The Smoking Lamp is Lit

Another quick turnaround project....  Like the horn button, I had removed the ashtray early on after getting the truck.  Like the rest of the interior, it was in pretty rough shape.  Here's how it looked when I got the truck:

It was actually kind of comical.  The guy that found and bought the truck to resell it had spray painted primer everywhere.  I guess he was trying to hide the rust and tidy up things a bit. However, he didn't go to much trouble in prepping before spraying.  Here you can see a bunch of pencils sticking out of the ashtray.  When I pulled it, it was full of old cigarette butts, too!  When I got it out, I noticed that the actual ashtray body was a real mess, with rust through and pin holes everywhere.  So I cleaned it up and then decided that it was too far gone to salvage and ended up buying a replacement body on eBay.  I was able to clean up the face and handle of the ashtray. The partially cleaned face looked like this:

I say partially cleaned because you can clearly see discoloration on the face of it.  This pic was taken 5 years ago and frankly, I can't remember how clean the face was when I coated it in primer.  However, I don't usually leave any discoloration when I'm cleaning, so I'm assuming it was all gone.  Also, when I looked at it today, there was no indication of any further rusting.  So I feel good that I got it all when I cleaned it 5 years ago.

Then it was simply a matter of unscrewing a small screw on the inside of the ashtray that holds the handle on.  (The handle then squeezes the face to the ashtray body.)  Once the handle is removed, the face comes right off the ashtray body.  Then, like the horn button, it was off for paint.

Here it is after painting and reassembled onto the ashtray body:

I bet it's been a long time since you've seen an ashtray that was actually meant for cigarettes and ashes.  Here is a top shot, looking down:

Here is a side view:

The original ashtray was not painted on the body.  I went ahead and primed/painted the replacement body to prevent any further rusting.  In the next shot, you can see the small screw that holds the handle to the ashtray body and squeezes the face plate to the body.

So that's it for this quick edition.  I've got some dash trim pieces that are masked off and the first coat of paint is drying.  I'll try to get the final coat on them tomorrow and have another post for those.  It's been very gratifying to be able to finally finish these small projects that I started so long ago.  Once the paint on them is fully cured, I'll package them up and store them out of the way.  That will free up some much needed shelf space, which is a good thing.