Nelson

Steve. I won’t be there until Wednesday.. getting a late start

I’m curious. Nobody seems to mention anything about going. I’ll be there for what that’s worth😬

Has anybody noticed on some of the original all black carpet cars, that it fades into the speckled or salt and pepper? They were so tight on money that they were dying their inventory instead of just making black from virgin carpet.

Are there any kits available anymore or a worth while substitute kit?

There use to be a splatter paint but I couldn’t find one. I thought with something like that I could figure out how to spray it to get close to the right texture then sand it to bring the level way down to make it look more like grain. Maybe next time.

So how is there two of them?

Maybe a counterfeit out there?#

This is the PO info:

Now that is strange. I thought maybe it was a typo but body and serial # match. Here are some photos of mine. The edge color on the body tag is silver metal not white.

Bob. Just went out and checked it. Serial # is 63R3544. Body # 63RQ5082 engine # R2497. Where did your info originate? This car is all original. Never repainted with exception of spot work paint is still shot. Body tag is as you would expect mostly gold. Serial number on plate on frame with correct rivets. 140 speed not 160. I had checked the PO prior to purchase and all was correct.

It’s not real early. 6R3544. I also have a white with orange which is 48##. I think there were two or three with a little later number but less than 4892.

That texture paint is interesting. It mentions dashes but also bumpers. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a textured bumper which leaves me wondering if the product allows a textured finish to me added using texture stamps often used in vinyl repair.

Thanks for the compliments. Yes it’s pretty much all bondo. I did use fiberglass mesh on the large cracks in an effort to keep them from returning. I also did the crack areas with the better bondo with glass fiber already in it. That stuff is a lot harder to sand so all the major applications were done using light weight stuff as it sands easily. There is no grain in the bondoed areas. I bought some spray bed liner thinking it might look like grain but it just looked like paint. I was thinking you might be able to shrink wrap a grained skin on the whole dash? Actually it looks good enough. I doubt there will be many people that notice the different textures

Well I’ve been playing around with a 63 Avanti I bought out of Phoenix Arizona and yesterday I decided to try to resurrect a really shot dash pad. The pad had actually fallen down far enough to hide the instrument. The Arizona heat had pretty much cooked the dash. The car really deserves a new dash pad but trying to recoup a $2000 plus plus investment can be difficult to do with a run of the mill 63 Avanti. So yesterday I decided to try to repair the dash to bring it to something presentable. I didn’t get a picture prior to starting on the project but the dash pad was really BAD! My first picture is after I heated the underside of the pad by the instruments using a heat gun. I was able to raise it back up to its original location with a 4 1/2 inch by 12 inch piece of plywood and a wood prop from the underside of the plywood to the steering column. I left that prop there through the entire process and removed it prior to paint. I then sanded the top of the pad with 80 grit paper. I also completely cleaned the entire dash with “Prep All” prior to doing any work. All cracks were reinforced with fiberglass mesh to keep the crack from returning. After those repairs were made I started with the bondo. Shaping the bondo a cheese grader was used to rough in the shape followed by 36 grit sand paper to 150 grit to 400 grit. I found a close match to the original elk dash color in a Rustolium spray paint called French Beige. I have about $25 wrapped up in the project and a good day to day and a half worth of work. It looks pretty decent. Not a new pad for sure but beats what was there and looks better than a carpet covering the pad.

Hi Steve. Are you driving or flying to the meet? I’m going to the show also. Is there any way to bring the shroud? What do you need for it?