There's a new-in-box dashmat being sold locally, on craigslist, for $20 that fits my car and in red. Am I to understand these are "fuzzy"? Would I be better off with a dashpad?
The mat is basically a cloth cover. They come with adhesive tape to hold it in place. Before installing one take it out of the box and let it sit unfolded for a day or two first. I would also recomend getting your own adhesive tape as the stuff that comes with it is OK but not great.
I'm geting a new dashcap.It's a plastic material,won't ever crack or fade,has the factory "grain" to it,and it's about $100.00.Looks like a new dash when installed.
here's a pic of the dashmat I had in my LS. Does a good job of protecting the dash.
I have one that is just like cougarman's. Cept it's grey to match the car... It's fuzzy, but I'll tell you it is one thing I used to take for granted untill I saw the birds in the s yard a couple of weeks ago. None of them had a slavagable dash due to terrible cracking. It's a must here in AZ to have one.
Ive got the ol Motorcraft dash mat. My mom bought way back when for my uncle when he owned the Cougar until he died. I love the mat, keeps the dash nice.
I don't personally think a carpetted dash would look all that great, but I've never seen it either
I have a dash mat that came with my car. I thought it looked cheesy and the fact that it didn't have a hole for the autolamp made me take it off. Car is from California and even though it had the cover the dash still cracked. I'm just going to get dash cap to fix it. I could just use the "rug" but I think it looks goofy.
Which brings us to a point - paint. I've only seen the caps available in a dark grey/black (one actual source?). How do paints look compared to the rest of the interior, treated or not? I'd think that its far less durable, while at the same time being either shinier or duller than everything else, depending on condition. Then again, the top of my dash is a darker red already
87 and 88's had a two tone red dash were as the older ones had a single brighter red color.
and that looks excellent on the passenger side of the vehicle, but horrid with the cracked driver's. I don't know if paint can capture the stock look
http://www.coolcats.net/stockmod/modified/dashtop.html
Scroll down for paint/installation. This was on my own '88 Blue Max's dash. The blues are a little off but that didn't bother me much. You can generally find a color that is close to what you have, or what you want, in the SEM paints. I imagine you can use virtually any kind of spray paint on them so long as the solvents don't eat the ABS or kill the grain texture.
Did they offer the dying of material, when that writeup was done? http://dashtops.com/dashboard/buydash.cfm/5385 . Possibly Fire Thorn Red, but then again, from the picture size, its hard to tell. Portola Red may be the ONLY correct one
Its hard to tell which is closest to the stock color(s)
Hmm didn't know you could get them dyed. I can't even tell which one is close to mine (a dark grey color). My dash top is almost the same color as the grey of the stearing column but I have no idea which color that is. I wonder how durable the dye is?
I think when they charge you for the color, they just spray it with the same SEM paint. To me, $8/can and a little work beats $20 extra initial cost, so that's why I posted the article, in case someone else gets inspired.
Anything concerning 1987-88 red interiors is Firethorn. That's the perfect match.
i thought 50resto sold cans of paint called scarlet and that was the match?
http://www.1aauto.com/1A/Dash_Pad_Cover/Ford/Thunderbird/1AIDC00131/277097
Are you talking about the items I mentioned here?
http://www.coolcats.net/stockmod/stock/index.html
If so, that's for the 1983-86 interior (Canyon Red). Sorry, guess I should have been more clear about that. Ford changed the red slightly for 1987 to Scarlet Red and it's definitely brighter than Canyon Red. I brought my old '88 XR7 with the Scarlet interior to the upholstery shop one day and determined that anything named Firethorn matched it perfectly (carpeting, headliner, etc.). So if there is a Firethorn paint, that's the match to Scarlet Red. Firethorn is just a generic aftermarket name for a bright red. It just happens to match Scarlet Red on Fords.
So does anyone know what color would match my dark grey dash?
According to this page...
http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/iwwida.pvx?;item?item_no=MET-F%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%201&comp=LRS
...your choice would be 84-86 Charcoal. In reality I've never had to match that color. Your main dash/interior color is Smoke Grey.
here is a pic of mine from about a year ago...
(http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/1024/carshow0231gm.th.jpg) (http://img251.imageshack.us/my.php?image=carshow0231gm.jpg)
This thread is tempting me to get a cap. How well do the paints flex with the dash padding? I was always just worried about it chipping off, but then I've never used many paint types before.
Ya know I wondered that too. I'm assuming that since they're a dye that they should flex pretty good. On another note thanks for giving me an idea of what color dye to get. I'm not going to get a dash cap till spring because it's too cold to put one on now. But when I do I'll let you know if that charcoal is the right color. If it isn't that's ok because I'll just dye the speaker grills and auto lamp sensor cover and no on will know the difference:D .