I had originally planned on only cutting and buffing the orange portion of the dash since the beige part had been a real PITA to sand prior to painting, however that plan was soon to be replaced!

The orange part of the dash actually wet sanded very well. I started with 1500, then 2000 and finished with 2500, all wet. When I went to buff out the orange I kept burning through the edge around the glove box door opening with my 9″ pads. The problem came about when I was trying to get into the bottom left corner of the sculpted passenger side of the dash. After the second time that it happened, I had decided that I was getting tired of air brushing the damn thing so I put it aside while I worked on a few other issues.

As luck would have it, we went to the Route 66 Days car show in Flagstaff last Friday and Saturday and I ran into Page Barnes who has been painting cars for more years than most folks have been alive. I told Page of my problems with the buffer and he said I need a 3″ pad. I told him that I agreed but no one in Show Low had the 9″ pads let alone the 3″. We went our seperate ways and while I spent my time chatting with folks that I had not seen in a long time, Page headed up to the vendor area where he located the Tool Guy, who happened to have the pads I needed plus the right velco arbor. Art Bans was with him and he called me to tell me of the find. I beat feet up to the Tool Guy and bought two sets of the pads, the arbor and a 1 and 3″ Rolloc arbors and sanding discs that I had been looking for, for sometime.

When I got back home I made short work of the unbuffed orange area on the dash. It worked so well that I decided to do the beige part of the dash as well. Everything went very smoothly (pardon the pun) and the new pads made this tight area a no brainer to do.

So sometimes it does pay to bitch a bit to the right folks who can point you in the right direction! Thank you Page and Art! The dash is now ready to have all the instruments, knobs and levers installed.

Oh, and I got a very reasonable quote back from Royal Plating for plating the sun visor arms, speaker grill, cowl vent lever and the trim piece that goes over the speedometer. The great news is that JR can also plate the Dodge emblem that goes on the speaker grill gold like it was originally. Since it is the only thing on the body that IDs it as being a Dodge, I decided to have it plated gold as well. Hey a little bling is always a good thing eh?

Cut & Buff the Dashboard

I have been installing stuff in the dash, wait till y’all see the end result. I am never very happy with the stuff I do, but this time the end result is looking pretty nice. Just the right amount of 21st Century technology and 1950’s new jet age style.