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Almost done, still need to finish the outer corners & few other things.
Started by stripping the OE vinyl.
Applied some expandable foam.
Then sanded it flush.Those are buick celebrity speaker grills (trimmed to fit).Covered them with blk material, dont like the horizontal bars
Rebuilt corner.
Not the best light to show detail.There are imperfections in the leather, but thats part of the appeal (to me).
Vents need work still, corners especially.Buick celebrity grills (trimmed to fit).
Last edited by 84 1LE; Sep 29, 2019 at 12:59 PM.
Reason: Replace pics.
Hands down the best dash pad re-finish job Ive ever seen on these dashes. I have my original dash from my 87, that has a massive crack down the center and I wanted to try to re-cover it. This has inspired me.
Im curious to see how the material you used handles sun/heat and cool. If it wrinkles and pulls. Im guessing it'll be ok. What material did you use again??
Did you have to heat gun it to get into all those contours and vents?
Thanks 87LT. Its leather & should do as well as any leather in our cars! No heat gun, just glued on.Center vents were the hardest with the leather wanting to lift in the corners.
Speaker & side vent.
this is exactly how i planned to do mine, the dash in my iroc was a mess, i ended up having to take it down to metal as the foam was ripping out with the vinyl, i will use the pristine pad in my RS as a template(thickness measurements)when i spray and sand the foam
Kinda looks it...sometimes, but its scratch built.
Thanks everyone.I just finished the outer corners yesterday.Maybe ill take pics of them too.Though my stitching isnt the best.I'm also not liking that hosiery as much as i thought.
something a bit stronger than the hose that you may like is women's stretch pants (did this in the late '80's with an old set of speaker boxes i had, worked well) dash is looking quite sweet, but when i do mine, i am going to french in some pieces for my vents and around the edge for the corner problems ... also going to do away with my side vents, as i only had one to start with, and they didnt seem to work anyway
something a bit stronger than the hose that you may like is women's stretch pants (did this in the late '80's with an old set of speaker boxes i had, worked well) dash is looking quite sweet, but when i do mine, i am going to french in some pieces for my vents and around the edge for the corner problems ... also going to do away with my side vents, as i only had one to start with, and they didnt seem to work anyway
I already got rid of the hosiery, looked cheesy.For now, im using the material from another speaker grill.The side vents im leaving w/out.
Was it you that mentioned the french seam? I was gonna try that, but thought it would make the corner look bulky.Are you saying you want to add something to the vent, like on the speakers?
I already got rid of the hosiery, looked cheesy.For now, im using the material from the other grills in the last pic of the intial post.The side vents im leaving w/out.
Was it you that mentioned the french seam? I was gonna try that, but thought it would make the corner look bulky.I shoulda cut the foam down to give less bulk, but didnt wanna chance it.Are you saying you want to add something to the vent, like on the speakers?
yes i am going to do french seams and no i am not going to put anything in the small side vents, just fill them in and cover over then
I used the underneath portion of the lid to keep perfect fit, screwed the underneath portion to a piece of plywood, then used aircraft foam (the densest foam available), and wrapped the leather around it.
Did you cut/shape the foam as well?
Is the leathher glued on?
Very clean btw.
Yes, foam cut to shape.
Not sure. After the upholsterer did the back seats to match the fronts I purchased, I took the console lid to him, and together we decided on the best way to do it. I believe the leather is not glued, as some give is needed; however, the foam is denser than stock (and that's what caused the stock vinyl to crack in the first place). Here's the view from passenger side.
You can see I used the same leather to put in the door panel, so that I got rid of all the stock "dove" grey color
It looks great, you do the bk seats too?
I did the same thing on my doors,The perforated leather in the upper section is from the same cut as the steering whl, shifter ****/boot, e-brk.I wanna 86 the carpet on the dr panel & use headliner fabric instead
when I ordered the seats, I purchased Xtra matching leather hide for the purpose of recovering the backs to match. Upholsterer took pics of one seat I brought in, and did the backs to match. Still have a little leftover for accessories.
More progress.No upholsterer myself, but yeah.May have to sew those corners up.
Thats panty hose on the grills......sexy!
1st, awesome work on your dash and interior. That gives me inspiration to do mine and keep the third gen look. I almost was going to get a 4th gen dash but decided against it. My dash is cracked really bad like yours was.
I tried the bondo thing on my dash to no avail. Was cracked even before I put it back into the car. I was wondering where you got the leather at, and is it easy to stretch for it to stay down into the defroster vent holes? Also did you sew the front corners after you glued the leather to the top part of the dash?
1st, awesome work on your dash and interior. That gives me inspiration to do mine and keep the third gen look. I almost was going to get a 4th gen dash but decided against it. My dash is cracked really bad like yours was.
I tried the bondo thing on my dash to no avail. Was cracked even before I put it back into the car. I was wondering where you got the leather at, and is it easy to stretch for it to stay down into the defroster vent holes? Also did you sew the front corners after you glued the leather to the top part of the dash?
Yeah, bondo is to rigid.Gotta use something that will flex.I got the leather on eBay a couple years back.If you look closely at the center vent, there are some crease marks between the speaker/vents.It takes some doing to stretch it & not wrinkle it too much.You have to leave enough material to reach down into the bottom of the vent, but not too much it'll bunch up & wrinkle on you.Even after this, it's still tuff to get it into the corners & stay glued.
On the corners, I glued them afterwards.Since I stitched the leather from behind.
I haven't been on here in almost 2 months and man this is the first thing to catch my eye... LOOKS AMAZING! I bought some speaker grill fabric on ebay when covering the convertible speaker grills that had just enough texture and thickness to look correct. Might look into it, or hell I have enough left over I could send you some. Lemme know.
this is awesome.. i've been looking for a new dash pad, and they are all really expensive.. i think i'm going to try this on mine before biting the bullet and buying one
awesome job on the dash! best ive seen even better than OEM. im in the process of redoing my dash. but I have a couple low spots and such. what kind of filler did you use? if you don't mind me asking. I was thinking bondo but it seems like it would crack very easily.
Thats spot putty, most of it was sanded away.I wouldnt use it again though.Was fine in the center, crumbled too easy near the edges.
You wouldnt use what again..? The expandable foam or the spot putty?
And for either answer, what would you use in its place?
Im trying to figure out how you sewed up the corners. I have sewn a few things lately...like shift and e-brake boots. But I cant wrap my head around how you did that.
