1975 - 1977 Lincoln Continental Town Coupe/Car Instrument & Dash Panel Resto Kit

Description

This listing is for ten high quality 3M vinyl decals to restore the appearance of the 1975 to 1977 Lincoln Continental / Town Car / Town Coupe woodgrain panels for the dash and instruments.   The decals are
pre-cut precisely for a perfect fit, ready to overlay onto your parts.
The pictures showing some of these original panels recovered is for reference only, the parts are not included - only the 10 decal kit.
The material is a 3M vinyl that is used mainly for exterior automotive wraps.   It is designed to be UV-fade resistant, durable, and flexible; able to follow most any shape.  It has a bit of elastic capability before distorting that makes it easy to fit exactly to flat or contoured surfaces.   It also has just the right amount of light reflection.  I trialed several different materials and this one is excellent for the application.
A few observations and suggestions that apply to installing each of the available kits onto a variety of surfaces:
1. It is very important to have your starting surface be as smooth as possible.  The vinyl is thin enough to reveal any specs, scratches, etc.  Hand sanding is usually fine for most pieces.  For deep scratches, other damage, molding depressions (sometimes on the steering wheel horn pad bases), to get a very smooth surface consider using a primer/filler material, then sanding down, repeating as needed.
2. Also make sure your surface is very clean; no sand left over and no fingerprints, etc.   I use rubbing alcohol on a folded paper towel and it works great on all surfaces.
3. One your surface is ready, place the decal as-is (un-peeled) in exactly the location in needs to be on your part.  Makes sure edges line up nicely, any cutouts are all aligned to cutouts in the decal, etc.  Then tape one end of the decal securely in place so that it won’t slip, staying exactly in its final location.   I use black electrical tape, it holds in place and then releases well.
4. Lift the un-taped side of the decal and peel about half of the white backing material away from the sticky decal, and carefully cut away the lifted section of backing.  Do not attempt to tear the backing with your fingers; you’ll leave residue on the decal’s adhesive that will be very difficult to get off.  Use scissors.
5. Lower the exposed portion of the decal into position pressing into place with your fingers starting at the cut-line you’ve just made and working outward toward the edges of the part.   Use enough downward pressure and go slowly to get out any wrinkles or air bubbles.  You might use a plastic straight edge for larger surfaces like the Mark V passenger side dash panel, to squeegee out the decal evenly.
6. Remove the tape pulling parallel across the surface gently, not lifting upward off the part, and repeat the process for the remaining portion. Remove the rest of the backing and again work from center outward.
7. For the ashtray lid buttons, I suggest sanding down the bottom of the button rounding the bottom edges somewhat.   This creates more of a gap between the button and the decal surface, and helps to prevent the scratches that always occur on the originals when rotating the button.   A little more risky, but the buttons can also be removed and replaced after the decal is applied.
8. For covering corners too sharp for the material to conform smoothly, carefully cut a slit or thin triangle shape from the tip of the corner inward.  This will allow the material to fold one side over the other if necessary.  Orient these corners so that the fold is not visible from the normal perspective.
8. You can pull on the material just a bit without distorting it if necessary to get all edges to land exactly where they should.  The decals are cut precisely for fit where applicable, but there are always slight variations and going slowly and carefully will get a great result.
9. If something does go wrong;  the decal touches a part it shouldn’t, gets a wrinkle or bubble while applying…in any case where you must lift the exposed decal from some surface, try to do so with small, firm, quick, jerk-like motion.  This will reduce chances of permanently deforming the decal.  Try to avoid grabbing an edge and pulling harder, then harder until it starts to release – this will likely cause too much stretch.
10. If in worst case you do stretch the decal beyond a border of some kind, it is easy to trim with an exacto knife, razor blade, or similar once all is firmly in place.
11.
Feel free to contact me any time to talk through installation tips or with any questions at all.  I will also do the installation work for you if you prefer.
Click on "See other items" for other woodgrain restoration vinyl decals, original parts from a 28 mile Mark V, and other excellent or NOS Lincoln parts.  There are thousands of parts here, feel free to ask about anything for any 70's Lincoln.   Reducing a 20+ year collection; glass, body, electrical, under hood, interior and exterior trim and moldings, wheels, seats, instruments, mechanical, chrome, lights, knobs...bit of everything.
Any questions, please ask
Thanks!
Perry