A bare metal dash cover restoration

[CRM]

Yesterday I took my original (heavily cracked) dash cover, and using my duct board knife, removed all the vinyl and foam. It took about 20 minutes. Next I'll take a wire wheel and a drill and remove the foam/glue remnants. During lunch hour today I was at the local Ace Hardware looking to purchase some contact cement to install vinyl on this dash and the other dash I'm doing. I decided to look to see if they had any foam that I could use on this dash. I wasn't having much luck when I happened on the camping aisle. Lo and behold, I find a sleeping mat. it's the same color as my truck and dash vinyl. It's 1/2" x 24" x 71" and it's perfect. Not too soft and not too hard. What's even better is if my vinyl ever cracks all you'll see is more blue!

 

[Georgeb]

Way to think outside the box. The guys at my hardware store don't even bother asking me if I need help anymore because I am always trying to use somthing for somthing else.

 

[CRM]

Used a wire wheel to remove the old foam and glue.

 

[CRM]

Another angle.

 

[CRM]

I've started this project back up. Here are some pics of the progress today. I laid the pad out and drew in the rough shape of the dash leaving extra room for screw ups. I then cut it out with scissors. I used 3M spray adhesive on both the metal and the pad. There's a couple of pics after the trimming was complete. I still have some fine tuning to do before I'm ready to apply the vinyl. The last dash I used marine vinyl which wasn't very stretchable. This time I'm going to find the thinnest, most flexible vinyl I can find. Pics to follow.

 

[Fastereddie]

VERY interested to see how this turns out. I bought a replacement urethane dash pad and although it's installed I haven't been satisfied with how it fits. I almost threw my stock dash away yesterday but couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe I'm glad I didn't. Lol.

 

[HotRodPC]

VERY interested to see how this turns out. I bought a replacement urethane dash pad and although it's installed I haven't been satisfied with how it fits. I almost threw my stock dash away yesterday but couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe I'm glad I didn't. Lol.

No, DO NOT throw it away. I've seen guys strip them down to the metal, start filling the holes with body filler, smooth it all out, sand, finish and paint and they looked great and never have to worry about the vinyl cracking again.

 

[74 Shortbed]

No, DO NOT throw it away. I've seen guys strip them down to the metal, start filling the holes with body filler, smooth it all out, sand, finish and paint and they looked great and never have to worry about the vinyl cracking again.

I've seen some of them and they looked awesome, I been debating if I should do that instead of the vinyl..

 

[CRM]

Don't throw it away! I'm actually rethinking the vinyl and am leaning towards some type of cloth. We'll see. I'll post pics though...

 

[HotRodPC]

My intent on my 4x4, is to do the dashpad and door panel inserts in of the Camo patterns in cloth. I've seen a few done in the Camo cloth and they turned out great. Also seen one done in headliner material with the foam backing to match the headliner and the door panel inserts also, and it didn't look to bad at all either.

 

[HotRodPC]

I've started this project back up. Here are some pics of the progress today. I laid the pad out and drew in the rough shape of the dash leaving extra room for screw ups. I then cut it out with scissors. I used 3M spray adhesive on both the metal and the pad. There's a couple of pics after the trimming was complete. I still have some fine tuning to do before I'm ready to apply the vinyl. The last dash I used marine vinyl which wasn't very stretchable. This time I'm going to find the thinnest, most flexible vinyl I can find. Pics to follow.

This is turning out good so far. You still going to keep the foam underlayment even if you use cloth right?

 

[CRM]

Yes, the foam stays. To use just bare metal would entail a lot of work: grinding,bondo, sanding, etc. The way the metal was produced back in the 70's was not up to the standard of today. Lots of wrinkles and other issues that would take way too long to correct. The foam was actually very easy to install over the metal and it covers all the defects. It will take a little time to shape all the edges but nothing that's time consuming.

 

[Georgeb]

This is exactly what I had in mind for repairing a dash. I wanted to somehow use my shop vac and a sheet of plywood with a hole in it to create a vacuum table for installing the vinyle ut it can be done by hand with care.

 

[CRM]

Foam backed headliner fabric is also an option. Seems like it would be simple to install.

 

[Mr Clean]

Isn't the blue pad going to be too thick? Like where the bottom of the A pillar meets the dash, and than you have the trim piece also you have to squeeze in there. Just might be something you want to check. Looks great I hope it works out.