When I got the car it had no sunvisors or convertible boot. I asked the seller about the boot but he didn’t even know what a boot was. Not exactly a car guy, he’s an artist and I think he looked at his seldom used Spider as kind of a statement. George (NJFIAT81) quickly helped me out with black sunvisors and a black boot which looked fine in contrast to the green.
But the radio console was a mess, the grill bent out of shape, the hazard switch hanging by its wires and the courtesy light disintegrated. The old original AM/FM radio poorly installed and the console behind it butchered and masked with the green vinyl.
I’ve wanted to fix the console, and had a vision of matching sunvisors and boot but there seemed no way. Sure you could buy vinyl dye from color charts but I needed a custom match. I searched the internet repeatedly and finally came across a Toronto based company that claimed they could custom match my color. I sent them a sample and $110 bucks later I had a quart of custom colored green vinyl dye in six aerosol cans. With very low expectations I tested the dye out on a sunvisor. It took about 10 minutes or so to give it three coats. When I held the visor next to my seats I was stunned. It was a perfect match.
So I sourced a used black radio console, with an intact grill, hazard light and courtesy light. I fabricated an internal tray and cut the opening for installation of the modern radio. I replaced my old glove box which had had the back cut out to accommodate the radio with a good parts one.
Then everything got a few coats of my magic dye and after working on it all holiday weekend it is all back together. In the meantime I got my Nick Rio’s restored gauges back in place and cleaned up the dash center section.
Here are some pictures. The boot does match exactly. In one picture it looks lighter because of the angle of the sun.
Next winter, the lower console, carpets and insulation.
