Dash panel End Tab & Rivet Color

[Gary P.]

Re: Dash panel End Tab & Rivet Color

My Jan 21 63 car was just top flighted and the rivets were painted body color. Tan/ Tan. I lost points for it. They said, if it the same color in and out, rivets are black or natural aluminum finish. lost one point. Page 22 of the judging manual.

[Michael H.]

Re: Dash panel End Tab & Rivet Color

My Jan 21 63 car was just top flighted and the rivets were painted body color. Tan/ Tan. I lost points for it. They said, if it the same color in and out, rivets are black or natural aluminum finish. lost one point. Page 22 of the judging manual.

It's not at all surprising that many folks are still confused about this. The problem began when all 65-67's with matching interior/exterior colors were assembled with semi gloss dash tabs and unpainted black rivets.

Here's the part that so many folks are so confused about.

If we think about the process for 63-64, we immediately note the major difference between 63-64 and 65-67 fiberglass dash panels.
The panel for 63-64 was covered in vinyl. No part of the fiberglass panel, including the tabs, would be painted before, or after, the vinyl was installed. All of the various colors of vinyl colored dash panels were on the assembly line, ready to be installed in a body.
When the panel was installed in the already painted body, the dash panel end tabs had to be painted to match the body. Obviously, the rivets would also be painted along with the tabs. All colors were done exactly this way for all 63's and probably most of the 64's.

For the 65-67 cars, it's an entirely different story. The big change was the fact that the new 65 dash panel was not vinyl covered but was instead painted the correct interior color. Since the entire panel, including the end tabs was painted, the tabs would automatically already be the correct color for cars with matching interior/exterior colors so the panel could be installed as is. There would be no reason to repaint the tabs so that left semi gloss tabs with black unpainted rivets, absolutely correct for matching interior/exterior 65-67 cars.

Of all the many times I've posted on this topic here over the last several years, not one 63-64 owner has ever been able to show us an unrestored car with anything other than gloss body color dash tabs and painted rivets.

If any 63-64's do exist with unpainted rivets, or dash tabs that are painted something other than gloss body color, they certainly wouldn't be typical.

Hope this wasn't confusing. I'm not much of a writer.

[Cecil L.]

Re: Dash panel End Tab & Rivet Color

Just a small technicality, but early 63 dash was not vinyl covered.

[Michael H.]

Re: Dash panel End Tab & Rivet Color

Just a small technicality, but early 63 dash was not vinyl covered.

Yes, that's correct. I wonderd if anyone was going to comment on that.

I was going to include that issue in the post above but that post was already very confusing so I decided to let it go and wait to see what happened with it.

The early 63's with painted dash panels had painted tabs and rivets just like the later cars with a vinyl covered dash. I owned #00170, a Daytone blue/blue 63 coupe, and it's tabs and rivets were gloss body color.

[Cecil L.]

Re: Dash panel End Tab & Rivet Color

Michael,
Just my observation but it looks like the dash frame was painted blackout around the cluster, end tabs, and glovebox openings on all dashes prior to vinyl/pad installation. On the early 63 without vinyl, the frame would be painted interior color after blackout probably including the tabs, then the tabs would get body color after installation whether it matched the interior or not which would explain the painted rivets. I have two 63 dashes and one 64 A/C, all vinyl covered and it appears that the dash frames were painted blackout around the cluster, glovebox and end tabs prior to the vinyl being applied. One is black vinyl with silver blue (under red)over black end tabs from a silver blue car repainted red and there is black paint under the vinyl and under the silver blue on the tabs, also the surface under the rivets is black. The second 63 is dark blue from a silver blue car and it too has black paint under the vinyl and under the slilver blue on the end tabs with black showing under where the rivet heads were (no pics). The 64 is black with white tabs painted over black in the same manner as the 63's.
Unfortunately, I don't have any red or other color than dark blue or black to verify. Two of the pics show overspray from the blackout process under the dash with the dark blue pads. From the angle it appears that the dash was vertical for spraying...like it was mounted in the car, but probably just hung to spray.