Fiberglass Dash help

[daytonagp4]

Okay i have the normal cracks in my dash....i was wondering if any of you have just glassed the whole thing over? I don't want anything custom just glass the original. I've never glassed anything before fut i don't think it would be that hard. I've done body work and know the sanding routine. Just wondering if anyone could show me what it would look like or how to do it. Also what materials would you use?

[texasfunk]

We did one once..and I don't recommend glassing over it...first of all it made it extremly bulky...didn't fit correctl..andit started to crack because of the foam...we should have stripped it to begin with but the customer didn't want that.
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[daytonagp4]

so walk me through this if you got a sec....If it's not to much. I just take all the foam off and build up the glass?

[texasfunk]

Strip it down to the metal...grind it with some 36-40 grit to give the glass something to stick too...some people weld the holes up..some just glass over and gill em in next layer..just watch fir airbubbles..I have done it without welding the holes with no problem...one good layer of resin and matte should be enough..but do 2 if you'd like..i have seen people do either way...then. smooth it from there...
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[daytonagp4]

thanks ill let you know the end result, good thing i can get another dash for...20 bucks lol

[jitteryguy]

I plan on pick'n up a couple trash'd pad's and try to see if I can pull off a clean glass dash.
I'll be watch'n this for any advice/ideas .

[mooseknuckles]

here's mine....

[HTX86chevy]

^^^^this one is awesome!^^^^ bet it would look bad @$$ in black

[mooseknuckles]

I'm hopin so...or whatever colour I paint it!

[daytonagp4]

That is bad A$$ that is exactly what i want to do!!! Can you tell me what you used? What steps you took to get it that good? I know texasfunk sumed it up short hand but if i can get mine to look that good I would be shocked!!!!

[big_b]

Originally Posted by mooseknuckles

I'm hopin so...or whatever colour I paint it!

looks real good! did you glass over the vinyl and foam?

[mooseknuckles]

here goes. first I broke off all the loose pieces and places where it was sticking up around the cracks to smoothen out the surface as much as possible. then I roughed up the pad with a D/A sander to give the resin something to adhere to and I wiped it all down with wax and grease remover. Next I covered up the busted out speaker holes with some aluminum foil tape, I also covered over the front of the dash where the trim piece was with some cardboard and taped over it. I did the whole dash in three sections, covering one section at a time in resin and laying the fiberglass cloth over the resin and workin it in with a paintbrush. When the whole thing was covered I brushed on another coat of resin to smoothen it out some more. You could add another layer if you want to, but I didnt want it to get too "thick" looking. I let it dry over the next week and then started adding bodyfiller and blocksanding between coats. It still needs some putty and sanding to get it ready for paint, but other than that Ithink it looks awesome compared to what I had!

[mooseknuckles]

this is what I used..the last pic is the fiberglass mat. DO NOT USE THE MAT! it is impossible to get smooth.

[daytonagp4]

so I should use the first pic of the mat? not the second?

[mooseknuckles]

Originally Posted by big_b

looks real good! did you glass over the vinyl and foam?

yep right over it.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by daytonagp4

so I should use the first pic of the mat? not the second?

The first pic is fiberglass "cloth" and the second pic is "mat". In this application you want to use cloth.

[mooseknuckles]

Originally Posted by daytonagp4

so I should use the first pic of the mat? not the second?

The first pic is the resin, Second is the woven fiberglass cloth, thats what I used. The third is the mat, dont use it....unless you like sanding!....alot!

[daytonagp4]

Sweet!!!! Thanks so much, im actually heading to the garage right now for a few hrs so we'll see what i can do!!!

[mooseknuckles]

don't rush it and you'll be fine.

[daytonagp4]

well i started it. got half done and didn't have enough mat....i'm going to finish tomorrow. Good news is that i think I did pretty good considering it's my first time ever working with the stuff. Bad news is that i didn't put enought hardener in it lol so it's going to take a little bit to dry haha.

[AceX]

Without the proper amount of hardner (depending on how much you shorted the mixture) it may never harden...

The way I planned to do a pice such as this was the use the original as a mold and wrap it in foil or tape and then glass over that, top and bottom, then fuse the two halves together. I'm thinking of using this process on a cimpletely custom dash, but thats neither here nor there and to be honest, I probably wont have time to do it the way I want to anyway...

[pseudopimp]

looks great mooseknuckles!

why did you cover the speaker holes with foil? i would guess you could've just glassed right over them once they were smoothed flat.

[mooseknuckles]

Originally Posted by daytonagp4

well i started it. got half done and didn't have enough mat....i'm going to finish tomorrow. Good news is that i think I did pretty good considering it's my first time ever working with the stuff. Bad news is that i didn't put enought hardener in it lol so it's going to take a little bit to dry haha.

haha...be sure to take some pics!

[mooseknuckles]

Originally Posted by pseudopimp

looks great mooseknuckles!

why did you cover the speaker holes with foil? i would guess you could've just glassed right over them once they were smoothed flat.

The speaker holes were all busted out in my dash, so I covered them with the tape to make it a little more level for the fiberglass, it still sagged a little when I fiberglassed over the holes.

[mooseknuckles]

here's a pic after I was done fiberglassing my dash. I painted it black to see how it would look. you can see how wavy it is where the speaker holes are.