Dash wrinkle paint

This one relates to the use of wrinkle finish, I have experience applying this to both loop frame dashes and the much larger dash assembly from early MGB cars. The following tips should help people:

• Yes, practice on some other item first to get the feel, especially for the heat lamp tip part below.
• Shake the paint really really well. Take your time. warm the paint and the part, use the sun, heat lamp, or heat gun.
• Apply two relatively thick coats, but try not to get it to run of course.
• Leaving the part to dry in the hot sun can help, but what's best is to create and control the wrinkling process using heat from a non-blowing heat source. This way you don't have to wait forever to see the wrinkles form, and you can add extra heat to areas that don't wrinkle well enough initially.
  • I don't think applying a heat gun, with air blowing out of it, is a good plan at all.
  • What I always do is to use a heat lamp, you can simply use the type of inexpensive halogen work light sold in auto parts stores. I like to use a small floor lamp rather than a large pole mounted one, you need one that you can hold in your hand and move around easily. I'm sure that more expensive types of lamps could be used as well. The one I use has a rather long thin type of bulb, this bulb cannot be touched with your fingers when you install it, the oil from your fingers will potentially cause the bulb to explode when it gets hot. This type of lamp produces copious heat, but of a gentle nature.
  • Patiently, patiently, at a distance of about 4 inch - 6 inch or so, move the heat lamp over the surface of the painted part, to encourage the wrinkle to form. Try to go over the whole part evenly, as you are first doing this, in order to get the best even matching wrinkle finish. The wrinkle will form slowly at first, but can be accelerated by applying more heat. You'll find that you can judge how much heat to add to an area as you cruise around with the heat lamp. Areas that at first seem to wrinkle too little, can be made to wrinkle better, and match the other areas, by the addition of extra heat. On the other hand, if you spend too much time too early in one spot, you'll likely encourage unevenness.

Try this, you'll like it. You'll probably not want to go back to leaving the wrinkle to time and chance again.

Dupli-Color truck bed coating works very well on dashes, starters, and breather boxes. Good stuff.

I've used Eastwood's wrinkle black (item number 10014 Z) with good results. A few things that help (at least with the Eastwood product):

• very warm part (warm on a wood stove, with a heat gun, etc.)
• warm paint (a little above ambient temp)
• practice on an old part first

Still tricky to get it right. Directions say two heavy coats. Not easy to get heavy coats without runs, the warm part and paint help it flash off before it has a chance to run. Still, you don't know how well you've done until 12-18 hours later...

Here is another great product for the texture of civilian dashboards: Wrinkle Finish made by Krylon #3370 in black, I found mine at Advance Auto Parts.

I tested that finish on a old dashboards and it exactly, I really mean exactly reproduces the OEM finish, I was amazed, no differences. The only thing is it may be a little glossy, but I took care of that with spraying lightly some Ultra-Flat Black.

The important thing is to spray a thick layer while letting it dry from a heat source; I left mine in the sun and even better, covered it with a transparent plastic container to make a green-house effect, the wrinkle was perfect. They sometimes suggest using a heat gun, but not sure if it'll dry too quick and ruin the perfect finish. Really great stuff.