1940 Cad. refurbish dash

[Guest]

Need information on how to paint dash.

Have a 1940 Cad limo. Want to redo the dash to original. It was a painted wood grain dash, can this method be duplicated to look like the original?

[6219_Rules]

Hi Mike, yes you can. There are several sources to be found out on the net for such things.

There are also companies that still apply Dynoc.

For example, I found that the Collector Car Restoration, Inc. had a video to teach these skills.

You can find them at www.carrestoration.com.

To start, try and find as many good, clear and color pictures of wood grain treatments for the 1940 Cadillac Series 75. Books, like Schneider's Cadillacs of the Forties, and magazines, like the Classic Automobile are a good start. Also if you use a news reader, there is a good, clean site : alt.binaries.pictures.autos where you can get or request photos from the collectors there to illustraite your car. I have had some good luck there.

You could also contact the Cadillac LaSalle Clubs technical advisors listed in the directory.

They have a wealth of information available to them.

Or ask on the AACA Technical or CCCA Technical forum. Everyone there will do all they can to offer support.

I hope that helps a little.

Good luck!

[Guest]

thank you for your reply, All information greatly appreciated. From the manual

that I have the serial #s tell me it's a series 72 town car. Last winter I purchased another one from a dealer in alabama, by the name of Terry Miller .This car was a parts car only, that we had chased down through Hemmings magazine. The interior is slightly different, but still a limo, but does not have a wood grain dash.

Thanks again for the help and if you have any more information or ideas, I would be glad to hear.

Mike

[6219_Rules]

Mike, glad to help. From what I can tell, the series 75 may not have had a wood grain dash. But it could have been an option? I am not sure. Here is a post I just wrote for the CLC but it bears repeating. I am very enthusiastic about this as you can tell!

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Hi guys! Thanks for all the good information. It is way early but I could not sleep (migrain and the effects of the medicine) so I put on the Goldberg Variations and sat down to tell you all about the Collector Car Restoration series video #5 on painting and wood grain detail.

It makes it so simple! Well...until you have to pull the dash board out that is.

After preparing the dash or other piece, spray it with the base color. That will give the grain tone. Take standard artists oil paint, in a darker color, and rub it all over the piece to be detailed. Then wading up a news paper, drag the paper across the piece giving it a subtle but telltale grain effect. Once this is done, you can apply some simple tools and techniques to develop the grain of your choice...from a burl to a pine, if you so desire. Since my car has an oriental mahogany grain, as Jeff said demonstrated on page 115 of Schneider's "Cadillacs of the Forties", which is a straight grain, you can take a grain tool or make the proper tool to drap the proper grain pattern. THis would look like an irregular comb with thick and thin teeth. The video shows a nice grain tool you can buy at Home Depot for this. If you are disatisfied with the effect or you did something like lean on it inopportunely like would, then a rag with mineral spirits wipes the oil paint off and you can start over as many times as is necessary. Once you have the pattern to your satisfaction, have the piece sprayed with four coats of clear lacquer. Then using a 2000 grit paper sand the unit to a high gloss. Follow this with a non-wax polish and buff to luster.

The finished surface is amazing.

The nice thing about this video is that while the gentlemen are very knowledgable, they have not done this much so you get to see them make errors and what an inexperienced hand can produce. I was greatly impressed.</div></div>