custom dash questions

[chubble]

So, my vents were stinking and my dash was looking tired and cracked so i was tearing down the dash this morning and got a little carried away with myself.

I cut the plastic and foam off the metal dash frame do now i have a great start to a custom dash. I'm wondering if any of you guys have any suggestions about where to go from here. One option is to back all of the holes with metal mesh and then use bondo to smooth it all and paint it. My wife thinks I should buy some vinyl fabric and upholster it. check out the pics, and let me know what you think.

 

[Mr Clean]

I know we have had other members fiberglass them, don't know how it turned out, they never showed the finished dash.

 

[chubble]

I decided to go down to the fabric shop in my town and see what I could find.

I decided to buy a thin layer of foam backing, which I attached to the dash with contact cement. I also purchased a grey "Carbon fiber" weaved vinyl off of the discount rack. The foam has turned out really well (pics later) and I will start to cut and fit the fabric tonight probably. I think it is going to turn out really well. Pics to come.

 

[Mr Clean]

Take lost of good pics, I know this is a very good topic.

 

[chubble]

The worst part was definitly the 3 hours it took me to scrape the old foam and plastic off of the dash frame, standing over my trash can with a face mask on. My wife has helped me out a ton on the fabric part, contact cement makes it a two person job for sure.

Here are the pics I took with my phone, I will get better pics with my dslr tonight.

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[Mr Clean]

Damn she let you do that inside? I need to have my wife talk to your wife! LOL

 

[chubble]

Haha, Yesterday was one of the coldest and windiest days we have had around here in a while.

 

[Stroked]

I'm very interested to see how this turns out! I have a couple cracked up spare dash pads I could try it on.

 

[chubble]

Well, the project is about 95 percent done. Before I post the pics, I will mention the 2 or three things I would have done differently if I was going to do this again. 1st, I bought vinyl and foam off of the scrap rack at my local fabric store. both were just under 2 yards (1 7/8) I would have bought 2 1/4 yards if I had known, in order to not have had a seam in the middle.

2nd, I would have glued the foam matting to the vinyl to start with and then molded the whole material to the dash.

As you can see, the vent molding curves out and it doesn't fit anymore, I have every intention of cutting it just before the curve and sanding it so it looks like it fits better.

Now for the pics:

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The foam mat

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[smurph20]

Damn that turned out nice i see what is in my future for my dash now.

 

[chubble]

The worst part was definitly the 3 hours standing over my trashcan scraping and sanding and getting the foam and plastic off of the metal dash frame. Use WATER it made everything so much easier once I did.

I will post some other pics closeup of the fit

 

[Meyster89]

Turned out good! Nice job!

 

[muddyman184]

I loved how that turned out im going to have to try that on mine, so you used contact cement to mount the foam on the metal and then used it again to mount the vinyl to the foam?

 

[elstm3]

Looks good! now we just need to figure out what to do with that part of the trim that sticks out by the pass door.

 

[chubble]

Also, if anyone improves on the design and figures out what to do about the speakers (vents or holes or something) I can't really tell a difference in sound but I'm sure if I didn't have the original paper cones speakers that sound like crap anyway, someone may be able to tell the difference.

MuddyMan: Yes, I used contact cement for both surfaces. I'm sure there are probably better adhesives that would have nade the whole process quicker, but I already had some and it seems to have formed a very strong bond.

I should mention, USE LOTS OF GLUE. otherwise you will end up with bubbly spots in between the layers. You will definitly use one entire med. size can to do this project.