Corvair Forum

Has anybody stripped the instrument and glovebox panels down to bare metal and clear-coated them. I need to strip mine to paint them anyways so I was wondering how it would look. If anybody has done this please post pictures. Thank you.

On late models the instrument and glove box surround are bright aluminum. That's the good news. The glove box door however is dull steel.

That's too bad, thanks.

I've seen it done and don't care for it myself. Besides the multiple reflections that come with a polished surface like that, I just think it's the wrong look.

I agree with Dave. The picture I posted was just the first step in preparing to paint. the next three show the process. I tried to get them in order, but I hope you get the idea.

My Yellow Corsa came to me with bare shiny dash panels, It was hard to drive because I always wanted to comb my hair in the reflection!

Fast Eddie - What brand paint(s) did you use? Was that an etching primer on aluminium? Nice looking job. Will be going down this same road soon...

Bob
First I striped off all the old paint with a spray paint remover. Then I used Rust-Oleum self etching primer. I used VHT wrinkle paint.
Plasti-Coat makes a good wrinkle paint, but I had better luck with the VHT. Really best to do this on a hot sunny summer day.

If you're not married to a OEM appearance, you can also wrap it in vinyl. It's a bit of a PIA around the gauge barrels but you just have to patient. There are scads of options. I wrapped mine with a brushed aluminum vinyl and I'm thinking about redoing it with black carbon fiber wrap.

I don't have a great picture but here is my cluster with the brushed aluminum vinyl.

Neat idea. Looks great, you do nice work!

ONLY the 1965 glove box surrounds were aluminum. When Chevy dropped the bright edge in 1966 they went to painted steel glove box surrounds after the aluminum surrounds were used up.

The glove box surround trim was aluminum on all the Late Model MONZA and Corsa models.
Only the 500 models had no surround trim on the right side. They were painted dash metal only.
The overlay made of press formed aluminum continued on thru the end of production for the fancier Monza.

Notice this 1969 Monza interior photo:

The aluminum overlays were painted wrinkle finish and then installed in the car to provide that upscale sporty appearance that was part of the Monza Mystique!

Another thing I ran into when I redid mine has to do with the edges. As you can see, when I refinished mine with the vinyl wrap, I chose to leave the outer edges bare. While this isn't the factory look, I personally like it, especially on a black dash. (FYI, see Fast Eddie's pics for the OEM look where only the gauge barrels and switch rings have a bright edges).

HOWEVER, leaving the outer edges as bare metal will result in glare/reflection of the top edge of the trim pieces on the inside of the windshield when the sun is just right. Not a fatal problem but certainly noticeable in the right light.

1966-Corsa-GT-180 wrote:The glove box surround trim was aluminum on all the Late Model MONZA and Corsa models.
Only the 500 models had no surround trim on the right side. They were painted dash metal only.
The overlay made of press formed aluminum continued on thru the end of production for the fancier Monza.

The Corsa or Monza later glove box surrounds looked the same as the 1965 aluminum unit with the bright trim perimeter line, but in fact they were painted steel on Vairs built on the west coast. I've got THREE of the steel glove box surrounds I've pulled off 66 and later Vairs.

Did the Willow Run built cars continue to use aluminum glove box surrounds after 1965? I don't know, but I doubt GM would waste money on an aluminum surround that was completely painted over on the 1966-69 cars.

I seem to remember the 68-69 cars had steel glove box surrounds. The way you can tell the 68-69 surround is the edge closest to the radio/center is flat so the center pad can sit flat.