Dash recover

[turner15]

anyone ever recover their own dash. I've done it with limited success. Looking for a good material supplier. Anyone know of a place? Probably a good youtube video on how to do it with the heat gun.

[Blue'72]

Hi Turner, I came across this in a search and thought I'd reply with my dash that I just recovered. It's not nearly as professional as a job done by Stitch, but I wanted to try it and see how it worked. Here's what I did.

Instead of fixing my pad which was really far gone, I found a decent pad on CL for $15 and filled the two small cracks with window caulking after cutting back anything that was starting to curl. It may come back to haunt me, but I decided not to go with fiberglass..

I started with one pc of vinyl, or actually it's more of a pleather, and brushed on contact cement on the top of the pad in the vent area and on the material. Once the cement set up, I adhered the material to the dash and rubbed it on until it was good and stuck making sure that all curves and indentions were stuck as well.

I let that set overnight and after the glue dried completely the material was on there permanently. I then continued the process moving forward and using a heat gun on the areas the material needed to really stretch, working out the creases and folds to make them disappear. As seen in the pic below, I need to work on it some more to make it all smooth.

The area next to the gauge bezel was the most difficult and I had to form some styrofoam and hold that down with a block of wood and my c-clamp vise grips. I thought it was a lost cause until the next morning when I noticed that it had adhered nicely and was certain that it wasn’t going to come apart.

I would really like to redo this one now that I have a better idea of what I’m doing and I think it would turn out much better, but for my first shot at it, I am pretty happy with it. I also repainted the dash insert from faded wood grain look to black and painted the faded yellow on the emblem to red. I’m anxious to see what I can do to the door panels and headliner with this material too!

[eightyfive]

That turned out really good Blue72! no just paint the yellow either white or black and it would look amazing

[Stitch]

That looks really good for someone that's never done it before. And honestly the only thing my cover has over the vinyl that you out on there is that it is cut and sewn to fit the dash so the vinyl lays down nice without having to stretch the fool out of it or make folds in the vinyl. That's all really.

Yours looks good though. I'm sure the door panels and headliner will turn out just as nice.
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[blazer2007]

is that just ordinary cement used for counter top laminates

[misternash2]

i think the bumper black you can find at oreillys looks really nice on my dash. its a semi-satin and finishes out great.

[Pop's C-10]

Originally Posted by Blue'72

Hi Turner, I came across this in a search and thought I'd reply with my dash that I just recovered. It's not nearly as professional as a job done by Stitch, but I wanted to try it and see how it worked. Here's what I did.

Instead of fixing my pad which was really far gone, I found a decent pad on CL for $15 and filled the two small cracks with window caulking after cutting back anything that was starting to curl. It may come back to haunt me, but I decided not to go with fiberglass..

I started with one pc of vinyl, or actually it's more of a pleather, and brushed on contact cement on the top of the pad in the vent area and on the material. Once the cement set up, I adhered the material to the dash and rubbed it on until it was good and stuck making sure that all curves and indentions were stuck as well.

I let that set overnight and after the glue dried completely the material was on there permanently. I then continued the process moving forward and using a heat gun on the areas the material needed to really stretch, working out the creases and folds to make them disappear. As seen in the pic below, I need to work on it some more to make it all smooth.

The area next to the gauge bezel was the most difficult and I had to form some styrofoam and hold that down with a block of wood and my c-clamp vise grips. I thought it was a lost cause until the next morning when I noticed that it had adhered nicely and was certain that it wasn’t going to come apart.

I would really like to redo this one now that I have a better idea of what I’m doing and I think it would turn out much better, but for my first shot at it, I am pretty happy with it. I also repainted the dash insert from faded wood grain look to black and painted the faded yellow on the emblem to red. I’m anxious to see what I can do to the door panels and headliner with this material too!

Attachment 699324

Attachment 699325

That looks good

[Blue'72]

Thanks all!

I did the cement like you'd use on laminate countertops blazer. We'll have to see how it holds up.

Stitch, that means a lot, thanks! I'm sure someday I'll go the route I originally wanted to go and go with one of yours though. This did stretch really thin and doesn't look nearly as nice..

[Blue'72]

I'm just about finished with one door panel. I thought you might want to see it.. I should start a build thread!

[87 chevy silverado]

Originally Posted by Blue'72

I should start a build thread!

Attachment 700438

you should looks goood