Vent Control Restoration

[blee]

Getting down to the nitty-gritty on my '70 restoration and the vent control is one of the final items left on the "to do" list.

Here it is with the face sanded and disassembled:





The square screens can be removed by gently prying on the corners with a pin to reveal the red & blue plastic light covers. I painted the screens separately and masked-off the squares while painting the face. The colored plastics were covered with 45-years worth of crud, but a little rubbing alcohol did the trick.




This part is important: DO NOT use Krylon, RustOleum, or any other off-the-shelf crap paint to paint the face. They work for certain applications, but not here. They will not work! (I found out the hard way - twice!) You'll want to use a quality product like this:



Then the tricky part - steady hands, and a very fine-tip brush & tooth pick... (Re-did this twice too!) The white arrows were plastic pieces glued-on, but I only had one to begin with and the second one fell off during this process so I decided to use white paint. A little extra effort was needed to find a close match for the blue - model paint from the local hobby shop.




...and viola!





Not too shabby. It's ready for installation!

P.S. The knobs were cleaned and soaked in Armorall before assembly.

[Slanski62]

I'm very impressed. I struggled and painted mine many, many times and never got it looking this good. (It would have helped if I had taken it out of the car!) I used Wurth trim paint, and chips of blue plastic rather than blue paint. Note the white arrows aren't really white. They're glow in the dark green. You can buy this paint.

I have four or five vent controls accumulated in my attempts to get one I'm satisfied with. I'll keep trying and use lacquer next time. You got a very smooth finish. Thanks for giving me hope.

[Dmitry at Pelican Parts]

+1 thanks for sharing and for that detailed write up! If you have any other DIY write ups, then you may be interested in the link below. If we publish your article, we'll give you credit and 10% off your next order. Please let us know if you have any questions!

DIY Project Expert Submission

[ace123]

Looking good! Great job!