Important ashtray questions

[burvis]

My 1968 500 has a padded-dash material surrounding the radio and covering the front of the ashtray. (see pic) I don't know what you call it. A valence?
Let's call it a valence.

A gap had formed at the top and the PO had tried to run a bead of some kind of glue there and it looked... bad. So I took it out, reworked it, fixed it up, scraped off the bad glue job, etc. But when I went to reinstall, it didn't want to fit and still looked pretty bad with a big gap at the top. I mocked up the vintage-style radio faceplate and found that it covers the rivet holes that held the valence. They had gotten a little bunged up during removal. Looked pretty good, so I think I am just going with the all metal dash. But, my ashtray still has the padded dash material on the face of it and looks all wrong now.

2 questions - if I take that padded stuff off, do I have the regular stock ashtray front underneath, that I can just clean up and color match?
Also, are there differences between LM ashtrays? There's one on Ebay for a '66, but the mounting hinge looks different than mine.
And, uh, anyone have one that will fit my car?

Thanks.

[steve57]

Looks like you’re missing the top piece of the valence as you call it. Basically a piece of tubing covered with vinyl and stapled to the top.

[bmwtodd1]

Burvis, I can't comment on your ashtray, but I was very impressed with your grammar and punctuation. Folks don't take the time much these days.

[bbodie52]

» Fri Feb 07, 2020 12:24 pm

My 1968 500 has a padded-dash material surrounding the radio and covering the front of the ashtray. (see pic) I don't know what you call it. A valence?
Let's call it a valence.

va·lence
/ˈvāləns/

noun CHEMISTRY•LINGUISTICS

the combining power of an element, especially as measured by the number of hydrogen atoms it can displace or combine with.
"carbon always has a valence of 4"

relating to or denoting electrons involved in or available for chemical bond formation.
modifier noun: valence

"molecules with unpaired valence electrons"

LINGUISTICS
the number of grammatical elements with which a particular word, especially a verb, combines in a sentence.



fa·cade
/fəˈsäd/

noun
the face of a building, especially the principal front that looks onto a street or open space.
Similar: front, frontage, face, aspect, elevation, exterior, outside

an outward appearance that is maintained to conceal a less pleasant or creditable reality.
"her flawless public facade masked private despair"

Similar: show, front, appearance, false display, pretense, simulation, affectation

a deceptively attractive external appearance
the company's facade of success collapsed when it was revealed that its financial officers had been cooking the books for years
Synonyms for facade

gloss, veneer, window dressing





A Corvair padded thingy...

thing·y
/ˈTHiNGē/

noun INFORMAL
plural noun: thingies

a person or thing whose name one has forgotten, does not know, or does not wish to mention.



Padded THINGY

What we have here is a transitional thingie, designed by GM engineers as an add-on to satisfy politicians, bureaucrats, and customers.

Padded Dashboard

A dashboard is a control panel placed in front of the driver of an automobile, it holds instrumentation and controls for operation of the vehicle.

Padded dashboards are designed to reduce face and chest injuries to the driver and front passenger, in front-on collisions. They are made from polyurethane foam, while the surface is commonly either polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or leather. The first padded dashboard was invented in 1948 by Preston Tucker and was first seen in his car named Tucker Sedan (nicknamed Torpedo) in the same year.

[burvis]

Brad - thank you for your reply, and for all your detailed replies in this forum, they have helped me many times. Thingy it is. Those GM engineers shouldn't have bothered, as the dash looks a lot better without it.

Now I need to score an ashtray and a spray can of Ash Gold paint, and I'm all set.

[burvis]

Ashtray from Ebay. Ash Gold rattle can, also Ebay. A bit of elbow grease, et voila:
From this:

before ashtray

To this:

after ashtray

[adski79]

What year make/model is this. Have a ‘68 vert and had “a moment” with the mistress last week, demo now underway.

[terribleted]

What year make/model is this. Have a ‘68 vert and had “a moment” with the mistress last week, demo now underway. 1FF11914-3A11-4038-B384-10FC3199A8E2.jpeg

His is a 68. Yours appears to be missing the center dash pad around the radio etc. You do have the little cover strip at the top of the dash center that Burvis seemed to be missing.

[66vairguy]

Burvis --- Must be a slow day with all superfluous comments. Anyway --- the padded area around the radio/ashtray is a surround or soft bezel. The ashtray has a "fascia" attached. It was a nice safety item back then, although the material tends to shrink with age. Still more durable than the cheap stuff Chevy used in the 1970's.

I'm going to guess the ashtray holder is the same, but you should verify. The early LM ash trays had a black handle held to the front curved metal with screws. Later the ashtray handle was a formed part of the metal cover. I've never found information as to when, or why, the change occurred. I do know the plastic handle ash tray is much easier to open!

You should have no trouble finding the part. The Corvair Ranch or California Corvair should have the parts, just make sure to ask for the ashtray with the plastic handle.