The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors How to restore speaker grille and glove compartement

I can't believe there is not already a post on this, but my search did not turn one up. Would like to restore my speaker grille and glove compartment lid on my '50 Chevy 3100. No real rust or pitting just crazy oxidation. Wondering best way to polish chrome and how to restore/match original paint as close to possible.

The trim is not chrome. It is stainless steel. Two different birds when it comes to polishing it to a mirror finish.

Well that would explain why no rust on it then! LOL #0000 Steel wool and metal polish? Any ideas on process to repaint and approximate color match for the middle part?

It would be nice to see a couple interior dash pics.

Here you go. This is what it looked like when I started.

Original Interior

Man am I glad you asked for that! The whole truck is stripped and sand blasted down to bare metal now (not the speaker grille and glovebox door) and I have cut in most of my patch panels on the cab. I haven't looked at these old pics in a while. To be honest I am in a bit of shock right now. You think you will never get done and aren't making any progress... I have obviously forgotten just how rough/bad shape it was when I started.

Blasted Cab Off Frame
Rusted Floor Cut Out
New Front Inner and Outer Cowls Screwed In
Rocker Panel and Rear Cab Corner Screwed In

NO!!!!
Stainless steel will require an electric buffer loaded with fine compound.

This is my restored '48 Chevy 1/2 ton truck. For the first few years I went with a polished stainless-steel look on the raised ribs. It was followed by a few years of a silver paint look. The raised ribs were originally painted a slightly different color than the dash color. It took me a while to track down the correct color. It is a grayish brown color--not silver. I carefully masked off the areas and used paint in a spray can prepared by a local automotive specializing in automotive paints. A very fine brush was used for touch-up.

I'm going the less authentic path, since I'm not ready to fully restore my truck. When I got my truck, the interior was spray painted primer gray with no stainless trim visible. Maybe my trim isn't stainless steel? So I had no idea of polishing trim. I was going to paint it.

There are a lot of discussions on interior paint color and after reading lots of them, I decided that I'd try the Rustoleum rattle can approach and see if I liked it. I think it looks pretty good and makes the interior livable, while I work on other things. Just for sake of visual interest, I used the flat version for the dash panel and the gloss/hammered version for the speaker cover/ashtray/glove box door areas. It makes a nice contrast. Since my truck is a 1953, the correct lettering color is white. Attached is a pic of the speaker cover with the trim piece laying on top. Since I'm not adding a radio, I used a piece of cardboard from a soda case, cut it to size and spray painted it flat black so that you can't see through the cover. I thought it did what I wanted it to do, once I installed it.

So I guess the take away is that it's your truck, do what you like. Polish the trim...or paint it. The stainless trim that I did polish (headlight trim and exterior windshield trim) polished up nice with a buffing wheel on the grinder and some very mild buffing compound.

Looks good. Question: Per the last pic, it looks like something is riveted or fastened to the underneath side of the ashtray cover? Above the 3100 ?

Craig,

I think that question is about one of the pics that I posted. I modified the radio delete plate to mount the turn signal and high beam indicator lights. I also thought the inside of the truck needed some more badging, so I added the 3100 emblem. I didn't want to drill holes into the dash itself, but definitely wanted the indicator lights where they'd be visible. Since I'm not planning to add a radio, it seemed like a good compromise to modify the radio delete plate. If I don't like it, I can simply replace the plate. The indicator lights are small (8mm) lights that I got off of ebay.

LOL - Noticed I said ashtray cover? OMG!! This was right after I came in from working on our VW camper who's ashtray is basically in the same spot. Sorry about that. Yes, I meant radio delete...