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It's snowing outside so I thought I would tackle the ash tray area sliding door. It barely moved so I took the assembly out of the car and took the components apart.
The assembly manual shows that, at the factory, the plastic guides were left unlubricated but a small amount of grease was placed on the clip on the bottom of the sliding door. Has anyone that has lubed this door tell me what kind of grease they used? Any other tricks for getting the door to open and close smoothly?
The bottom of the ash tray is a little rough. Any recommendations on how to get this looking better? It's the original ash tray and I don't want to get a replacement piece to extinguish my Pall Malls.
Somebody had left the two U-shaped clips on the right inside the ash tray. Does anyone know what these are for?
Any other suggestions from people who have done this kind of stuff would be appreciated.
I just applied a light coat of lithium grease to the plastic pieces.
Fill up the tray with some CLR to deoxidize it. Don’t let it sit too much or the acid will remove the plating. If the bottom is heavily pitted, it will continue to oxidize so you could take it to a plater for rechroming but that will run $50 minimum. If you want to keep it for originality, take it out and store it and just put in a replacement reproduction part.
How about…..unless you’re a smoker, and don’t expect to use that freakin ash tray, ( ever) you paint it black, and forget the thing is under the door altogether?
I painted my ash trays inside with “chrome “ paint.
That's what I was going to suggest ...or a couple shots of silver paint on the bottom, if you just want it better than it is now. Clean the rest of the chrome with 0000 steel wool. If after a while you don't like the look, you could send it to the plater.
If you want the end product to look 'clean' or 100% new or show, you'd have to get in there with some sandpaper and work the steel smooth with finer-grades of sandpaper and polish the pits out, get the metal real smooth, like new steel ...then the chroming would turn out pretty nice. Maybe the plater would do that. Overall the rust in yours looks ..fairly minimal all things considered.
If you like to restore stuff..including this ashtray..
- ultrasonic cleaner 140f..can be used for lots of things..excuse wife’s jewelry..buy the biggest you can with heater.
- evaporust after if any corrosion
then leave it or touch up paint as needed.
or put in box to store and put in usb chargers.
I understand what you are trying to do. What they said about the chrome, then. I wanted my lighter to work,,,, just because. The old lighter coil was broken. I purchased a $2 lighter at the parts store. Unscrewed the original lighter **** and screwed it to the new lighter and it fit. I forget what I used, but I renewed the white circle on the ****. Now my lighter works and looks new again. Repaint the door and then finish the entire shifter plate cover.
Thanks for the responses. I'm not a smoker but this part of the car is a reflection of the era it was built in and it's a cool part of its character.
I cleaned all the visible components including the sliding door and the plastic guides. The reason for the binding door was that the guides were warped inward. So when the door slid down, the guides would override the small stops on the retainer panel and go along for the ride instead of remaining in position. To remedy this I heated the guides over my stove to soften them and gave them a slightly outward warp. That way, when they are assembled with the sliding door, the door pushes them flat and the guides are better captured in position.
Regarding the two U-shaped clips on the right of the photo, does anyone recognize them as being part of the car? They look somewhat similar to the clip that is riveted to the side of the ash tray but a different gauge and no riveting.
Agreed. The ash tray is a symbol of the era that these cars were made for. I remember when cars had ash stays in the front and at each side in the back for the passenger.
….. and since they are part of the car they should look and function as designed. Some cleaning up and chrome paint will go a long way. I actually bought a repro but never used it.
I had the same issues with with slides. I added some crazy glue to keep the slides from shifting. I keep my period correct change in there. Might need it for tolls
Sorry I don’t recognize the spacer washers. They look like shims.
As 69L88 said.Use lithium grease,or at least,not petroleum base(like vaseline).Maybe even silicone base.Petroleum base grease tends to melt some plastics over time.
Please buy a new ash tray! You will kill yourself trying to clean it up! And it still won't look good. Lou.
Kill yourself? LOL, If you just want it looking a lot nicer, two or three quick trigger-bursts from a hand sand blast gun with fine sand (or glass beads) will clean up the rust in seconds, then mask off the chrome and a quick spritz of silver/chrome paint at the bottom. What are you talking ....30 minutes for all that?
But yeah, if you want it to look factory brand new, then buy a new one.
Any Tips on Refreshing Ash Tray?
