, my dash is so wavy it looks like the tide is coming in and out at the same time.....

 

heck
it looks ok to me.
mine had the stereo holes too.
i covered it with the military nomenclature plate.

if you are happy
i am happy!


p.s.
i just love before and after pics!

 

Looks great!

 

That came out great!

 

Nice job on the patching. No probs here...

 

nice job. i like the simple cj dashs. it looks like the fillers are only tacked in place. if they arnt fully welded the filler plates will eventualy crack the bondo and paint. it takes forever but will last longer.

 

Nope. Welded on the backside.

I like this paint so well I just covered one of the hideous white spoke wheels with it. Wow! What a huge difference.



The way this is going, the entire truck is going to be covered with this shi... stuff.

Since I have your attention focused on the wheel area, keep the flares or lose them?

 

Since I have your attention focused on the wheel area, keep the flares or lose them?[/QUOTE]res


loose the flares, I like the old skool look

 

Make the flairs go by -by.........

 

Narrow / stock track w/no flares= more better!

 

:iagree:

 

The wheels look good in black. With the tire set up you have, no flares looks great.

 

nice job - need stickers - had my jeep for 29 years now - restored it 2 years ago - still waiting for new VIN sticker - wish I knew how to post picture