'69 Heater control - refurb possible?

[rdelmendo]

Hi all-

The heater control on my '69E has seen better days.

Can the face be repainted or does anyone have one in good condition?

[LiveFromNY]

I've gotten fairly adept at refinishing these. I can post a couple photos after I'm in my shop this weekend.

I use a vibratory tumbler to polish the chrome trim. For the face of the control unit, I sand it down and repaint. The hardest part for me was getting the paint color to match. My best match has been two coats of Wurth bare metal primer, then two coats of SEM trim paint followed by a light coat of Wurth matte black. You need to pull the plastic knobs then move the levers between coats to get an even finish. Also, remove the screens over the indicator lights and paint them separately.

I've used several methods on the markers. Paint is OK if you have a steady hand but my best results have come from visiting a crafts store. Michael's carries thin sheets of vinyl in appropriate shades of blue and off-white. Using a razor blade I carefully cut out small pieces for the inlays and then trim them with an exacto knife. Once they're perfect, I glue them in place.

It's time consuming, but they look new when I'm done.

[classic]

The blue inlays are the hardest part, I got lucky in that a couple of mine had fallen out and the PO had saved them with all the origional paper work for the car.

I then just had to pick the others out with a dental pick.

They are plastic, or atleast mine were (MY69) I ended up useing the tamper proof ring off a water bottle, perfect match for the blue, and just trimmed to fit.

I used Wurth satin also, and shouted it some new knobs.

[rdelmendo]

Thank you for the replies. I used Wurth Flex-Trim Satin Black. It looks too glossy to my eye but it could be right for all I know. Any other input on closest finish paint?

Thanks again for the help.

[rdelmendo]

So the answer to my original post is "Yes". I sanded it and painted with Emron. I could only save one of the tiny blue bars so filled in with blue modeling paint.


One more question, how should the two square mesh screens be finished? Painted black or left silver?

Thanks again!