I got the dash out today so that it can be restored while the car is in the body shop. What a nightmare. My car clearly doesn't like me reaching up under her skirts as she's bitten the hell out me in the process. I'll survive, but my forearms and hands are nicely carved up and bloody from the effort. Everything behind the dash is sharp. It seems rats took up residence in the dash as the car sat and loaded the space up with droppings, bedding material likely pulled from the kick panel insulation since it was largely missing, remnants of palm tree seeds they've eaten, olive pits(my parent yard had about a dozen olive trees), and of course corrosion caused by rat urine as seen in the second photo. One thing I am grateful for is they seem to have left the wiring alone. The dash harness is now fully exposed and I can't find any evidence that they chewed on any of it. I was fearing the worst, so that's quite a relief.
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In other news, my dash pad with its original steel core is off and I'm looking for input on where to send it for restoration. I had been thinking of JustDashes, but I recently read some negative comments here about the quality of their work vs the cost. The bezels will also need restoration and JustDashes advertises that they can do that as well, but I'm very open to suggestions from people that have had this type of work done in other places and were pleased with the results. I also have a question about the correct finish for the actual dash. Back in my mid twenties when I was sprucing up the car I painted the dash using satin black, but I'm not sure if that's the correct finish or not. It seemed to match what was there at the time, but that finish had been somewhat abused by age and UV exposure.
