BretD 88GTA

Here are some pics of my dash pad, both before and after.

Here is the pad as it came out of the car and after I prepped it and repaired the cracks using Permatex Plastic Weld Epoxy:


Here is the pad ready to go back in the car after I recovered it using auto/marine grade cloth backed vinyl material:


I spent approximately $45 total in materials (2 yards of vinyl material - $20, 2 cans of DAP heavy duty spray adhesive - $20, epoxy - $5) and about 4 days worth of work. Even better, I still have enough material left to cover a second dash pad.

I'll be reinstalling the pad in the car later this evening.

Russ-So Cal

Looking good Bret!

BretD 88GTA

Thanks Russ!

I re-installed the pad in the car tonight and it looks good. I think it looks it better than it did from the factory.

madmax

Looks pretty good Bret! I gotta see that one in person.

demonchild

looks great compared to how mine came out originally. i got mad at how it came out and went to the junk yard and found a good one for 15 dollars.

nice work:hail: :hail: :hail: :hail:
but how did you fold the corners?

BretD 88GTA

Veeeerrrry carefully. The front corners were the trickiest. I spent a couple afternoons trying out different techniques until I worked out what I thought was the best solution. I then grabbed the scissors, trimmed off the excess material and glued the corners in place.

It worked out really well. Once back in the car and screwed down, the sides of the dash pinch the folds and help make sure everything stays put.

demonchild

very nice work:hail:

thechristopherh

where did you get the vinyl material at?

BretD 88GTA

Joanne's Fabrics. They have a section in the back of the store with automotive materials - headliner, marine vinyl...etc, all on large rolls.

The material I used is called "Whisper Black". The reason I chose it was because of the color and texture, but more importantly because it has some stretch to it. This is VERY important. The other vinyl materials they have didn't have this feature.

You could also go to an upholstery supply shop and find similar material. That's where I got the spray adhesive I used, but they were out of stock on the material I wanted so I went with Joanne's.

Russ-So Cal

I see your in Laguna Hills. I presume that is somewhere near Lake Forrest or Laguna Niguel? If it is in So Orange County, shoot Dyno Don an email or pm. He has the name of an upholstery supply house in Santa Ana with a better selection than Joannes and better prices as well.

BretD 88GTA

Russ,
I found Joanne's pricing to be close to the upholstery shop. I paid $11.99 per yard at Joanne's and the upholstery shop in Van Nuys I went to was $9.99 per yard. $2 isn't much of a difference. Plus, Joanne's then gave me a 20% discount because the material I bought had a small spot of some kind of adhesive on it. I'm sure the spot will come off. So, in the end I still only paid $10 a yard for the vinyl.

If you're looking for headliner material, then definitely try an upholstery shop first. They will have a larger color selection. Joanne's only carries black and 2 or 3 shades of grey.

Russ-So Cal

Don found one in Santa Ana that was significantly less expensive than Joannes, if I remember correctly. Of course the total cost for the fabric would not begin to equal the cost of gas for you to make a trip to Santa Ana, but since thechristoferh lives in Orange County, I thought to give him a heads up to contact Don.

Crouchman

I'm stunned!! That looks fabulous! Worthy of a tech article in my book.

Kevin91Z

Bringing up old thread = 1 demerit. Go sit in the corner.

Crouchman

Ouch. Sorry...1st time in the penalty box. Why they call me a junior member, I guess.

82 Iron Duke

That's funny Kevin, scare the juniors why don't ya

__________________
The facts expressed here belong to everybody, the opinions to me. The distinction is yours to draw...

Crouchman

I was just asking ya about how to clean up my threads, and I revive one from the morgue. It was a good thread though. I hadn't paid attention to the post dates. I'm learning. I can take a shot.

82 Iron Duke

Post date means nothing, actually Kevin bumped this yesterday and he is messing with ya

__________________
The facts expressed here belong to everybody, the opinions to me. The distinction is yours to draw...

racerd146

even tho this is a old thread im curious how did the grain match the oem
stuff

VAN454

This looks great, a tech article of how to do this would be very nice.

89 TA

or maybe we can all send our dash pads to Bret and he can recover them for us, for a fee of course.

89RS_82Z

VERY NICE

thegooseman

VAN454

Might be a bit hard for me, the shipping from melbourne, australia might be a bit costly

BretD 88GTA

Unfortunately, I didn't take any in-progress pics and it's been about 5 years since I did it. The cover is still holding up though.

VAN454

What about a write up then? Even without pics I think I could get enough tips to do mine, and I could take pics for a full tech article.

Jason89RS

lol seriously after 5 years I doubt he'd remember all the small nuances of the project.

injdinjn

F'ing alzheimers.

tom3

I thought about doing this on my other car. Figured to use speaker grills from an S10 pickup maybe. Trim the old cover/pad so the grills recess in so the top would be flat across. Never got around to it but it's nice to know it is possible to recover and have it look nice. My dash top is still in good shape but it'