Looking good! It will be nice to see it all back together again. The before and after pictures will be cool. Question for you. You said that you had your dashpad recovered. Do you have any details on that? What the process was etc. Is it something you think any auto upholstery shop could do? Was you dash badly cracked before the recovering? Laters, Jeff
The dash covers that Deaborn offers are plastics "caps" that just cover the old dash. They also need to be painted and I doubt anyone could buy the piece and have it painted for under $300. The repop dash they offer is $400 and still needs to be painted too. My upholstery guy filled in the big tear/crack and recovered it for under $150 and I chose the material and stitching type. The dash had one large crack in the center. Remember that my guy just covered the old dash so the old brittle pad is still under it and I had to be careful installing it back inside the Ranchero. I bet you could find a local place for the same price. Tim
I installed the headliner, carpet, back window, interior trim, polished the rear windows trim, hockey sticks and put the bed trim and lights back on. Not much to see on the time lapse other than me swinging the bed rails around trying to polish them.
It is a garage stored truck so I am hoping that frequent Mothers polish will be enough to keep it looking nice.
Polished aluminum degrades quickly. If you removed all the anodizing thoroughly you can achieve a semi reflective matte finish as with an aluminum wheel that is not too hard to maintain, but without coating it maintaining a smooth reflective shine will be almost a full time job.
I already have the headliner installed so I am stuck with the plain polish finish. I guess if it gets to be too much maintenance I can put some clear over it.
Look just the like the ones on Goldfish - and they've been there over 8 years and still no sign of dry rot or cracks.
My guy said they were really good tires too. i was very lucky to find those 14" Magnums for cheap. I just love the look.
Car looks very good - have you tracked down a paint store that can mix up that color for touch up if needed?
There is a Sherwin Williams Automotive store I can go to. Next weekend I will head down there and get some rattle can and touch up paint.
