dash pad

[carolinafan4life63]

so i have searched and came up with plenty of threads , but none having anyone that has actually done this , ( could have overlooked it possibly ) .

has anyone stripped their dash and used fiberglass to " recover " it? mine was cracked very bad , and the only used ones i found were just as bad if not worse. so i peeled all of the vinyl off of the dash pad , all i have now is the foam backing and steel frame. I was thinking of using fiberglass mat and resin to recover it and then sand and bondo the low spots untill smooth and then paint to match the interior of my truck. anyone else done it this way? if so do ya have any pics?? thanks

 

[Kjunky5]

Funny you mention it but that is my next project. Given my history with MECP, I plan on moving the headunit up there and blending it all in. I like "kitty hair" for the stage between the chopmat/weave and the bondo. Go to your local department store and get some cheap fleece material, it makes a good first wrap and the resin soaks right in. For paint SEM makes an exellent semi-gloss.

 

[carolinafan4life63]

yeah , figured i would try my hand at it and see how it turns out. wasnt really going to do it just yet , but i started picking at the cracks and that snowballed into taking all the vinyl of down to the foam , so i guess i have to do it now.......lol !! would love to see some pics if anyone has done it like this

 

[blazin_blazer]

i thought about this a long time ago, but haven't tried fiberglass b/c i was scared it being so hard it may crack again or in a wreck it could cut someones head really bad.

so, i had an upholstery shop recover the 77 model dash w/red leather about 7 yrs ago & its still soft and flexible & looks really well today. iirc, they charged me $75 to recover the dash.

just wanted to provide you w/another option to think about & you could probably have it done cheaper if you let them recover it w/vinyl. it was easier than me fiber glassing it & i think it turned out better looking w/the leather.

edit: if you do use fiberglass, you should try the resin on a small area of the foam to make sure the resin doesn't melt the foam padding, like gas eats Styrofoam.

 

[nick9004]

Hey Guys, What route did you guys end up taking with this? I'm looking at doing this soon. I'm thinking about just leaving the plastic on top of the foam to keep the shape but to cover up cracks and do some reshaping. Do you think I'll have bonding issues? Do you guys have pictures if you did end up doing this?

Thanks!