1955 wrinkle finish dash paint??

[Mark's 55]

I was going to replace the vinyl dash cover which obviously turned out to be a huge job. I'm going to paint the dash while I have it out but the gauge bezels look wrinkle finished. Are the dash and bezels supposed to have a wrinkle finish?

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[Machinehand]

Yes, the exposed areas of the lower dash, the tach and clock bezels and speedo housing should have a textured finish. It is technically Not a wrinkle finish though.

 

[DynoDan55]

Actually, the bezels and the lower dash had different finishes. Bezels are slightly textured, but lower dash was merely a very flat paint.
(I’m surprised how many restored Birds have that area painted glossy).

 

[Machinehand]

I must respectfully disagree.
I'm in the process of restoring a 55. The Black dash is all original. The lower dash and glove box door are textured with a satin gloss level. The texture was probably meant to mimic the vinyl cover on the upper dash. The pods and the speedo housing are also textured but in a slightly smaller version.

 

[Machinehand]

Here is a picture of the texture. This was when I was removing the Vinyl cover from the upper dash.

 

[DynoDan55]

It’s possible that the the different paint colors were either: applied by different equipment or workers, the pigment/components aged differently, or variously changed texture with frequent cleaning/varying atmospheric exposure. I would post a photo of my totally orig. 55 green dash if I knew how with an iPad. The lower ‘Thunderbird Blue/Skyhaze Green’ is more flat than satin, and slightly less textured than the dark green bezels. Since a southwest car, it likely got more top-down sun exposure for sure.

 

[Mark's 55]

Yes, the exposed areas of the lower dash, the tach and clock bezels and speedo housing should have a textured finish. It is technically Not a wrinkle finish though.

Any idea how to duplicate the textured finish?

 

[Machinehand]

It’s possible that the the different paint colors were either: applied by different equipment or workers, the pigment/components aged differently, or variously changed texture with frequent cleaning/varying atmospheric exposure. I would post a photo of my totally orig. 55 green dash if I knew how with an iPad. The lower ‘Thunderbird Blue/Skyhaze Green’ is more flat than satin, and slightly less textured than the dark green bezels. Since a southwest car, it likely got more top-down sun exposure for sure.

I absolutely agree with this. I'm sure there was much variation in the process.

Any idea how to duplicate the textured finish?

I’m not aware of any paint that will match the original finish straight out of the can although something may exist.

There are two challenges here. The texture and the color. I approached them separately. First I wanted to get the texture right and then spray the color over that.

Here is the process I used for my speedo housing in the picture. The end result is close to what was originally there. Keep in mind this was an experiment.

I used the Rust-oleum texture paint for the base texture coat. Out of the can, the texture was too aggressive, similar to beach sand, and the color was wrong. After that dried, I sprayed a couple coats of primer to fill in and soften the texture a bit. I lightly wet-sanded the texture to knock it down until I was happy with it. I then sprayed a couple coats of satin Black for the top coat to get the right color.

The dash lower will be more of a challenge. The texture is bigger in scale. When I get to that point, I will probably use the same method but with extra layers of primer to help enlarge the scale of the grain followed by wet sanding to flatten it out.

 

[DynoDan55]

I believe there may be paint cans designed to apply an actual vinyl finish (resulting texture thus more chemical than mechanical), which might suffice for the bezels (?), though compatibility with the more correct color over-paint is likely experimental. The factory process for the lower dash had to be specific to the equipment, much as drywall plaster is applied as a ‘popcorn’ finish.

 

[doug7740]

I absolutely agree with this. I'm sure there was much variation in the process.


I’m not aware of any paint that will match the original finish straight out of the can although something may exist.

There are two challenges here. The texture and the color. I approached them separately. First I wanted to get the texture right and then spray the color over that.

Here is the process I used for my speedo housing in the picture. The end result is close to what was originally there. Keep in mind this was an experiment.

I used the Rust-oleum texture paint for the base texture coat. Out of the can, the texture was too aggressive, similar to beach sand, and the color was wrong. After that dried, I sprayed a couple coats of primer to fill in and soften the texture a bit. I lightly wet-sanded the texture to knock it down until I was happy with it. I then sprayed a couple coats of satin Black for the top coat to get the right color.

The dash lower will be more of a challenge. The texture is bigger in scale. When I get to that point, I will probably use the same method but with extra layers of primer to help enlarge the scale of the grain followed by wet sanding to flatten it out.

CASCO sells the textured lower dash paint that you need.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue