fiberglass dashboard

[scfaust]

i just bought a older car with a vinal dash thats all cracked up. ive looked to bye a new one or have it redone but its out right now can i just put fiberglass resin on it filer sand and paint same with center consel or how whould i go about doing it if i did any know have any videos or a how to pageive search the web got many diffrent answers thanks for the help guys

[gogojjt]

i just bought a older car with a vinal dash thats all cracked up. ive looked to bye a new one or have it redone but its out right now can i just put fiberglass resin on it filer sand and paint same with center consel or how whould i go about doing it if i did any know have any videos or a how to pageive search the web got many diffrent answers thanks for the help guys

well, you do have some options...if you wanted to add monitors or other mods to your dash it would be a good idea to go through the time and effort there is in fiberglassing your older cracked dash, depending on how bad the condition it is. it would take cutting your dash, making frames wrapping in fleece, soaking fleece in resin, adding fiberglass reinforcement and further molding. Now, if you were looking for a factory look, i would just buy a new replacement at a junkyard, etc. also, theyre are plastic repair kits out there like 4040 and 3m has one called plastic repair rigid parts which you could fill in the cracks and sand them down. also you could prob use some flex fillers and fill in the cracks add some kittyhair or bondo to get it smooth. once you get it smooth you can primer and paint, or add factory like texture spray. the only other option would be to get it covered by an upholstery shop. as in how to's, check youtube for fiberglassing in general and you can see different methods etc. before you did a big project on your own, i would suggest do a practice on something smaller like a kickpanel or tweeter pod, etc. caraudiohelp.com i believe offers some videos on fiberglassing, im sure there's others out there. good luck, james

[Saltine]

that was the biggest load if mis-information and speaking out of the ass i have ever heard.

sand the cracks smooth, fill the cracks with resin, get some fiberglass cloth and resin it over the whole dash pad. sand it smooth, ad light filler were needed and keep sanding til its smooth, use a sanding block. finally prime and paint.

anything else will crack when it gets too hot or too cold.

do what i said and yours can look like this

[BeatBox]

very shiny! is that just painted? ^^^

[c_stud]

it was a noob whatcha expect from them

[Saltine]

the dash is glassed, the texture is no longer there and painted to match my cars exterior....as far as the noobs thing if you dont know just be a dont know.

[Saltine]

[gogojjt]

that was the biggest load if mis-information and speaking out of the ass i have ever heard.

sand the cracks smooth, fill the cracks with resin, get some fiberglass cloth and resin it over the whole dash pad. sand it smooth, ad light filler were needed and keep sanding til its smooth, use a sanding block. finally prime and paint.

anything else will crack when it gets too hot or too cold.

do what i said and yours can look like this

first off, i would like to say your piece looks really nice, great job!!! and as for the misinformation, i dont believe that it was talking out my ass...he was not very descriptive on his ultimate goals, i was just giving him some ideas on techniques and was letting him know that it takes a lot of work to get good results; example your dash....and as your advice to him is pretty much exactly how i would do it to get the results like you got. now if he was just trying to fix his dash to get it like factory, i would use plastic repair after sanding the cracks smooth, filling with the plastic repair, and more sanding till smooth and texture spray to match the factory like look. so dont knock me cause it says newbie to the forum, doesnt mean im a newbie.

[Joeskey]

Yea i would say go with saltine's way, It can be a real pain in the ass to try n fix cracked dashes and make them look factory, hell its almost cheaper just to buy a new dash at the local junkyard, besides fiberglassin like the way saltine did always looks hot!