My 69 Camaro's dash is pretty scratched up and faded (ash tray, glove box...) and I wanted to paint it gloss black again. I was wondering if any one has painted their dash themselves or if they had someone do it for them and how it turned out. I was thinking about doing it soon because I have most of the dash tore out anyway. I was going to remove the A/C vents and the gauge cluster and paint. Thanks for your time.

Justin

I think it was painted some form of semi-flat rather than gloss. I used spray paint on my 68. I was not looking for concourse quality just something which will pass all but the closest inspection. It is not to hard, remove what you can, then sand, wipe it down and spray. Good luck.

Steve R.

The original finish is semi-gloss. I did mine in lacquer but spray can stuff works just as well...use good paint i.e. Krylon or OEM.

There is a reason the manufactures don't paint dashes in high gloss. If you paint your dash pad in gloss you will be very dissapointed, the glare you will get from the sunlight is nasty and dangerous. Use a flat or a semi-gloss paint. I have used SEM also. make sure to throughy clean the pad with a grease and wax remover to get rid of any of those armer all type residue that may be on it.

I painted mine with Dupont Centari catalzed acrylic enamel. I told the auto paint shop what I was doing and they mixed it for me. I think they started with gloss black and mixed it some flattener. It looks right and it's very tough.

I cleaned the dash with the normal auto paint degreasers and then sanded it lightly then applied a primer/sealer and the paint. You do have to mask everything off carefully and wear a good respirator - but this paint will last forever.

------------------
Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed; '99 HD Road King Classic
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

The previous owner of my '68 ragtop replaced the top of the dash due to rust, and painted the dash body color. The pad is black, as is the rest of the inside. Not stock, but it looks pretty good.

I agree with the low gloss paint. I used an enamel based paint with a hardner and sprayed it on with a touch up gun. You end up doing more prep work than actual painting, so if its worth that much time to prep - it should be worth the extra money to apply good paint. Also, I wouldn't use the laquer based paints. They don't hold up to the UV rays in sunlight and fade pretty quickly. And the upper part of the dash is a hard area to re-do. Heres a picture of my re-painted lower dash: http://67camaro.virtualave.net/P9090023.JPG

------------------
Jeff Bradway - my resto page: http://67camaro.virtualave.net