My dash was the worst I evey had or seen.



This picture makes it look alot better.
The problem is that even a good condition used dash is about 17 years old and goes for around $100 bucks on evilbay.
There is a plastic cover sold for around $100 and a carpet cover for $30.
These options were too expensive for me for just a dash and I don't want a carpet top.

I decided to strip mine to the metal and fabricate my own. I used a combo of a butterfly knofe and a putting knife to strip it, then went to a grinder with a wire wheel.



You don't have to worry about the screw holes as they all have mounting bosses.





I found that there is good and bad to doing this, it will be a little smaller, and there are alot of holes to fill. But it is metal, I had all the materials I needed except the final coating. There are some cool NACA duct looking things in front of the defroster.

 

I taped the back and then filled the holes with a combintation of bondo and latex. Latex to take up some space and bondo to smooth.







I then used primer and if you ever built model racecars then you know you can use paint to fill cracks that aren't worth putty, just heavy coats.



I am now at the point were I let that dry overnight and used spot putty for imperfections. once that is done I will sand it again and check for other imperfections, fill sand prime and coast, I am goint to used wrinkle finish.

The tools I am using are a putty knife, orbital sander, grinder, butterfly knife, dremel tool.

Materials are masking tape, bondo, latex, spot glazing putty,

 

looks like it has some real potential! nice job

 

Thanks, it has to be better than what I had!! I will post some pics when it is done, in and out of the car.

 

Hmmm...gotta be better than the thing falling apart.

With alittle bit of patience and some sheet metal, it wouldnt be TOO hard to skin that thing. Get it nice and smooth...and also increase the size of the dash cover to make it fit like it used to. You'd have to use metal thin enough to easily form, but not too thin that it gets dented everytime you dust it.

Good luck getting it finished up!

J.

 

Could use some more work but time is limited, I am actually pleasantly surprised. The pics don't do it justice. It will be much better than looking at that ragged crap I had.

 

Good concept, but I don't have a lot of faith in the bondo filling those holes & surviving long term.

 

That is loosley what the latex was for, expansion and contraction, plus the tape was left on to keep it from falling through the bottom, and the paint is pretty sturdy on it's own. But, this only cost me 20 bucks as I had the other stuff sitting around and no use for it. If it lasts a year or two that would be cool. I am getting sick of everyone overlooking everything I have done to my car when they get in it and say "Man, are you going to fix that dash?" So atleast for awhile that is stopped. My old dash was so bad, duct tape actually made it look better.

 

good to do it in the summertime though to see if it will hold up to all the heat. That is the bad part the bondo will probably crack from it but it definitely looks better than what you started with. I think it would be cool to get some high density foam and cut it like the dash and cover in brushed aluminum or just cover in vinyl which would be alot easier but I think the brushed aluminum would look cool too and doesn't have to be too thick.

 

looks like coral reef.

looked better as bare metal

 

I have to ask, why didn't you fiber glass it? you could have incorporated gauges into it or anything else you wanted, real good idea though, got me thinkin.

 

I thought about what to do for awhile and aways had something else to work on. Money and time (2 kids) really were the main concerns. It had to be under $100 or else I could have just got a top shell on ebay for it, they are actually pretty cool. I have one for my armrest, not on it yet, just incase. This project only cost me $20 new money. All the other materials I used were bought a while ago and never used. It took me a day to strip it and a few hours here and there.
Main reason I posted this was to show people what is under the foam to spark ideas nd show there is something to work with rather than just throwing away the old dash. I had never heard of anyone doing it and had nothing to lose.
Maybe in the future I will have experience with firberglass and do something like that.

 

hmmm mine is cracked too and i have a carpet cover over it but i think they look kinda tacky. so im going to try something like this i think but with fiberglass or some other material. im just not a fan of that texture but it turned out great man looks good.

 

I hear ya man, i have two kids to and money and time are always a problem,like i sad,nice idea though, at least you can work with it.

 

it looks like a tar roof now and I bet it's equally as pleasant to touch it on a hot day. You probably could've picked up one with just a small crack or two at a junkyard for $15 or $20 that would look a lot better than what you started or finished with. I've gotten lucky and found ones with no cracks at all at junkyards for $20 or less.

 

Not bad man, I was trying a similar project, but started using that foam in a can , and was going to sand it to shape. I may try the project again one day.

 

Thanks guys. My car will never be a show car. So I am cool with it.

 

I was worried about mine when it get worse, that gives me some good ideas. What about truck bed paint like Herculiner or something thick.

 

Thanks, I had the spray in bed liner stuff in my hand and went for wrinkle finish just to try something different. We have a pull a part here I can get a dash for 20 bucks no matter what condition so I figured if I didn't like this I could always start over.
It would be really cool if something like Line X was still around and I could have had them shoot it. But with this quick fix I can move on to the brakes, the steering, the fuel injectors, the exterior....... the list goes on.

 

so u used the truck bedliner spray on it?

 

No, I used the Duplicolor wrinkle finish paint on the dash. I was going to use the Duplicolor truck bed stuff as I used it to coat my floorboards but saw the wrinkle finish and got it instead.
If we had Line X or something like that then I would had it professionally sprayed if it was cost effective.

 

hmmmmm never seen the stuff but it looks good still.