On Saturday, My son and I went to the Forney Museum to look around and get ideas for Lil B (My 89 Toyota Pickup. I'll be starting a build thread soon.) One thing my son has wanted from the start was a Ford Explorer overhead console, Ford Explorer Overhead Console Installation but I resisted it, even though I liked the idea of better map lights and a thermometer and compass, since the rearview mirror takes that space. Then as we were walking around we saw a lot of 50's cars with dash mounted rear view mirrors. It got us both thinking. Then on Sunday we went to the local pull-a-part to look around and found a 1973 Toyota pickup with the coolest headliner-mounted rearview mirror I had seen on our trucks! Instead of the cheap plastic, this had an all metal base and the "arm" holding the mirror came together in an almost art-deco curve and ended at a point. We snached it up and as we were heading home I was already making plans to build a base for it to sit on the dash "upside-down". The base and arm cleaned up great and looked new with just a wipe down with Clorox wipes... Then I got to the mirror which had a typical plastic housing... Holy dry rot! Almost 40 years of sun exposure had taken its toll. I started sanding to clear away the dry rot, figuring I would paint it black afterwards to protect it from further damage and make it contrast with the grey base ... And sanding... and sanding... and sanding... and sanding. At some point I went from "Screw this, I should just try to find another one in better shape." To "Screw this, I'm saving this piece!" It was now a question of pride. I wasn't giving up, damnit! Two hours and a lot of sand paper later (rotted plastis clogs up the paper pretty fast) I had sanded it smooth and put the first coat of plastic paint on the back. There was a perverse sense of pride. I had "wasted" an evening but saved a stock part and modified it to look pretty cool in the end. I'll be covering the making of the base for the dash in my build thread with pics. I'm thinking of a lost foam aluminum casting to fit the contour of the dash and get the stock base at the right angle and height. I didn't think to take pics of the mirror as I didn't think anyone would be interested in looking at a mirror being sanded. So lets hear your story. What part have you worked on to restore, modify or just save in general that would make someone else just scratch their head? Afterall, the whole fun part of building a project it the stories of how it got built.
My whole truck!! Lol Really though id have to say the gauge cluster(not really a junk part but yea). Took the damn thing apart as far as i felt i needed, touched up a few spots, polished the lenses, scrubbed the years of dirt off. They came back pretty nice. Pictures dont show how ugly they really were Before After
