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Cover dashpad in plastidip?

U

urbex

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Crazy idea occurred to me last night while taking a whizz by the front tires...cause you know, that's when the best ideas come to guys :D

My K5 is a double duty street/trail rig, and living in Arizona, it gets plenty of dirt and crap in it, thus I'm not really into the idea of spending a ton of money on it making it look good, but at the same time, I don't really want it looking like the typical "teenagers went nuts with spray cans" or "bed liner on EVERYTHING!!!!!" either, lol.

Like many, my dash pad is trashed..more parts are cracked/crumbling than solid any more. I was thinking of the various replacement options, and how I don't like the caps, and HATE the carpet pad cover that I have now. I was thinking of repairing and smoothing what I have, and covering it in a new vinyl covering, as I'm painting the engine and body in non traditional colors, then suddenly, "plastidip" came to mind. Some of the latest stuff actually looks pretty decent on the outside of cars, and I'm thinking the semi-flat look might be beneficial, somewhat like factory vinyl. Plus if/when it gets screwed up, easy to peel off an respray?
 
You're covering it with new vinyl. Why spray it? Just get the vinyl you want to use.
 
Because reforming new vinyl on is still a decent amount of work, and spraying it would be less work, lol. Just thinking out loud, really..
 
Flexi-Seal liquid rubber might work better,it goes on thicker..
Seen some of that new Flexi-Tape recently,its pretty cool stuff but you sure dont get much of it for $20..

I once saw a square body in a salvage yard that had the entire dash covered with what looked like white silicone caulk like you'd use on a bathtub--looked like they applied several tubes of it with latex gloved hands,about 1/2" thick!..thats one dash that will never crack again..:)
Whoever did it imbedded some pennies in it too..
 
"Counting Cars" had an episode where they had a '67 Impala,and they did the entire interior in that fake fur,and Roly spilled a hot dog on the fur loaded with mustard !..the next scene they are at an interior shop supply store looking to buy more white fur..Guess once you stain that stuff its permanent!.

--also "Ryan" the painter bought a '59 Chevy Apache panel truck from Danny and did the whole interior with that long fake fur..
All I could think of is one dropped cigarette ash or a wire frying and both vehicles would go up like a bag of flash powder!..WHOOOF!..
 
i used it to cover rust in the lower quarter panel next to the wheel well so it would slow down the rust and it slowed it down but turns grey it was black doesnt last 6 weeks
 
I pulled the old cracked vinyl off (heat gun works wonders), glassed over the speaker holes (not going to use them), then filled with fiber reinforced resin. After that dried I used body filler to try and smooth it out. That's where I'm at now, but I have marine vinyl and contact cement that I'm going to use to re-wrap it.
 
I did an old Ford pickup dashpad that had more missing than was still there..I used spray insulation foam in a can to fill in all the missing pieces and cracks...
Let it set up overnight, carved it down with a hacksaw blade and pocket knife. Then filled it over with a skim coat of cat-hair body filler. sanded it relatively smooth with an orbital sander w/ 80 grit.

then used contact spray glue and cut up blue jeans to cover the dash pad and door panels.

The pockets in the jeans made nice little holders for cell phone, pens, cigs etc..:D

probably spent a total of 6 hrs start to finish..
 
A guy I know used lightweight bondo and sawdust to make a new dash pad out of the old one,he just cut back the old vinyl where it "erupted" and got a big crack and all hard and brittle,he cut those areas back at an angle and "V" them out and packed them with the bondo /sawdust mixture,then skin coated the whole dash with a layer about 1/4" thick..

He let it bake in the hot sun with the windows rolled up to cure it really good before he tried sanding it--he soon balked at how hard it was to sand with the windshield in the way and all the dust it made..

He settled for using a surform file to dress off the squegee overlaps and what he could sand with a palm sander and by hand ,and painted it the same saddle color as the rest of the interior with spray paint..it actually looked decent especially compared to what it used to look like..the truck reeked of fiberglass all summer though!..his wife refused to ride in it till the smell faded away..
 
If you're going to smooth it and put new vinyl, I would recommend vinyl spray dye from USA1.... they have done a great job of making all the different GM colors, it will look better than factory.... plastidip will look like plastidip!

The usa1 spray is nothing like the Dupli-Color vinyl stuff at AutoZone, USA one has some acetone in the paint so it really digs in and then blends with the material. If you do any scratches down the road, you just respray and it looks like the scratches were never there
 
Chevman88 said:
I pulled the old cracked vinyl off (heat gun works wonders), glassed over the speaker holes (not going to use them), then filled with fiber reinforced resin. After that dried I used body filler to try and smooth it out. That's where I'm at now, but I have marine vinyl and contact cement that I'm going to use to re-wrap it.
Click to expand...
did you ever finish this? I am thinking about doing the same thing
 
Big10 said:
did you ever finish this? I am thinking about doing the same thing
Click to expand...

Lol, still in the same spot, started too many projects at the same time...still plan on finishing it though.
 
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