Custom dash?

[84chevyguyid]

I havent watched him weld plastic so I'm not sure of the exact process. There is no way to match the grain that I know of. I have a vinyl repair kit that I use to patch school bus seats and it has a silicon pad with a grain pattern on it that you can use to somewhat match the stuff you patch and maybe that would add a little grain pattern to it. Thats why I think you need to start with the aluminim face first as all your patchwork will be behind it.

[TheApocalyptican]

Never seen someone match the grain before. Wouldn't be easy tho. As far as the welding process...typically you weld plastic just as you would metal. Best is to cut a "v" where the parts match up and either use abs rods or even pieces of other broken parts to weld it up. I've done quite a few interior pieces in my Mercedes this way. They however were just cracked, and also are leather wrapped, so any grain pattern is unnecessary, but the process is the same.
An old soldering iron with the tip smashed flat works well, or you can get a plastic welder. There's the type that's just basically a soldering iron with a special tip, or there is an air tool kind that uses super heated air thru a maybe 1/4" tip to melt the plastic.

[76C10Stepside]

Thanks! If I can manage to get the dash panel off in one piece, maybe I can weld the corner back on from behind. The aluminum veneer definitely looks like the way to go. Will cover everything but the edges.

[84chevyguyid]

I cut the top two gauge hole piece out, then cut the vent section out and fitted the gauge piece in. Took it down to Chris (my friend since jr high) and he glued it together. He stuck the corners together with a little plastic then used a product called Fusor142 and ran a bead all around the back of the patched piece to strengthen it then he used his soldering iron welder tip and ran it around the seam on the face to smooth the seam then he hit it with a little sandpaper to clean it up a bit, and it turned out really good. I whittled on the vent piece I removed earlier and cut the radio spot out to fit it. The vent is recessed quite a bit more than the left side vent so I removed some of the depth to try and make it match, its probably a half inch deep now. The right side of the opening has a taper and its the wrong direction to sit in the bottom section so I cut the side and corner loose and heated it and pulled it over some so it more matches the right edge of the dash. The tricky part now is to get the slot filled it so it blends in good, will find out tomorrow. I really like the white face gauge faces that the place in Utah does so I called them today about all my gauges and they said no problem. I will have temp, volts, oil pressure and an air pressure gauge in the four stock holes with a 100 mph speedo and a five thousand rpm tach with the fuel gauge in it in the big holes, then a 60 lb boost gauge with a 1600 degree pyrometer in the two extra holes. I am getting autometer gauges for those two, then taking the bezels and glass lenses off so they can cover them to match the rest of the gauges. Should look pretty sweet! The next challenge will be getting the brushed stainless insert whipped up to cover the extra gauges, still thinking on how to do that one.

[84chevyguyid]

A couple more

[JRANGER]

looks good..a little paint and it would rock

[84chevyguyid]

Updating my thread.I sent my gauges to White Face Gauges in Utah and had them redo the faces to match the Autometer boost and pyro gauges. I used a camaro speedo and pulled the needle off and swapped the chevy pickup face onto it. Still have to trim the high beam indicator hole out and put the needle back on. I had them do a custom redline for my cummins engine, probably still a little high but o well. Now I gotta figure out a way to mount the 2 new gauges to the bezel.

[84chevyguyid]

If you are wondering why I went with a 150 mph speedometer, I have 3.54 gears with 33 inch tall tires and with the allison 6 speed here are the approx speeds at different rpm's. Beside that it just looks cool!

Road speed at given RPM in miles per hour
Gear RPM RPM RPM
1700 2800 3200
1 15 25 29
2 26 43 49
3 33 55 63
4 47 78 89
5 66 109 125
6 76 125 143

[84chevyguyid]

Messed around with a piece of "brushed Aluminum" vinyl material that I got from a sign company. I cut off a scrap and tried to cut it out around the gauge openings and lay it in place, didnt work very good. Its too thin and flimsy and hard to do a nice job of cutting around the curves. The thickness is about the same as the stock overlay if you leave the backing on it. Still need to do some more research on that part of the project.

[84chevyguyid]

Originally Posted by v30crewcab

I just got a pillar pod for a jeep xj, and mounted my two gauges in it.
I've been looking for one of the bigger truck gauge sets though, with the air gauge on the left and the tach.

Hey V30CREWCAB, do you have any pics of the jeep pillar pods that you used?

[andrewmp6]

A full metal dash http://diy4x.com/cart/index.php?rout...product_id=148

[mikentosh]

You could also start from a blank slate: http://www.classicdash.com/shopping/...ank-Panel.html

[84chevyguyid]

I am going for the"stock" look, that metal dash is pretty cool though. If I were dropping aftermarket gauges through the front that classic dash piece would work great. I have seen the guy that makes all the brackets to put aftermarket gauges behind the bezel and looked into something like that to anchor the two extra gauges but the size and how my gauges fit up against the backside of the bezel made me think I couldnt keep my gauges sitting in the right spot with just the brackets. In looking around the shop I spied a bucket of 2" abs fittings and I started looking through them and found something that would work for me. I cut the end off of a 2" st ell, The end that goes inside of another fitting, and my gauges fit nice and tight inside of it and slid up against the flange on the gauge. I pulled the trim rings off the gauges so they would fit up against the bezel better with the glass fitting tight against the backside of the bezel. So that abs piece with the gauge in it will fit into a coupler that will fit over the tube of the bezel. The setup gives me a socket that will position the gauge exactly where it need to sit. I split the outer piece and can use a hose clamp to secure the gauge in it. Now I need to take everything down to my friend and while holding each gauge in place, have him run a bead of Fusor around the outer socket to anchor them. Here are a few more pics.

[motornut]

I have found a way to get a "custom" cut/bent piece of this type of plastic.
seems to resemble the later texture tho.
I've got some connections with wheelchair builders,it seems the get sheets of this,use it for foot pegs,seat bases,backs...
I'll grab some pics