55 Thunderbird dashboard restoration

[JDJ]

1955 Thunderbird dashboard total restoration and upgrading to 12 volt?
I’m restoring my car finally after 45 years in storage and one of my current projects is stripping the dashboard (which is on a bench in the man cave) in between shoveling snow .
I plan on removing everything including the fabric ( and customizing the color). Does anyone know if there
is a source for fabric color or custom ones?
I’m going to keep the existing radio but going to “modernize” it and changing it to twelve volt. The radio is in pretty sweet shape and I’m sending it out to have the conversion done and wondered if it’s easy to remove the push buttons to clean and polish them and how to do this?
I’m also am planning on upgrading to electric wipers and maybe using the quartz clock. Any opinions? Videos or written articles on this?
I’m hoping someone out there has experience in this venture and can help answer my questions.

Thanks, JDJ

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[CSPIDY]

New Port Engineering sells an electric wiper system fo the 55-57 thirds. I installed one on my 57 and it was simple and fairly easy. With the dash out this should make peezy easy. They offer an intermittent style switch or a standard style. I used the intermittent and it was tight fitting into the dash but did fit. Works quite well. Www.newportwipers.com

Instrument Services Inc can convert your clock to quarts, they did mine and the process was painless. I bought the service from an eBay add, you may try contacting them direct sales@clocksAndGauges.com.

 

[henro]

Larry"s t-bird and several others sell the original dash vinyl in the original colors. use vinyl paint to change the color. not to hard to install but a heat gun really helps. Have fun!

 

[doug7740]

DASHBOARD TEXTURED SURFACE

By Bob DePaola

The lower third of the dash was painted. The color matches my interior upholstery. As you can see the surface has a textured surface. The surface texture was painted on by the Ford factory. The surface texture appears like a splattered pattern caused when you splash paint on a surface with a tooth brush and flick it with your finger. We have not been able to find a paint that would duplicate this texture. I was able to find at long last a wrinkle finish that can match the heater chamber, but that does not match the dashboard. The search went on for several months with no luck. I asked around and no one had any solution to the problem other than painting over it with a semi-gloss paint leaving any chips on the dash as is. In no case was I to sand it smooth.

I finally came up with a sort of a solution. I took heavy paint and in those large areas where the original paint was badly chipped off, I carefully daubed on the paint and let it dry. After a few days, and making sure it was dry, I then went over it and painted the entire surface with a semi-gloss black paint. I wound up purchasing several different manufacturers of spray paint. It took several tries to match the semi-gloss as each manufacturer has different shades of semi-gloss. I finally found Krylon Interior-Exterior semi-gloss closely matches the same sheen as the original.

I should note that the texture is the same on the speaker grill, ash tray and the glove box door. However the interior side of the ash tray and the glove box door are smooth (no texture), but is still painted the same color as the dashboard.

I have found another way of duplicating the texture. First and foremost make all repairs as necessary, filling in any dings or dents with body filler. Prime the damaged area with a good contacting color to the finished color. Now to get the texturing do the following:

Do not thin out the paint to be sprayed or if so very little.

Adjust the spray pattern down such that you get approximately a 2” diameter spray pattern with the gun about 10” from the surface.

Open the fluid level as compared to normal spraying.

Decrease the air pressure to 15-20 psi.

Spray a test pattern on some scrap metal or cardboard. Vary the fluid level and the psi until you achieve the desired texture.

After the texturing is good and dry, the final color can be applied.