Built my own dash pad

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Mopar-Man

Mopar-Man

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I said I would post some pics when I finished it so here goes. This by far, was the hardest job I have done yet on ANY car! I have no training whatsoever and have never done one before. I did some research and found what materials and chemicals to use because I have had prior adhesive disasters.

MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS COMPATIBLE BEFORE YOU START GLUING THINGS! I have had things appear to work but fall off later or just flat out melt the product they are being applied to. Not all contact cements are the same! This is the ONLY one that will hold up, trust me on this. Regular DAP or Weldwood contact cement is not good for what we are doing here. You must use Landau top adhesive. It will glue vinyl to ANYTHING. This stuff is very aggressive, meaning once you put the two items you will not be moving it or pulling it apart again. PLAN AHEAD you get one shot at this, I am not kidding.

With that being said, I used the Landau adhesive to glue the foam to the steel frame. I used high density 1" thick foam purchased from Joann's Fabrics. They have 50% coupons and I used them. The vinyl is marine grade and UV resistant. Think how durable a boat seat cover has to be. Not cheap, but use a coupon and only $15 a yard! The adhesive I got off of Ebay and it was $45/gallon. You can brush, roll, or spray it. It will make you high as a kite so you better open a window and turn on a fan. You SHOULD use a respirator like I did.

Once you get the dashpad off you get the fun of removing all of the old foam and adhesive. This will take a while and makes a real mess so do it outside.

continued...
 
Isn't she beautiful? I can't imagine anyone being more proud of this!

Oh wait... this is the before pic! :) WHAT A FREAKIN TURD! It looks like it caught on fire and melted. I really hated sitting behind this and had actually made a black carpet mat to hide it. That's why there is old glue on it.
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So now that sucker is out of the way and in the driveway I got a putty knife and went nuts on it. I put "Working Man" by Rush on loop and got to work. 10 plays later, I had enough vinyl off of it to fire up the air compressor and hit it with some green 3M RoLocs.

RoLoc and roll baby!

Some more before pics...

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Frickin yummy! Right??? Trade ya for that Six Pack air cleaner over there, bud!

Anyway, here it is with the funk removed...

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Yes, I use my kitchen as a workshop and the floor is ruined.
Yes, I am single.
No, you are not my type!

Let's move on...
 
You are going to need some GOOD scissors. The ones you use to make your paper dolls with are not good enough. You need the running kind. The ones momma warned you about. I use Fiskars and cutting foam and vinyl wipes them out in short order so you will need a sharpener too. Cut your foam quite a bit larger than you think you need, then cut it even larger than that. Good. Now lay the dashpad frame on the foam and gaze at it lovingly. Repeat out loud, "I don't think I can do this. I don't think I can do this."

You are probably right.

A smart man would cut his material losses right here and PAY someone to finish the job. But we aren't SMART, now are we???

So let's soldier on!

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You still here? Man, you have no common sense at all! Or maybe, you just like glue. Mmmmm glue. That's probably it alright. Here are the chems I used. I even used some of them on this project.

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It is best if you spray the Landau top adhesive but no way I was going to do that inside my house! It was in the 20's here so I could not do the work in the patio like I usually do. If at all possible do this work outside so you don't end up like me.

"I'm stuck on glue. Not matter what I do, I just can't stop - sniffin you!" - Tiffany

Remember, you get ONE SHOT with this adhesive. The foam will separate if you try to remove or reposition it and you get to cut a new piece and start all over again. You apply it to both pieces, then let it dry to a haze then bond them together. What I did was glue the top first (frame to foam with foam lying flat on table) then carefully fold and glue each side followed by the ends and trimming as I went. ANY SCREW UPS HERE WILL SHOW THROUGH THE VINYL! And we don't like screw ups do we? Except at parties... when we can laugh at them.

So here we go..

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See how easy that was? It always is when someone else is doing the work! You sure you don't want to pay that dude? Okay...

Let's test fit it.

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Bitchin! That's gonna leave a mark. Hey, now is the time to shape the foam if you want to and make sure you glove box door does not hit the foam when opening. I did check mine after this photo. Next up: Cutting the vinyl.
 
This is black vinyl. Because Black Vinyl Matters. Once you go black, oh never mind.

Lay the vinyl out and cut it smaller than you need. I mean BIGGER. Much bigger. I used new scissors and they were dull by the time I finished. This stuff has a very tough woven backing.

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I used the 3M spray adhesive instead of the contact cement BECAUSE if you get a wrinkle with the contact cement, it is there forever! You can reposition the 3M although I try not to move it. Take the foam covered frame outside and give it several coats. Do the same to the backside of the vinyl. Carefully set the frame onto the vinyl backing and smoothly pull up each side starting in the middle and being sure to keep it tight (dy-no-mite!) and wrinkle free. Good luck on the ends they are a BEAR. I did contact cement all the edges tightly to the frame. You will need to make small cuts wherever there are tight turns. A heatgun only helps so much as this vinyl is very thick and will not do compound curves.

I warned ya!

Annnnnnnd we're almost done.

Test fit it do the dash again. You will have a tough time getting the nuts started on the studs because the foam is thicker than stock but I did it AND SO CAN YOU.

The wrinkles on the ends should mostly disappear with the use of a heatgun but I literally finished this an hour ago and needed a fume break. I am going to estimate my total cost for the pad at...

$80 but I have enough adhesives to do my door panels and package shelf which are next. I had a buddy that would have done the pad for $100. I must be out of my mind.

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Great job Mopar-Man. It looks like you used the same vinyl that I did. Great stuff to work with. I did a little test on some of mine with a heat gun and it did not shrink that much. I hope you have better luck than I did. I did my door panels with the same vinyl and they turned out great. Good luck and I loved the presentation.

Jack
 
Coyote Jack said:
Great job Mopar-Man. It looks like you used the same vinyl that I did. Great stuff to work with. I did a little test on some of mine with a heat gun and it did not shrink that much. I hope you have better luck than I did. I did my door panels with the same vinyl and they turned out great. Good luck and I loved the presentation.

Jack
Click to expand...

Thanks. I bought 5 yards of the vinyl to do my door panels and package tray as well. I think those will be WAY easier than the dash pad was. I also did the dash face and glovebox door as you can see and then did stainless trim around the seam. The heat gun formed it nicely around the glovebox latch but you can't do that with soft foam behind it as the foam will distort. I used a 1 1/4" socket to push the vinyl down and form it.
 
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