rough dash dye...double repost...help!

[fredd65]

ok, now i'm sounding desperate...i used corvette america black dye on my dash pads and it is slightly rough to the touch but looks great..my concern is that being rough it will be hard to keep clean...any suggestions besides stripping and redoing the whole thing to smooth it out some?...considering trying light steel wool or 2000 grit paper even...i still think a mild thinner of some sort might do the trick..thanks

 

[Ron Miller]

I believe your best and safest bet is to remove the finish with laquer thinner or another solvent and respray. If you are determined to try flowing it out, you might look at http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Finish/Lacquer/Amalgamator/amalgamator1.html, where a badly checked and peeling laquer thinner on a musical instrument is restored. But I would proceed with a whole lot of caution. All considered, I would remove and respray. Hope this is some help.

 

[Ron Miller]

Let me try that again, you apparently cannot go directly to the page. Instead, go to:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/pagelist.html

Then, click "Items for Luthiers".

Scroll down to "Repair Technique/Finish" and click on "Amalgamating Checked and Damaged Lacquer".

Although not exactly the same as your problem, the procedure might work. I still believe your best bet is to remove and respray the finish. Hope this helps,


Rlm

 

[WayneC]

I could be wrong, but... I'd be leery about using something like lacquer thinner on a vinyl dash pad, because I think it would be VERY likely to attack/harm the vinyl. At the very least, try finding a similar vinyl-trimmed upholstery piece (cheap/trashed) in a junkyard, spray it with the same dye you used on the dash pads so as to achieve the same rough result, and then experiment some with it before trying anything on the pads.

It sounds as though you might have sprayed the dye on from too great a distance, and it dried too much before it hit the dash pad.
Perhaps using a vinyl cleaner and buffing it might help, but frankly I really don't know for sure how you can recover from the current situation... you might try asking a local upholstery shop, or try to contact the maker of the dye that you used to see if there is a dye thinner you could spray or gently rub on that would help smooth the surface.