Technical > Interior
Dash reskin DIY!???
Toecutter:
I saw this pic in the galleries of RBZ260's DIY dash reskin!? Any details on how you go about doing this at home and how much?????
Sulio
JP:
Johnny describes it a bit over in the forums at www.thezgarage.com
sexual_sushi:
is that the one that is painted with an upholstery type paint? there is a pretty good write up on it at hybridz.org i think. has how to do it and the products to use. ill post the link when i get home from work tonight.... if you haven't found it by then
RBZ 260:
Yeah im here too hehehe
sexual sushi!nah this is not the one thats on hybridz this is of thezgarage AUS
got the idea from one of the members from here or z garage cant remember now. he was making fiberglass copies. and i asked him about the finish.and he gave me a product name that he was thinking of using. but hasnt used yet.
the finish is VIPONDS TAUTFLEX about $35 per 1L i only used maybe 200ml for the dash.
its australian made product UV resistant and all other magic stuff they say it does.
i didnt believe in it but a got it to try it out.
The dash itself was a mess. i will put a pic of it when i started. it had 6 cracks accross, huge ones accross the 3 center pods gap of almost 2.5cm two other cracks on the speedo and tacho pods and a huge one accross the glove box lid. in other words it was CRAP.
attacked it with 36 grade sandpaper with long plank as a sanding block.
that removed the cracks being out of the line. by doing this i made the gaps even bigger.by removing the sunburnt part of the sponge till it got to nice and clean sections.
Filled the gaps with expandable foam or space invader. let it dry. than attack it again with 36 grit paper till u get the basic shape into place.
once happy with the finish. i used few sheets of fiberglass and resin and layed it acrross the repaired area. didnt go all around as there was no reason. the sun dont get there anyway. so just do the top half.
after that guess what more sanding when the fiberglass cures. again get it into a nice shape if holes are not perfect circle use a plastic or steel pipe covered in electrical tape and fill the imperfections with fiberglass. other option is at later stage to use body filler.
once the holes and the dash is in good shape. sand the whole thing including the original vinyl with 180grit. if any imperfections use body filler to get small imperfections out.
finilise with 240 grit.
next step is i used 2pk primer/filler in very thick ratio. no thiners just hardner. called maxi fill. primer used was dupont. same stuff used on the car.
basicaly apply a fair bit of it to fill all the original vinyl pattern.do same for the glove box cover but before using the max fill primer/filler use plastic primer on it.
give it few days to dry properly or if ui fortunate enough to have a huge spray booth with heater drop it in there. i left it in trhe shed for 5days and on sunny days left it on the sun to bake properly.
once dried more sanding this time with 400 wet or dry if lot of imperfections otherwise use 800wet or dry.
an extra step i did which is probably not necessary is that i painted it with black base coat with 2pk clear. this is probably an overkill. main reason i did if there is a chip of the taut flex i stil have strong black underpaint and not having gray primer showing.
i left it again for few days to dry before sanding it with 1000grit and painting ti with tautflex.
if u want the smooth finish than spray normaly. i still wanted the suade finsih so i sprayed it from a distance to give that unique rough texture.
i let it dry overnight.it felt like suede lether it almost smells like it too. i tried scraping and digging in with nails to see how strong it is. no mark left on it. few spots i had very rough finish use a cotton rag with water to make it bit smoother. till the lint from rags wasnt left on the dash. once dried it still looked great.
i had all the bits at home when i did the car. like primer and clear. but you dont have to use 2pk. it is lot stronger than acrylic but should still work good.
i got the information from few dash restoration places on how they fix the dash. its the same way except they use body filler and some may use glass to get the shape and then cover it with vacumised vinyl.
i think having a fiberglass cap on top will last lot longer than those recovered ones. and if u get it damaged its easyly fixed and touched up.
also the viponds comes in any colour you want as they can tint them too.
u can get vipond tautflex from bristol paint or google viponds for other locations.
total cost
$35 for viponds tautflex can do lot of dashes with 1l
$30 worth of fiberglasss
$10 worth of primer
$10 worth of clear and black base coat
$10 for sandpaper
and bit of your own time doing it.
plus other equipment needed for spray painting etc...
its not a original look but its definetly different and very adaptable to any changes u wish to do on the dash. extra pods or mods. even the dash restorers dont reskin with original grain but a vinyl look.
its out there for people to try out. if u got a crapy dash give it a shot u be suprised how well it turns out.
sexual_sushi:
thanks for the write up :D where do we find the pics?
the diy dash work i was refering to is here if anyone is interested
http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23919
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