66 390 GT dash top

[Tambo]

Dropped my car off today to have the dash top restored. It's been absolutely destroyed by the Phoenix sun and the guy doing the job here in OZ is a specialist in upholstering one-off hot rods and such. I took some "before" pics and have asked him to take some during the restore as I can't take them myself with his workshop being 50 miles away. I'll update when I have more information.

[Groover]

Hey Tambo, do you have a photo bucket with more photos of your whole car?

66 GT 390 would be my next Comet if I had a next Comet and yours looks very good.

[Tambo]

Hey Tambo, do you have a photo bucket with more photos of your whole car?

66 GT 390 would be my next Comet if I had a next Comet and yours looks very good.

I have pics in Photobucket but I've never linked albums to a forum before so let me know how it's done.
Peter.

[Groover]

Think you just go to your photo bucket home library page and copy the URL from the browser:

Here's mine:

http://s1231.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... e/library/

[Tambo]

Your Caliente's looking good.
I tried what you said but all 56 albums popped up so I deleted that and went back to Photobucket and privatised all the albums except the 66 Cyclone one.
So I'll try it again and see what happens ... http://s48.beta.photobucket.com/user/Gr ... 7212649366

[Tambo]

Well the dash top is finished and I got my car back today. The trimmer had to make a fibreglass top first and then do his trimming over that.
Looks a whole lot better that it did before.
Edit
I posted the before shots but Photobucket F***ked UP. I'm getting so over that site, fair dinkum.

Before

After


Before

After


Before

After

[Groover]

Looks great!

I went to the photo bucket and saw the "before" photos. Looks like the original doesn't have the stitching? Is it not possible for them to replicate without the stitching or just much easier this way? I've never done or had upholstery done so I have no idea.

Much improved. Now just keep it out of the sun, right?

[Lip Ripper]

To redo like OE Just dashes is $1300, Dash Bosrd Restorations is $700. Do you mind my asking what the upholstery shop charged?

LR

[B_Hix]

^^ Ditto

[Tambo]

My dash needed rebuilding and I got a couple of quotes for around the $800 mark but those trimmers were a bit vague about how they were going to attack it, with one wanting to make up a metal frame. The guy that I eventually used is well known in fitting out hot rods and confidently told me how he would do the job by making a fibreglass shell and then covering it. He quoted me $1000 and I gave him the job. Although his work is very good, I was surprised when I saw the stitching and asked why it was there. He's used to doing show cars and said he likes to give the dash some character but putting in some stitching and thought he was doing me a favour. I told him this car has been restored with originality in mind. (sigh) I guess life is full of these moments.

Then to top it off, his helper forced the instrument binnacle back into place and bent the speedo cable at 90 degrees, so when I was driving home it broke and now I have to remove it and take it to a specialist to have a new one made.

[B_Hix]

Well, it looks great to me. Understanding you are after original though. I had to buy a survivor off ebay....

[Tambo]

Because the speedo cable was jammed against the strut that supports the steering wheel hub I couldn't get the instrument binnacle out so I rang the trimmer and took the car back to him. I got underneath and undid the cable where it goes into the top loader ... this let us pull some slack up and get the binnacle out.
We repositioned the cable above the strut then I pulled out the inner cable expecting it to be broken. There was a burn mark on it at the 90 degree bend but it was in good shape. The rev counter had also stopped since his work so we checked that and found he had over crimped a bayonet and cut the wire so he fixed that. Then we put things back together and keeping finger crossed I took it for a drive. Hallelujah! Everything worked OK.

Question is .... how come the speedo stopped working and the inner cable was OK? It was obviously restricted by the 90 degree bend, so does the speedo have some sort of clutch arrangement in it to compensate?

[Lip Ripper]

Ouch. It's just hard to get quality work at any price.

[Lip Ripper]

Just for reference. They could've fixed your pad. They do reshape badly damaged pads as long as the frame work is good.


http://youtu.be/gi0zbqNau-4

[Boss/Cyclone]

I posted the before shots but Photobucket F***ked UP. I'm getting so over that site, fair dinkum.

I fixed your post. You had copied the direct link in the before images instead of the image link. By the way, I like the dash. The stitching looks cool, better than stock in my opinion.