Gloss or Flat Paint on the Dash

[jord]

MY body man wants to paint the dash with a flat lacquer finish, can someone help. He say's the sun would reflect onto the passengers and driver. What was the stock finish?

Thanks again

1939 LZ 4 door

Edited November 23, 2019 by jord (see edit history)

[babychadwick]

Mine has been repainted brown but it looks like an original much lighter brown underneath.  Both are gloss and I drive the car a lot (maybe 600-1000 a month) and glare has never been a problem.

'38 sedan

[jord]

Thanks for the information, searching for online photos I have found both.

[19tom40]

The dashboards were painted with a gloss enamel, a flat lacquer  will not look like the original. I painted the dash on my 40 Merc with base coat, clear coat. That has a higher gloss than single stage urethane or acrylic enamel and I have not been bothered by glare from the dash. I get more glare from my cowl vent.

 

My Lincoln still has the factory finish and it has more gloss that the outside original enamel.

 

IMHO, the flat finish would not look good.

[larry butcher]

Years back , when I painted the dash of my '38 LZ Conv. Coupe, I used  the correct color ; in "Nitro"  Lacquer --- what a mistake!  Too brittle! !   You could sp[it at it from 10 ft. and it would chip!

The folks above used a better paint

[jord]

Thanks to everyone, I will go with a base coat clear coat. Car is painted a burgundy color, chrome is going on then windshield, now that scares me then the dash and wheels.