Revive your early bay lever knobs (tutorial with pictures)

[BajaCapt]

1968-73

Here is a simple tutorial to bring back to like new conditions you early bay fresh air/heat lever knobs. While doing a search here at The Samba I found out about a product called "Plastidip" made by Perfomix, this product comes in a can for dipping or in spray, the spray is what you want for this purpose, it might be hard to find locally I bought both the red and the blue from a place online called DX Engineering, follow link below for it:

http://www.dxengineering.com/Parts.asp?ID=945&...LD-11201-6

On a quick note, the blue plastidip spray is kinda hard to find, I just checked link above and they are out of the blue, might need to Google it or call DX Enginnering for when they expect stock.
Here is a picture of the stuff.

Ok, first of all you need your levers to be in fair shape, I got a very nice complete set of 4 at the classifieds here from joelmaude, thanks Joel!
Here is a picture of the condition of the levers, just the normal decoloration on the rubber and the scam build up from 40 years of use, but good solid rubber.

First thing you need to do is use a good degreaser on them, I used a toothbrush and the product in the picture below,

It is important to scrub them real good for the plastidip to bond properly

Here is a shot of the cleaned and degreased knobs, they already look better...

I then gave the metal parts a good cleaning with a fine grit wet sandpaper and rinsed off.

Now prep them for spraying the plastidip with 3M blue painting tape.

I made little wire hooks to hang levers after each coat. Directions say to wait at least 30 minutes in between coats for a total of 3 to 4 coats or as needed.

This blue one is on the second coat.

I will post rest of tutorial later on with a shot of the finished lever knobs but just on a quick note, when removing after done painting and removing the 3M tape, run a single edge blade at base of knob and edge of tape, the over spray will be a little tick from all the coats and cutting it prevents the chance of ripping it.

[volksterii]

Yup, did this about a year ago using the same process.
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71 Westy Hardtop, 1915
2005 Touareg V8 air susp.

[chabanais]

Nice write up!
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"I spud therefore I yam."

[Batan]

Awesome write up.
Problem with small "resto" details like this is that it tents to make the rest of the stuff(dash in this case) look like crap.

Now, pics of them installed or GTFO!
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'69 Riviera Bay
'03 20th Anniversary GTI
'74 Super Beetle
Badzak Creative – Still and Motion Pictures

[BajaCapt]

[Batan]

Ooooh, pretty!!!
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'69 Riviera Bay
'03 20th Anniversary GTI
'74 Super Beetle
Badzak Creative – Still and Motion Pictures

[CookingRock]

[quote="BajaCapt"]

[BajaCapt]

[BajaCapt]

forgot to post this picture of the area behind the dash, all clean and painted.
The wiring is all bundled up covered and taped for painting (encircled in red), it is hanging from top area of pillar to keep it out of the way.

[BajaCapt]

Here is the finished work

[aliennetwork]

great job
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M-Plate

[CookingRock]

A thing of beauty!

[cr@M]

Looks great! This might wind up getting me to finally redo the top of my own dash.

I just took a toothbrush and some simple green and the little knobs looked practically brand new.
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1972 Deluxe named Lucidity
1973 Transporter

"He who fights with monsters must see to it that he himself does not become a monster...
when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
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[Jamesn71]

Did you half to remove the steering wheel to get the dash off/out?
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72 Transporter

[78Kombi]

making your own tools = awesome!

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78 hightop 2.0 FI

[SGKent]

That bus is going to be a real looker.

[Mr.Mexi]

very nice - the levers look brand new.a great result for a little effort!
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my resto thread: http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15384

[brookmp]

I love little detailed jobbies like this with clear instruction and great photos. Thanks for the tutorial. They look GREAT!
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1968 Westfalia Campmobile
1971 Double Cab Pick-up
1974 Standard Beetle

[BajaCapt]

[PatJr]

Yes, Thank You for taking the time and effort to post this. Very much appreciated.

Pat Jr.
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1970 Transporter a orange one
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