What plastic or rubber interior parts do you want reproduced?

[amcfool1]

 hi, johnsonproductionjp.com has a couple of neat armrest repair panels, check em out, both front and back, good luck,  gz

[Ludworks]

Right. Sound like dash pieces of all kinds would be wanted! Good to know.

Making things in black or white will be easiest. Color matching is going to take much longer to develop. For the time being I'm going to focus on getting as many parts available in black as soon as possible and wait for feedback on if specific colors are desired. Once the molds are made for a specific part they can be produced in any color.

Padded/foam materials, such as armrests, headrests, and dashboards, are a possibility for the future, however the process to develop and produce high quality "skinned" foams for that purpose is an intensive and expensive one. It's something I can look at in the future.

[89 MJ]

I fully support people having to dye the pieces themselves. I think the radio surround dash piece would be good as well. I think the biggest thing is going to be cost for most people.

[maddog]

All of the dash pieces were black to begin with and then painted to match. As for the rest of the interior pieces they were definitely whatever color the interior of the car was.

[Ludworks]

There's a bunch of strange idiosyncrasies and unreliable information when it comes to the plastic parts used. For instance you'll often see articles claiming the fender flares are made of "color-matched plastic" to "reduce production cost", but they're not. The plastic is black and they're painted to match (at least on the Canadian-made cars). Same with the bumper corners, the base material is black and they have a flexible colored paint on them.

As for the dash, certain colors seem to be painted and others seem to be colored plastic. It's extremely confusing. My 85 wagon has a red interior and many of the dash pieces seems to be actual red plastic. However I pulled the same parts out of an 83 wagon with a blue interior and many of the same parts were black, but painted blue. Did they change when production moved to Canada? Was blue plastic harder to make? Or did those parts get swapped at some point? Considering how hodge-podge it all is I hope people will be a little forgiving of a few black parts here and there.

[89 MJ]

My 86 has a red interior and it seems like everything was red originally. The bumper ends were definitely black and then painted, but I’m
Pretty sure the flares were white and then they were painted. At least mine were.

[maddog]

You're right it's very confusing. I'm in the process of replacing my dash with a different one out of an 85, because mine crumbled like a dry cracker when I went to do my heater core several years ago. I have the maroon interior, parts of the dash are maroon and some of it is black parts that have been painted maroon, whereas the rest of the plastic trim is all maroon through and through. But the new dash I got is beige painted onto a black dash and the car it came from had the beige interior, so I think they picked and chose what was painted and what was dyed depending on the color.

[Ludworks]

89 MJ, You know, I don't doubt that your flares are white underneath! I thought they were all black, but I'm not sure of anything anymore!

Maddog, I think you're right on the money. The picked what they colored and how and us mere mortals will probably never know why. Honestly it's part of the reason I love these cars, they all seem almost homemade...like no two are alike.

[89 MJ]

It is really weird that most plastic things were black, like the dashboards and plastic valve covers, but the flares were white. Especially since it seems like the valve covers and flares are the same material.

[Ludworks]

I think, but I'm not sure, that the valve cover is some type of thermosetting plastic (i.e. you can't melt and reform it) like bakelite, epoxy, or polyurethane; whereas I'm pretty sure the fender flares are Kraton, which is a thermoform plastic.

I could be wrong, but I'm not going to try and melt my valve cover to prove it!

[89 MJ]

Hahaha, I don’t blame you there. I had heard before that the flares were Kraton. I just know the valve covers are not great.

[Ludworks]

Yes the valve covers are problematic to say the least. There was a half inch of grease on the passenger side of my 258 when I bought it...and the front diff...and the front cross member. I spent hours scraping it all off with a putty knife. Must've been at least two pounds of oily dirt.

Replacement plastic valve covers are something I could also do. They would probably be significantly tougher than the originals. Inlaying a metal flange stiffener and o-ring seal would also be possible for the ultimate improvement. Would anyone buy them though? Probably not when you can pick up a metal one so cheap.

[89 MJ]

They would be cool to see, but probably wouldn’t only end up on purist restorations. If they were $50-$75 or so, you might do alright with them though. But that probably won’t pay for making them and your time.