Scottmyl

Thanks for those pics Michael, very interested in seeing how the late dash comes along! Is it going to be finished in the same manner? Looks like that vinyl covering came right off leaving the foam quite intact. I started work on my donor dash - it is in extremely good shape (too bad it is not dark brown) It only needed a couple small cracks dug out and filled - I hope to have a couple pics later today.

konakat

You inspired me to give this a shot. It was too cold to work in my unheated garage this week, so I decided to pull out the spare dash I got at the junkyard and get to it in my basement. My dash was in significantly worse shape than yours, with the vinyl cracking all over, so I tore off all the vinyl to start. This was much easier than I anticipated. No foam got pulled up and I just had to cut around the rivets along the edges. It took me about 2 hours with a Dremel to cut all my grooves, including cutting down the edges of the grooves like you suggested. I also used a toothpick and glue to try and add some structural support to a small missing section below the instrument panel. Foam work will begin tonight or tomorrow night

.

odonnell

For the late dash I want to actually reupholster it with vinyl or leather (probably vinyl for cost reasons) after the cracks are repaired. On the early dash I originally wanted to do the same, but the complex shape isn't easy to work with unless you buy a kit. Classic 9 sells an amazing looking kit, which is pre-stitched and ready to go, but it wasn't in the budget so... rattle can it is

Excellent! I'm going to be following this, I had no idea the vinyl came off that easily. A lot of pictures I saw took foam with it. Definitely keep us updated, the lack of vinyl will make that a lot less annoying because it will all be uniform foam.

Scottmyl

Here is my original dash



Original dash. Will not use as I messed up defrost area.

Donor dash (If only it was dark brown!)






Donor dash is in really good shape! Since cracks were so small I only removed a small amount of material to fill in.




Weather and work permitting should have top foam overlay on tomorrow. Still waiting for bottom kit from Classic 9. More pics soon

Scottmyl

Just got email from Classic 9 that bottom kit is on FedEx! Hope to see by the weekend - those guys are great - very quick turn around and great customer service.

odonnell

Sweet! I wouldn't be afraid to rectify the defrost vents on the other dash. Maybe use a sharpie and a stencil to draw some new holes, and grab your dremel. The prep work looks solid.

joeystanker

Mike,

You are becoming the Dashboard Savior :-)
I can't wait to get going on mine.

konakat

Just a quick procedural tip. It is much easier to apply the foam if you do a 1/2 second spray into a cup and stir it a few times first. This knocks down the foam so it is much easier to apply and work into cracks. It still expands plenty and will still need knocked down after 15 minutes to get the density right.

odonnell

Fffuuuuuu.....

I decided to hit the dash with a heat gun to see how it holds up to heat, and got some bad bubbling on the area where the center speaker used to be. That was the last straw for me, so I gutted the foam there.

I was able to reproduce the bubbling on other areas if I held the heat gun there for a while (hotter than I would ever expect the dash to get in real life). I took a razor blade to the bubbling and it turned out to be the undercoating (!) that was basically melting and giving off gas.

I'll update the guide accordingly, I'm pretty sure it was layer of truck bed liner I used (which is not in the instructions, it was one of my experimental ideas at first).

I'm doing what konakat did and ripping all the vinyl off my dash, that seems like the way to go.

Spidey944

I am beginning to think that you just like huffing the fumes! Good luck on your next attempt!

odonnell

Well... the next attempt will be focused on NOT using many products at all - the layers of coating are what seemed to be the cause of it.

joeystanker

Mike, I may be starting on mine this weekend.
I'll get all of that pesky vinyl off first ;-)

V2Rocket

Years ago I took one of my dashes and filled the cracks with bondo, smoothed them down, applied the spray-on rubber coating and then painted the dash brown to match the old interior.

It looked really good. I never had bubbling problems (so. cal gets as hot as TX in summer) but the cracks came back fairly soon (bondo isnt strongly bonded to the foam i suppose).

bear in mind that even a gentle heatgunning is probably 400*

Scottmyl

Been trying to go slow - here is an update. Foam underlayment going on and beginning to contour it:





Going to attempt recover of glove box door first as it is smallest. Gonna be interesting lining up the french seam around the cluster! Notice the new defrost trim piece - part of the kit from Classic 9 - planning on painting it satin black. More soon -

konakat

I'm pretty optimistic that this foam will work better than bondo. It is basically aerated adhesive and may be the stickiest stuff I have ever dealt with. Incredibly sticky when wet, then hardens like super glue where the only way to get it off your skin is to peel the skin off. Only question is whether the foam will still be soft enough to deal with vibration and expansion/contraction. I think it is a bit denser than the stock foam, but it has some sponginess to it.