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MG Midget and Sprite General - Dash finish? Gloss, satin or matt

I'm about to repaint the dash on my 69 midget. It's not the original paint so I wanted to know whether it should be gloss, satin or matt black?

Greg
Greg H

It is a matt wrinkle finish

But if you want to paint it with normal paint I would take a matt finish since you do not want reflections blinding you
Onno Könemann

Defintaly NOT gloss... you dont waant to go there

Matt finish would look the best in my opinion
Prop


Thanks guys matt it is then. Will be wrinkle finish too.
Greg H

Right, IMHO I think wrinkle finish looks best. A few years back I resprayed the lid on my ashtray with black wrinkle, and it turned out very nicely. That said, I think heat may assist the wrinkling process, especially when ambient temps are cool. Others will be able to advise...

Cheers, and post pics,

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

Greg,

My experience with wrinkle is the same as Gryf's. My first couple coats hardly wrinkled at all. Then I heated the panel before I sprayed it and it wrinkled just fine. As I recall, I heated it quite hot. I think it was reaching the upper limit of being comfortable to hold onto.

Charley
C R Huff

Whats wrong with gloss lads ?
Mine is body colour midnight blue, and I love it.
Thats of course you are wanting to keep it original.

Rob Newt

shines in your eyes with top down summer driving.
Onno Könemann

Hi Onno
Look closer have you not noticed the obligatory shades !!
Seriously, never had a problem.
Rob Newt

I even used a bit of black tape on the side of the wiper arm to stop a reflection once.
Even with shades!

Though I have had lot's of trouble with my eyes and get migrane like head aches if I irritate them
Onno Könemann

Perhaps my wife is irritated by the reflection as she gets lots of headaches, mmm ? but she doesn't come in the midge !!
Strange that.
Rob Newt

Rob I'm painting my car Midnight Blue and was intending to do what you have done to the dash. After all, most of the classic wood dashboards are glossy.
Mike Howlett

Right choice Mike,Fav colour for me followed by Tartan red.
I think you would only have a reflection problem if it was silver.
Rob Newt

My car's going to be metallic Candy red. I'm planning to paint the dash the same colour.
here's a pic of the colour in the boot...

graeme jackson

Graeme have to say that colour will look fantastic on a midget. Would love to see a pic of that when its all painted.
C Carter

Graeme. Great colour. One of my all time favourites.
I'm one of the gloss brigade. I got the idea after I'd looked at a VW Beetle which usually have body coloured dashes. This pic was taken during the restoration and obviously well before the Type 9 conversion. Never had any dazzling problems.

Bernie.

b higginson

I really like those metall dashboards, if I didnt hade an American one I to would go go for a gloss-body collor painted dash.
I like my US dash but your limited in adding gauges and on the metal dash some of you done great jobs by adding more gauges.
Arie de Best

Wow, I think I've changed my tune. Those body-color dashes look superb! And Graeme, what an amazing shade of red. Your car's going to be a serious fashion-plate when done! :-)

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

While you generally only see wrinkle (crackle) finish paint in matt black or matt red I've seen it in a gloss brown. I suspect that it's possible to turn any gloss paint into a wrinkle finish gloss paint.

So, if you want to set a trend, be different but period sympathetic, how about body colour in wrinkle finish?

Daniel Thirteen-Twelve

Painting the dash the same color as the car color is perfectly fine... In fact I like it as the car color is a contrast to whats there

its when you do black and combine it with alot of other blacks and then have various texture as well

sorta like walls in a house with knock down finish then paint with a gloss paint... it makes for a harsh finish, esp if its a dark color

But yes I like it, it compliments it vary nice...

Now .... if you spray the dash with heavey texure rhino linner then paint it in a dark gloss... it will look like ... Well you know what.

Prop
Prop

I am also part of the 'gloss' brigade, red car, red dash and cream (keeping it clean) interior.

Each car will be different and will look better in either a gloss or wrinkle finish just depends on your taste.
Chris Guards Red Midget

Oh well, better add my dash then. 2k tartan red to match the exterior.

Neil K

Neil

what seats are those
Prop

Prop,
They are Cobra Classic Signature Seats. I had the white piping put on to match the door cards of the MkII Midget. They bolt straight to the floor. I bought them from Merlin Motorsport at Castle Combe, Wiltshire, UK.

Neil K

Neil,

Do you have adjuster sliders in the base for leg length with your set up ? - I used to have Corbeau GT4 I think - made for the rally escorts and had more room than the padded leather ones I currently have.

R.

richard boobier

Hi Richard. I am 6'3" and have a roll bar fitted. The only way to fix these seats in were to bolt them straight to the floor. Suits me as it keeps my head below the top of the screen! Wife can't reach the pedals however. Shame isn't it!!
I could have fitted them further forward however. I also made brackets so as to utilise the existing seat fixings in the floor.
Neil K

Have been thinking a coloured dash and it may be a good option.

So I had a go at the wrinkle finish on this dash a good 15 years ago but wasn't very successful and was a sort of rough finish with no real wrinkle, also was semi gloss. This is why I'm repainting it now.


I hunt around for the wringkle finsih and it's not easy to find only one brand of it "VHT" I had used this before with varying success from just being smooth semi gloss black to really nice wrinkle finish. It cost me $24 for the can, about twice as much as normal paint but I thought if it works who cares.

So decide to just paint over as paint still in good condition. Day 20+ degrees, place in sun for a bit, got very warm so good to go. Instructions say 3 coats 5 minutes a part. Needs good coverage to wrinkle. So do my 3 good coats and follow intructions exactly. Place back in sun to dry. Probably dry in about 15-20min but no real wrinkle. Said full effect in 2 hours, so still optomistic. Come back in two hours and there's no f*cking wrinkle it's just a rough look! Not what I wanted but would have been ok except two randomn places do the full wrinkle effct so now it looks crap. Not happy!

Might still be able to save it. Instructions say if not full wrinkle apply more paint. So I put it in small room with heater nice and warm put more paint on and all I get it a dash with has a very orange peely finish that loiks like it has 1/8" of paint on it. Really crapped now and steaming venting out ears at high pressure!!

So out comes the paint stripper. Going to be quite a bit of work to strip it right back to metal. Not a happy camper!!!

So will strip, prime and then have to work out how to make sure it works. Most jobs if they aren't quite right you just do it again but with this tempremental paint I feel I could do it a dozen times in a dozen different ways with the same result then for no reason at all it just works.

Perhaps I need to do it in a hot spray oven? Or I could go with the smoooth paint like I see others have done. Perhaps they started like I did and gave up?
Greg H

Forgot someone want pics. So here's a before pic.

Greg H

and here's and after pic. As you can see it's coming along nicely! :(

Greg H

Greg,

Like I said earlier, my one experience with wrinkle was that it had to be almost uncomfortably hot to hold before it worked. I don't understand why the instructions didn't say anything about that. I heated the panel up in front of a radiant gas heater.

However, have you noticed how nice the body colored dashes look in the pics that were submitted?

Charley
C R Huff

The guy that painted my 4 clock dash said the paint goes on really wet and then you wait for it to wrinkle. As well as my car he has done some Astons and other stuff. The way the paint is applied will vary the wrinkling from a fine wrinkle to a very heavy wrinkle pattern.

I think you are putting the paint on too dry in too cold an air. Why not try spraying a sample at different temperatures and wetter?

I think wrinkle finish paint is gloss and that it's the wrinkling that makes it look matt.
Daniel Thirteen-Twelve

This is a timely discussion, because I'm about to paint my dash also. I've always thought the "A's" with the dash painted the body color looked good, and thought about painting mine body color, but my car is Citron - a bright yellow/green and I'm afraid that will just be too bright with a black interior. So, I plan on black wrinkle. Greg, I've heard that heat is important, as has been alluded to here. Even using a hair dryer or heat gun to get the piece warm and heating after painting to get the wrinkle to develop. So you might try that. And, let us know how it comes out. I'll wait to do mine until I hear how you get yours to come out!! And, Daniel, can you give me some information on your flexible map light? I'm interested in something like that.

Jack
Jack Orkin

It was definitely 3 very wet coats and a good temperature for normal painting. The second time it was even wetter. So think just not enough heat even though a heater was also on top of it.

I did wonder whether painting on and already rough surface could add some resistance and effect it.

So next time I'll work out a way to really bake it. If it works I think it'll be worth the effort.

What should I use to heat it?

Jack you could be waiting a little while as I'm restoring the whole car and when I have a problem that part goes to the bottom of the pile.
Greg H

If intent on using wrinkle finish paint on your dash and you want to do it yourself, I would find myself a friendly paint workshop owner, and ask if you could place your dash in his oven, whilst he is working on another car, then when up to temperature, spray the dash and put it back into his oven.
I have a friend who did this and the result was superb.
I've tried doing it myself in the past whilst the wife was out at work, central heating on, gas hob on, gas oven on etc to generate as much heat as possible in the kitchen! The result was very poor! Also had a row off the wife too!!
Neil K

I tried painting my dash with Halfords Rubberised black spray, hoping it would come out in a sort of textured bumpy finish that would be a good substitue for the wrinkle. Unfortunatly it just came out crap! I will admit it was a bit of a half ar*ed effort tho and now I have made myself more work cleaning the thing up again.

I noticed when I did it the back of the dash had quite a lot of surface rust too. Is it OK to paint the back or is it left clean for a reason (earthing instruments?)

(Its a '76 btw)

Malcolm
M Le Chevalier

I'd suggest paining the back side of the dash white. It makes it easier to see when trouble shooting.
Trevor Jessie

Greg,

The paint oven advice from Neil sounds like a good idea. However you heat it you have to get the temperature even or it will wrinkle more and less depending upon the temp. Maybe someone with a paint shop and oven would even know the correct temp to use. When I did it I was just painting the center panel of a TR3 dash, which because of its small size made it easy to get it all to the same temp.

Charley
C R Huff


Yes spray oven would be ideal. I did think of laying a bar heater on its back and siting the dash on top but as you say even temperature will be the key so could still be a bit inconsistent.

One of my mates is a panel beater and he's the guy doing the panel work on my car. He works at a bodyworks so I suppose I should drop round to his place with a few beers.
Greg H

Greg, a few tubes of Fosters should do it!!
http://static.grindtv.com/images/1/00/14/06/00/140600.jpg
Neil K

No-one's found out what goes in paint to make a wrinkle/crackle finish then? I think a body colour dash in wrinkle/crackle finish would be neat.
Daniel Thirteen-Twelve

It's a bit like Coca Cola won't disclose their recipe, methinks!!
Neil K

If you are going down the aerosol wrinkle finish it will be a Satin finish. Second, even heat and even application are the secrets. I used a couple of fan heaters to maintain the temperature. Also do it with the glove box in place to ensure a "matching" effect.
Allan Reeling

Neil,

If I turned up with Fosters I'd have no chance, I may even have been shot. Aussies do not drink fosters!

I lived in London for a couple of years and when I got there I realised it hadn't died the miserable death I thought it had. They've certainly done a good job marketing it there. The first time I went to a pub with my work buddies they ordered a beer for me. They didn't ask what I wanted because they thought Gregs an Aussie so he must like Fosters and so that's what I got. First fosters for a very loooooong time! Extremely ironic I travel to the other side of the planet thinking I'll experience a new culture and I'm sitting in a pub drinking the horse piss I wouldn't drink back home (piss can mean beer in aus but this time it definitely did mean piss, urine). Like Kylie we sent it over to you because we didn't want it.

Apart from that I had great times over there but I was a bit disappointed I didn't see many old classics cruising around. You all seem to hide them under warm blankets in your garages.
Greg H

The bodyshop that sprayed my dash used aerosol wrinkle finish paint that has a wrinkle not satin finish.
Daniel Thirteen-Twelve

First, Satin merely referrs to the reflectiveness of the finish, i.e., mid way between full gloss and matt. The original finish was satin, the dashes just lost this with time and finished up flat matt and dull! Can't say I've ever been dazzled by reflections from the dash!! If a situation arose when dash reflections were a problem then the glass on the dials and my polished Moto-Lita spokes would present better reflecting surfaces!
Greg, when in Aus I've found great "proper" beers. Never needed to touch any frozen, amber coloured stuff. I even found a Pub in Sydney (Lord Nelson) which brewed it's own. It was heaving every evening!
Allan Reeling

This thread was discussed between 13/03/2011 and 21/03/2011

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