1940's Dash Repaint

Hi all,

Does anyone have a source for dash re-paintings on 1940's cars? More specifically I need my 1941 Pontiac dash repainted to match original.

Thanks

Jason

Is it painted or is it woodgrain ? If it is woodgrain the material you would use would be "Di-Noc" which has been around for decades. There was an article in an old Special Interest Automobile on how to install it. Today any of the shops that vinyl wrap cars and vans could do it for you, They have an assortment of grain patterns for antique car dashboards and you should be able to find a close match.

Regardless of whether you use Di-Noc or spray paint or hire a painter to woodgrain the dash (another option in some areas but a lost art) you really need to disassemble and take everything off the dashboard to do a decent looking job - masking does not work very well (ask me how I know).

I have never seen a 40s car with Di-Noc. All of them, that I have owned or worked on, were painted. Di-Noc would be a nightmare to put on anything with sharp or complex curves.

1948 Chrysler Town and Countrys had Di-Noc on the door panels. Likely the car in question had a wood grained dash and far from being a "lost art" wood graining is readily available from a number of sources.

Mine is a 1941 Pontiac and it is a painted woodgrain dash. Thanks for the information so far.

Jason

I meant to say Di-Noc dashboards on 40s cars

Google 1941 Pontiac interior and you will see several woodgrained dashboards.

Special Interest Autos #11 (page 20) has an article on using Di-Noc on a dashboard, if memory serves it was a 1936 Ford (could be wrong on that). It was titled "Woodgraining with DiNoc" It seemed to work fine in spite of all the dash openings, sharp corners, etc.... I agree that painted woodgraining is better, depending on the skills of the painter.

Just my two cents

According to 3M, Di-Noc was developed over 70 years ago. Doing the simple math, that suggests 1945 or so. Perhaps it came out of some military research, but I don't know how that would be. I recall reading years ago that it was (and still is) something of a marvel in that it could be applied to metal prior to the stamping process and survive just fine.

The new hot setup is hydrographics

https://www.google.com/search?q=hydrograpics&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#tbm=vid&q=hydrographics+wood+grain

To answer the original poster's question, your dash was likely wood grained using a "printing" technique using engraved printing plates and a very soft roller. If you want it to be "as original" there is no other technique that will exactly replicate the original. Di-Noc, wood grained sticky paper, comb painting would all give you a wood grained effect but if you want original have it done by someone who uses the original technique and materials. There are plenty of folks who provide that service.

We've used Di-noc and despite the hype it seems to be little more than a cross between a water applied decal and very thin sticky paper. We almost pulled our hair out getting it neatly applied to the dash of a '53 Skylark.

Get a kit from Grain it technologies and do it yourself. I did and was really pleased with the results, especially since you'll probably end up wanting to do all the moldings before you are done.

Yep, we use Grain-it materials to do all our woodgraining. We even did the entire sides and moldings of a '55 Cadillac Station Wagon. Not advertising, we only do it on projects in our shop. It helps a lot if you have at least a bit of artistic ability.

Honest Charlies shop does a very good job on the woodgraining of Dash Boards, window trims etc.

According to 3M, Di-Noc was developed over 70 years ago. Doing the simple math, that suggests 1945 or so. Perhaps it came out of some military research, but I don't know how that would be. I recall reading years ago that it was (and still is) something of a marvel in that it could be applied to metal prior to the stamping process and survive just fine.

My remarks here where just referring to when Di-Noc was first employed by the factories. I didn't mean to suggest that it was a good or easy choice for a restorer. It clearly wasn't used originally on your '41 Pontiac, anyway.

Another shop that does woodgraining

http://www.julianos.com/wood_grainpic.html

All,

Thanks for the sources of dash/trim restore.

J