A dash style

We are down to the last couple of items on this Chevelle … then I will be bidding it a fond farewell. One of those last items is painting the dash. The gray … it just doesn’t do anything for me. I’m thinking a nice semi-gloss black.

The first photo shows the car masked off. It would be … disappointing … to get the black paint on the red. I think the customer would notice if I were to do so.

The next two photos, numbers two and three, show Chase wiping the car down with a tack cloth. A tack cloth is a lint free cloth treated with a chemical to make the cloth slightly sticky. The stickiness picks up any dust or debris and removes it from the car. A quality paint finish depends on the preparation, and making sure the surface is clean is all part of the preparation.

The next two photos, numbers four and five, show the dash after the sealer has been applied. The sealer seals all the materials below and prepares the surface for paint.

The sealer comes in seven shades of gray, from almost white to this very near black color. Each paint color has one of these specific grays assigned to it. Since the dash is going to be painted black, I am using the darkest of the seven grays.

Pictures six and seven show the dash after the paint has been applied. Unlike the red, this dash is painted with a semi-gloss paint. It wouldn’t do to have the dash so shiny that all you could see is in the glass is … well … the reflection of dash.

The last two photos, numbers eight and nine, show the car unmasked so you can see how the dash looks with the red of the car. I like the contrast between the red and black.

This finishes the painting. And it finishes it up with a dash of style I think. All that is left is the installation of the doors, fenders, hood and trunk lid, then the car will be ready for the owner to pick it up. I will hate to see it go, but it will make room for the next High Performance Finish project … and I can’t wait to get started on it.