One of the last major items on my list is to fix the dashboard. I mentioned earlier that I had bought a replacement dashboard in 'Natural Brown Leather'. I had thought that it might actually be
Natural Brown Leather, but that was not the case. The finish is an opaque paint that seals the leather.
I had read on leather-working forums about re-dying leather, but this was not going to work like that. The dye and stain I has would not penetrate at all and wiped right off.
It had to be stripped and sanded.
With hours of labor I finally had broken through the paint to the leather beneath. I really liked the distressed leather look. I should have stopped right then and saved it for another project. Instead I continued and used my spray gun to coat it with a dark brown opaque wood stain. The color matches nicely now, but the texture is all wrong. It cannot be fixed. To try again, it all has to be stripped off and I just don't have it in me to do that right now.
I have not found a Cocoa Brown leather dash in good condition to buy. Rather than replace the whole dash, I am going to check out possibilities of just replacing the top front portion of leather where it is damaged.
Probably what I need to do is track down a good local upholsterer and lay down some cash.
The car is running and driving great now. It seems that the throttle cut-out problem it had a while back was fixed by cleaning connections. It has not come back.
I received a gift from PaulE of a nice '04 SE wheel center cap (Thanks again Paul). This next week, I'm going to clean up the original center caps - making sure the center emblems are secure - and put them back on the car.