In the factory the body is painted and the dash and undercarriage are blacked out
last, prior to assembly. I didn't have that option. Here is a picture taken
during the blackout stage. The undercarriage is fully painted at this point and
I was about to paint the upper firewall and dash area. After the black out stage I painted the door openings and the underside of the trunk lid along with the trunk opening. I used a base coat/clear coat system. Unfortunately there isn't a mixing code for the original Mayfair Maze in this system. What I had to do was buy a pint of the original color in lacquer, paint a piece of scrap metal and have the color computer matched. When the body was sandblasted I left the windshield pillars untouched, because they are covered with moldings and because the original paint in these areas were in great condition. When I cut in the door openings I feathered the new paint into the original paint. The new color was a perfect match. For those of you that are interested Napa's Martin Senour Paint code 44976 (Creame) is a perfect match for Pontiac code "40-B" Mayfair Maze.
With the firewall and dash painted the dash and firewall components are restored and installed.
Some hardware that was missing or broken during the taredown were obtained from a junkyard. Some of
the parts obtained were the wiper motor bolts, wiper arm bolts, upper firewall plugs (often missing)
and a whole bunch of front sheetmetal bolts. Many of these parts are available aftermarket, but they
do not match the originals. E.g. the front sheetmeatal bolts. The original ones have pointed tips to
help center the bolts. The reproductions bolts are also pointed, but they are threaded all the way
to the tip while the originals are not.
Here's the fully restored dash without the steering wheel. I temporality used a steering wheel from
a 1970 Pontiac. I eventually won an original 1969 Firebird steering wheel at an ebay auction for $50.
Here are the finished left&right front door jamb areas. A sign of a good restoration is the attention to
details. Note the incorrect vent balls. I finally got an original pair for $10.