While looking for some bolts I stumbled across the accelerator pedal mechanism.  It was just another part that needed to be restored.  This was a no brainer.  Pretty simple part as it only has a roller that the gas pedal itself rides against as it is depressed.  A quick beadblast and a coat of Eastwoods gray phosphate paint  was all the thing needed.  There were 2 nuts and 2 bolts that went along with it so they got the blackening treatment.  The roller, washer and little clip that held it all together just got cleaned up and re-installed.  The new gasket from the firewall gasket set was stuck in place and the whole thing was put in a bag and on the shelf.

I got my fender "eyebrow" trim pieces back from Paul's Chrome.  They looked perfect.  Quite a contrast to the crap I got back from the place in Tallahassee... what a friggin waste of money that was.

A few weeks back I mentioned that a restoration shop up north had offered to custom mix some dash paint for me.  I had sent them a 3x3 piece of my original dash as a good example of the original color.  I received the paint back this week and was looking forward to getting the parts painted.

The shop had sprayed half of the sample piece I sent them showing how close the mach was.  It did look pretty close but was on the dark side as far as I was concerned.  Being positively optimistic, I loaded the gun and shot the steering column parts as per the resto shops instructions.  Well, although it looked good, I can't say I was satisfied with the color OR texture.  Holding a dry piece up next to the original dash showed just how far off it was.  This was my second attempt at getting this color right.  It looked like there would be a third.

The next Monday I headed to my paint supplier and asked about having my color mixed in the DBI type base coat product.  This was suggested to me by one of the shops I had emailed.  The young fella was more than happy to try to help.  This was the same guy who sold me the standard B7 paint before.  I think he was bound and determined to get me fixed up.  I gave him one of my 3x3 pieces of the original dash and left him with the mixing chore.  I returned the next day to find that he had indeed come up with a mix that looked damn close.  Again, I was pumped to get this color on the parts and put this chore behind me.  That weekend I beadblasted all the steering column parts again, loaded up the gun again and gave the new mix a try.  As much as I wanted it to be right, it just wasn't.  I stared and stared at it, held original pieces up to it, tried to talk myself into it being right for quite a while but just couldn't do it.  What I did convince myself of was that this was close enough that I thought I could probably "tweak" it myself if I have some tints here in the garage.  I went back to the paint place and asked for a small amounts of a couple of colors I thought would get me to the color I needed.  Back in the garage I cracked open the paint and the tints and started playing with it.  The only real way to know if the color is right is to actually spray it AND let it dry before making a determination.  I have an airbrush that I used to spray small areas on one of the parts to see how the mix was going.  What a chore... put in a little tint, mix, reduce a VERY small amount, spray and let dry... then do it all again... until the color is right.  This process took me a good 3-4 hours but I think I got the color as close as humanly possible.  I was happy with what I ended up with.

The mixing took so much time that I had to wait until the following weekend to actually spray the parts.  This time I prepped the dash itself along with the other parts I had painted 3 previous times.  As the paint initially went on, it looked completely wrong, but as it dried it settled into a shade that was very, very close to the original and, more importantly, looks good against the correct blue dash pad.  One thing to keep in mind is that although the color is not EXACTLY right, there will be no original parts (with their original paint) in the interior to show that it's off.  As long as the mixed color is close and looks good against the other blues, there should be no problems... right?.... RIGHT?