I restored some antique cars. Can feel your pain. Takes lots of time. Learning to drive em was an adventure. Especially in traffic. I had a full time job, was also in grad school, had a wife, 2 kids in diapers, a dog, a pussycat, and a girlfriend. I just couldn’t handle it all. Quit grad school.

Hi the_veg,

That's quite a project you have there. Looks like you're making progress. What kind of wood are using to fabricate the dash?

The structure of the dashboard is some kind of plywood. No idea of the specifics; it's whatever Lotus could get in those days and they were known for playing fast and loose with supplies. The veneer is the part I'm renewing. I'm not sure what the original veneer was, as the varnish had dulled and yellowed so much that the grain was no longer very distinct. The veneer was also crackng and wrinkling, and the glue had decayed into a chalky powder, so it all had to go and a putty-knife was all I needed to scrape it off.

The new veneer is a walnut burl, and I used a type that came pre-pressed to perfect smoothness and has a fiber backing (basically a tough, dense cardboard). I used Titebond III to glue it down, and used the glass top from my coffee table and a few heavy objects on top of that to keep it all pressed while curing. The new finish is polyurethane, and the labels for the switches and warning lights are dry-transfer reproductions of the original labels. The original labels were screen-printed on top of the varnish but can easily be scraped off when they get old, so I applied the dry transfer before applying the last couple of coats of polyurethane so they're protected. Now I just need to finish rubbing the poly to shiny smoothness, then I can start re-assembling the dashboard. The wiring will get all new terminals and the switches have all been cleaned, lubricated, and their black plastic restored.

In other departments, the brake work is progressing slowly. I've got the rusty, greasy old pedal-box apart, now I need to get it cleaned up and painted and back in the car. Soon the master cylinder will get sent for sleeving, and once that's back I'll be ready to have a friend who knows how fab-up a couple of new brake lines to bypass the discarded servos. Meanwhile, I've got the parking brake lever out, repaired, and almost ready for paint. The other end of the parking brake system needs work too.

Body insulation continues. The fuel tank is back in and just needs its vent-lines plumbed. The heater is rebuilt and ready to go back in, but not until I take advantage of its absence to service the wiper gears.

That's the latest, but there's still a LONG way to go.

Also just uploaded more pics to the gallery. Nothing stunning, just a few of moving the car to the new house and a few more to document parts.

A technique for duplicating clock and instrument faces.

This technique has been used for restoring antique clock faces and might be useful for some parts of auto restoring. It makes use of digital cameras and photo processing software. Remove the hands. Make a copy photo of the face. Record overall dimensions. Adjust camera settings to reproduce accurate colors with the light source used to amke the exposures. Touch up the photo with software. Remove blemishes and add missing bits of the face markings. Adust color if necessary. Save a copy of the processed photo. Set the protections on the finished photo file to keep it from accidental deletion or edits.

Print a full scale photo of the face. The print can be scaled during printing to produce an exact size. Photo papers come in several finishes. Chose the one that best fits the original be it glossy or mat. Print several photos of the face in case one is ruined. Cement the photo face in place. You'll have a face with refreshed numerals, etc.

One caution. Watch for copyrights. Do not duplicate copyrighted materials.

Very hot car I am restoring a 1955 dodge Pickup. Found out hard way a lot of low life in body shops