Working Blue
Well, Saturday I got up full of boyish enthusiasm--LAUNDRY DAY! WOO-HOO! Not really--well, yes, it was laundry day, and I had successfully managed to convince Miss Reba NOT to start trying to do clothes on Thursday but rather wait until Saturday when we could get ALL of them washed at once--but that wasn't the REAL reason for my happitude.
It was DASHBOARD PAINTIN' DAY!
As I've mentioted before, the current dashboard suffers from a terrible case of Grand Canyonitis, with fissures and cracks and separations and spalls across the top surface of the pad. Although the cragginess is common in 240s, it's still not attractive, and reminds one of driving around with Edward James Olmos's face in front of you. So, I was anxious to get that one final cosmetic thing fixed, even if it meant buying a mismatched dash and painting it blue.
Which is exactly what I set out to do. Got me some of the proper color SEM vinyl interior coloring material from IPD (95% Volatile Organic Compounds--MMmmm!) and some surface prep spray that smelled like lighter fluid.
And Saturday was just a great day for such things, seeing as how I had to do it outside. This is NOT the thing to do indoors, unless you've got a big area and some big fans. But it was gorgeous Saturday, with bright sun, and temps above 60, a tiny bit of wind, but no humidity. Just perfect.
But first I had to go get breakfast and some groceries. ::sigh:: Took Rebecca with me for some company and dropped down to the foot of the hill to Winn-Dixie. And had an idea! (Yes, it hurt.)
We were walking by one of the inexplicable displays in the freezer aisle--scrub outfits. I guess there's a market for scrubs bought from a grocery store, and the frozen food aisle is the best place to put them. Anyway, I turned to Rebecca and said, "Hey, how about this--how would you like to dress up like a veterinarian for Halloween, and you could get one of your stuffed animals and put a bandage on its head, and wear Mom's stethoscope?"
"Hm-okay."
She actually seemed much more excited than her duosyllabic answer. She picked out a top that had teddy bears on it, and some blue pants. We got the rest of the stuff, including a big pan of lasagna for the pot luck on Sunday, and went and got breakfast, and came home.
I bolted down my prepacked faux Mexican/Scottish food and ran outside to start setting up my dashboard for its new look.
First, some old folding chairs to set the thing on, then the big plastic molding itself--the maneuvering of which from the garage, through the kitchen, to the backyard was fraught with peril, and potential droppage.
Took off the trim bits, propped it up just so, sprayed it down with the fireball-waiting-to-happen prep spray, and then it was time to color. WHOA--man, that's some more bright blue!
Well, no turning back.
I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and got it all done, and then thought I might better see just how badly this thing was off from the actual color. Because it was BRIGHT blue. I went inside and got the front off of my old glovebox, figuring I could always paint that and have it all match. Brought it outside, and lo and behold--it was an EXACT match. Whaddya know!?
I went ahead and sprayed the front of the glovebox just in case, and after it was all over with, the dashboard looked like it came from the factory. Next step was the defroster vents and the speaker grill. They were newish, but still a bit dirty, and the speaker grill was actually not as good as the one I got a couple of weeks ago out of the junkyard. I cleaned the vents and popped them in, and went and got my other grill, which also had the benefit of the fiberboard backer on the inside of the grill to keep the fragile plastic ribs from breaking and falling inside the dashboard. I carefully swept out the dirt from between the tiny fragile closely-spaced ribs with a cloth and ::snap::
AGGHHHFF%$!&^^*!
A quarter inch long bit of one of the ribs clicked cleanly out of the middle of the speaker grill. Trying SO bleedin' hard to be gentle, and the silly thing STILL broke. Danged Swedes.
So, out with the epoxy while the dashboard continued to bask in the cool midday autumn sunlight. Toothpicks, glue, stink, swirl, dab, dab, pliers to hold it in place, done. For now.
Clicked the grill in place and stood back to admire my work. Very nice. Now the big thing is going to be getting it in place--Dave Shannon's website has a good explanation of the process (also the source of instructions for when I did my odometer repair), and so far everything else has gone pretty well. We'll see how this goes when the time comes--maybe this upcoming Saturday? I dare not hope for such a thing! (Don't want to jinx myself, you know.)
It was DASHBOARD PAINTIN' DAY!
As I've mentioted before, the current dashboard suffers from a terrible case of Grand Canyonitis, with fissures and cracks and separations and spalls across the top surface of the pad. Although the cragginess is common in 240s, it's still not attractive, and reminds one of driving around with Edward James Olmos's face in front of you. So, I was anxious to get that one final cosmetic thing fixed, even if it meant buying a mismatched dash and painting it blue.
Which is exactly what I set out to do. Got me some of the proper color SEM vinyl interior coloring material from IPD (95% Volatile Organic Compounds--MMmmm!) and some surface prep spray that smelled like lighter fluid.
And Saturday was just a great day for such things, seeing as how I had to do it outside. This is NOT the thing to do indoors, unless you've got a big area and some big fans. But it was gorgeous Saturday, with bright sun, and temps above 60, a tiny bit of wind, but no humidity. Just perfect.
But first I had to go get breakfast and some groceries. ::sigh:: Took Rebecca with me for some company and dropped down to the foot of the hill to Winn-Dixie. And had an idea! (Yes, it hurt.)
We were walking by one of the inexplicable displays in the freezer aisle--scrub outfits. I guess there's a market for scrubs bought from a grocery store, and the frozen food aisle is the best place to put them. Anyway, I turned to Rebecca and said, "Hey, how about this--how would you like to dress up like a veterinarian for Halloween, and you could get one of your stuffed animals and put a bandage on its head, and wear Mom's stethoscope?"
"Hm-okay."
She actually seemed much more excited than her duosyllabic answer. She picked out a top that had teddy bears on it, and some blue pants. We got the rest of the stuff, including a big pan of lasagna for the pot luck on Sunday, and went and got breakfast, and came home.
I bolted down my prepacked faux Mexican/Scottish food and ran outside to start setting up my dashboard for its new look.
First, some old folding chairs to set the thing on, then the big plastic molding itself--the maneuvering of which from the garage, through the kitchen, to the backyard was fraught with peril, and potential droppage.
Took off the trim bits, propped it up just so, sprayed it down with the fireball-waiting-to-happen prep spray, and then it was time to color. WHOA--man, that's some more bright blue!
Well, no turning back.
I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and got it all done, and then thought I might better see just how badly this thing was off from the actual color. Because it was BRIGHT blue. I went inside and got the front off of my old glovebox, figuring I could always paint that and have it all match. Brought it outside, and lo and behold--it was an EXACT match. Whaddya know!?
I went ahead and sprayed the front of the glovebox just in case, and after it was all over with, the dashboard looked like it came from the factory. Next step was the defroster vents and the speaker grill. They were newish, but still a bit dirty, and the speaker grill was actually not as good as the one I got a couple of weeks ago out of the junkyard. I cleaned the vents and popped them in, and went and got my other grill, which also had the benefit of the fiberboard backer on the inside of the grill to keep the fragile plastic ribs from breaking and falling inside the dashboard. I carefully swept out the dirt from between the tiny fragile closely-spaced ribs with a cloth and ::snap::
AGGHHHFF%$!&^^*!
A quarter inch long bit of one of the ribs clicked cleanly out of the middle of the speaker grill. Trying SO bleedin' hard to be gentle, and the silly thing STILL broke. Danged Swedes.
So, out with the epoxy while the dashboard continued to bask in the cool midday autumn sunlight. Toothpicks, glue, stink, swirl, dab, dab, pliers to hold it in place, done. For now.
Clicked the grill in place and stood back to admire my work. Very nice. Now the big thing is going to be getting it in place--Dave Shannon's website has a good explanation of the process (also the source of instructions for when I did my odometer repair), and so far everything else has gone pretty well. We'll see how this goes when the time comes--maybe this upcoming Saturday? I dare not hope for such a thing! (Don't want to jinx myself, you know.)
posted by Terry at 10/31/2005 11:37:00 AM
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