1973 RR interior trim??

[Chuckl]

Hi everyone I'm a newbie. Just bought a 73 GTX 440 that's very nice. One of the negatives is the interior trim. Its a white vinyl interior and the sun or UV has caused the pebble effect on the metal window and door mouldings to crystalize. (Maybe its a paint coating that has crystalized and not an original pebble effect) The front window lower and side mouldings are the worst and even a slight brush with your hand rubs off a dust of fragments of the pebble effect coating. This is a very original car so I'm sure this a factory coating.
The same thing has happened on one door panel. There's a groove where the window crank has brushed away the coating.
Do the mouldings have an original "pebble effect"?
Any ideas on restoration?? Leads on finishes?? Color match??

Thanks for your help--Chuck

[Chuckl]

To propose a solution--I'm thinking of sanding the old finish, repaint with a "crinkle finish" and then paint the crinkle with a color coat.

[sdweatherman]

Hey Chuck,
Sounds like you have UV rot on your plastic panels. The panels in these cars get chalky and disenegrate when they have been exposed to direct sunlight for a long period of time. The bumpy/pebble finish is correct for these panels. The only perfect solution is to find original panels that haven't been exposed, and paint them the color you need. There are a few threads on the Nest that talk about how to paint these panels - just use the search button at the top of the page - a very nifty tool. Until better panels come along, what you propose would work fine. Good luck with your project!
Scott.

[Chuckl]

Discussed this with my local car restorer. He recommends 1 prepare the surface by sanding off the crumbling coating. 2 Spray with a heavy coat of filler primer and while still tacky --blot with 80 grit sandpaper and slightly shift the paper while blotting. 3 Paint to suit. he says he can imitate most surfaces using this method. Hard to visualize but he does some amazing work.