sdonaghey

You can always try and go over the dash pieces with Nite Shades. I tried it on a "junk" dash piece really quick last week, and it did make the chrome pieces into black chrome. I did a light sanding on te chrome before spraying it, so it look like it should stay on good. My last dash I painted the chrome silver to match the satin interior. I replaced the whole dash this past winter with the dark charcoal dash, but it now has the chrome in it, whihc i really do not care for. I might try the op's method of just putting on a flat clear to tone it down a bit.

How lightly should the chrome be sanded and with what grit? 1000/2000?

MADSCOTSMAN

Looks nice. Quick question regarding the gauge faces. Did they require you to remove the needles? If so, how do you ensure the correct alignment of them when you put them back on? Did this back in the day on an 04 GT, but I had to remove the needles and had to take several of them back off and on to get the gauges to read correctly.

TIA

atldave

Man, I'm glad to read this thread! I have a vert and was giving serious consideration to adding alum TO the dash. I just don't like that huge expanse of plastic. I never thought about the reflection problem.

JimC

The whitegauges.net set that I have don't require you to take off the needles. They slide over the needles - but I did end up shifting them a little while installing. I moved them back to the "resting" marks and they seem to be fine. It is a little tricky getting this set on because you have to line them up with the numbers and such.

American Muscle sells an overlay where you pull the needles off (they have instructions for how to set them up), then pull the stock overlay off and put the white face overlay on and reinstall the needles.

JRANGER

looks pretty damn good

bk15724

looks awesome man, so did you do any prepping or priming for painting the vents? or did you just paint it directly? im thinking about painting mine black also and just wanted to know how to do it correctly. thanks

JimC

Thanks - just this week I pulled the trim rings again and did some sanding on them to reclear them. With the heat of the summer and the cold A/C blowing on them a few spots didn't look right to me so I decided it would be easier to sand and respray. Looks a lot better now. Initially I didn't do any sanding on them and just sprayed but I think it needs a light sanding for better grip of the matte clear.

I also fixed the tach since I was taking things apart - the overlay was off just a little bit and was bugging me every time I looked at it. You can't peel the overlay off though and still use it - I had already ordered a replacement from White Gauges (I think it was $4 for the one piece).

tigercrazy718

i love this jim
i think im gonna have to copy you and paint the vents black
so yea what grade sand paper did u use?

JimC

I had to run out to the garage and check! I used a 180 to scuff up the vents themselves. They held up well. The paint was just some model car paint I bought at the Hobby Lobby. I didn't get the paint made for interior finishes.

tigercrazy718

cool beans
i really like this mod i shouldve thought of it earlier
i think ill do the vents first and if they hold up really well i think ill do the whole dash!