Dashpad and door panels done

-
Coyote Jack

Coyote Jack

Member #55, I'm old
FABO Gold Member
Joined
May 22, 2004
Messages
8,676
Reaction score
3,847
Location
Baxters Corner N.B. Canad
A few weeks before Christmas I started revamping my interior. The pad and panels were in very bad shape so I thought I would try recovering them myself. I went out and bought some black automotive vinyl and some contact cement. I had a plan. I stripped the old plastic off the pad and was horrified to see the foam underneath. I decided to patch the holes and low spots with some HD foam I had laying around. After getting the foam glued on I started laying the vinyl down. I soon learned that I had way to much new foam even after cutting it way back. I finally got it to where I wanted it and proceeded to lay the vinyl down. I'm pretty sure the factory used a heat shrink type of vinyl as I had to put a seam at each end of the pad where it curves down. Not a big deal once I figured out a good way to cut it so the edges would match. Here are some pics of the old pad and some of the work.

interior001.JPG


interior002.JPG


interior003.JPG


interior004.JPG


interior005.JPG


interior006.JPG


interior007.JPG


interior008.JPG


interior009.JPG


interior010.JPG
 
I finished up the pad and moved to the panels. The panels were torn and had a vinyl paint on them. I wanted to keep the pattern on the panels so I decided to lay the new vinyl over the old and use contact cement in the valleys only to see if the pattern would stay. I lucked out and the panels came out nice. I am not going to say perfect but nice. They look a lot better in person than they do in the photos due to shadows that make it look like the panels have loose spots or ridges. They are not there. It was actually pretty easy to do the panels and the whole thing cost me about $40.00 instead of paying big bucks for a new pad and panels. I am going to try and pick up new or very good used inside door handles. The next step is to repaint the dash and other metal panels inside. I think I will powdercoat the chrome part of the inner door handles.

Jack

interior019.JPG


interior020.JPG


interior021.JPG


interior022.JPG


interior023.JPG


interior024.JPG


interior025.JPG
 
Great job! Definitely saved yourself some money there, plus the satisfaction of doing it yourself!
 
Very nice. I'm working on a console for my 65 Barracuda to hold cups. Hope it comes out as nice as yours
 
That's a big job! I just finished up a headliner as well as a package tray. Those were easy compared to what you've done. Anyone doing this type of work needs to know, it's all in the prep. I've done a dash pad with great stuff used for repairs. I then used a 1/8" high density foam over the entire thing to keep the vinyl uniform and clean.

Riddler
 
Riddler said:
That's a big job! I just finished up a headliner as well as a package tray. Those were easy compared to what you've done. Anyone doing this type of work needs to know, it's all in the prep. I've done a dash pad with great stuff used for repairs. I then used a 1/8" high density foam over the entire thing to keep the vinyl uniform and clean.

Riddler
Click to expand...

to help smooth thing out at the company I work for we use a grinder with a brand new 4" 80 grit disk to lightly smooth the surface. you would be surprised how easly it shapes the foam without tearing chunks out of it, here is mine after the same process(I used 1/4" though) I used a heat gun to soften the vinyl and glue bond and than added 1/4" hd foam to give back the padding that it lost due to age. sprayed contact cement on both the foam and vinyl let dry for 20 minutes and using a heat gun for the tricky corners, it wasn't easy but it did come out really nice in those hard to do inside corners. this pad has been on the car fro 1 year now and still looks great, so I'm happy!
DSCF3592.JPG
20160130_194637.jpg
 
4spdragtop said:
Nice work Jack. How did you remove the old dash vinyl?
Click to expand...

It wasn't all that hard to get the old vinyl off it was so brittle. Most of it I just peeled it off with my fingers and the rest I used a butter knife to pry it up. I think they relied on the heat to make it adhere to the foam when it was made and over the years that bond let go.

Jack
 
Riddler said:
That's a big job! I just finished up a headliner as well as a package tray. Those were easy compared to what you've done. Anyone doing this type of work needs to know, it's all in the prep. I've done a dash pad with great stuff used for repairs. I then used a 1/8" high density foam over the entire thing to keep the vinyl uniform and clean.

Riddler
Click to expand...

Yup, that was the trick. Making sure it was all smooth when done. We did it in different ways, but like they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Jack
 
66Dvert said:
to help smooth thing out at the company I work for we use a grinder with a brand new 4" 80 grit disk to lightly smooth the surface. you would be surprised how easly it shapes the foam without tearing chunks out of it, here is mine after the same process(I used 1/4" though) I used a heat gun to soften the vinyl and glue bond and than added 1/4" hd foam to give back the padding that it lost due to age. sprayed contact cement on both the foam and vinyl let dry for 20 minutes and using a heat gun for the tricky corners, it wasn't easy but it did come out really nice in those hard to do inside corners. this pad has been on the car fro 1 year now and still looks great, so I'm happy!View attachment 1715127047 View attachment 1715127052
Click to expand...

Cool, nice work!

Jack
 
hey jack where did you get your material I have one that needs to be done in gold .
 
Wow! Jack that dash pad looks great! And the panels came out nice too! I'd sure be proud to put those in my car. Awesome work!
 
jimjimjimmy said:
hey jack where did you get your material I have one that needs to be done in gold .
Click to expand...
you will be best off getting automotive grade (sierra grain or madrid grain) with a knit backing instead of a one way stretch cloth backing. the one way stretch vinyl only stretched on the width of 54" which means that most of the dash pads are too wide to go the right way. knit back has some stretch in both directions but really shines on a diagonal cut. you end up using about 1.1 yards of material going in that direction but you get 4 way stretch. here is one but it's a bit expensive. should be around 20.00 per yard and buying 2 is preferred. Madrid Soft - Gold automotive vinyl fabric with a madrid grain
 
66Dvert said:
you will be best off getting automotive grade (sierra grain or madrid grain) with a knit backing instead of a one way stretch cloth backing. the one way stretch vinyl only stretched on the width of 54" which means that most of the dash pads are too wide to go the right way. knit back has some stretch in both directions but really shines on a diagonal cut. you end up using about 1.1 yards of material going in that direction but you get 4 way stretch. here is one but it's a bit expensive. should be around 20.00 per yard and buying 2 is preferred. Madrid Soft - Gold automotive vinyl fabric with a madrid grain
Click to expand...


That's what mine was. $22 a yard and stretched in all directions. Because I was doing the door panels as well I got away with 2 meters of the 54 inch roll.

Jack
 
Coyote Jack said:
That's what mine was. $22 a yard and stretched in all directions. Because I was doing the door panels as well I got away with 2 meters of the 54 inch roll.

Jack
Click to expand...
that is some nice stuff to work with for sure and they look like they came out great. I have not laid up my door panels yet since I have to figure out how to umm integrate(like a 2005-16 minivan style door panel) the armrest and hide the fact that I have power windows and no crank handle on mine.
 
66Dvert said:
you will be best off getting automotive grade (sierra grain or madrid grain) with a knit backing instead of a one way stretch cloth backing. the one way stretch vinyl only stretched on the width of 54" which means that most of the dash pads are too wide to go the right way. knit back has some stretch in both directions but really shines on a diagonal cut. you end up using about 1.1 yards of material going in that direction but you get 4 way stretch. here is one but it's a bit expensive. should be around 20.00 per yard and buying 2 is preferred. Madrid Soft - Gold automotive vinyl fabric with a madrid grain
Click to expand...


I just called them and they are sending me a sample . thanks for the link .
 
Coyote Jack said:
That's what mine was. $22 a yard and stretched in all directions. Because I was doing the door panels as well I got away with 2 meters of the 54 inch roll.

Jack
Click to expand...
Nice job Jack! How hard was it to remove the Dash Pad? I was going to buy one from Legendary.
Thanks,
Mitch
 
I was lucky and had a spare one sitting around. As far as taking one off the dash, I have found that if you take the instrument panel and the glove box out of the car they are much easier to get out and there is a lot less cursing. You can reach in and get at the nuts through the empty spots much easier than reaching up from below. The one I have and I suspect they are all the same, has 5 studs with nuts on them across the face part and one screw in the ends that point down.

Jack
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top