944J

this is a problem because you can't really experiment...

if this were an experiment I would just cut a slit in the center of the vent leaving 1/2" border and then just press the material down into the vents...

another option is to closely trim the vents to barely below the level of the vent or even 1/4" - 1/8" and add in more glue around the edges and just get a good seal...

question: how did you stretch the vinyl? was it hard? is this your first time doing vinyl with contact cement??

any pics of the prep of the dash?

how does the vinyl match the OEM?

royalschwarz

This is where it becomes troublesome. The actual vent openings aren't even a half inch wide. If I were to slit each opening down the middle, that would leave less than a 1/4" to turn under. What I'm thinking of doing is having it just go down the sides of the openings and trimming close so the edges don't actually turn under.

Stretching the vinyl isn't hard at all. It is directional so it stretches more in one direction than the other. And of course, the bias is even more 'stretchy'. I laid it out so it was somewhat at a diagonal but the majority of the stretch was lengthwise (the width of the dash). And it's not the first time I've done this but it really isn't that hard. Anyone should be able to do it themselves.

Nope. Should have but didn't. The main thing you have to be careful of is getting all the imperfections out of the original vinyl. This dash had a Coverlay on it when it was in my old car and was glued down with silicone. I got as much of it off as possible but you can still see where some of it shows through the new vinyl (again, barely noticable but still there). Every crack and knub and divot will show through if not taken care of.

The texture matches okay but isn't perfect. I'll get closeups of the top part (new vinyl) and the bottom (original vinyl) to compare. Color wise, the new stuff is darker and more of a true black but seeing as how the 2 vinyls don't actually meet anywhere, it's hardly noticeable unless you are looking for it.

944J

so the tip is to lay it out diagonaly across the dash?

i'd appreciate a write up about the procedure...

GloriaRedStang

The stitching makes it look more custom.

Airflite40

the stitching makes it more fancy and its leather as well, not vinyl.

SD Porsche Fan

Updates the look as well. You see the French seams on higher end cars. I believe the 997 has French seams in it's leather work.

alordofchaos

There's also some chemical stuff called MEK (see this thread) that is supposed to soften the vinyl, making it stretchy. I haven't tried it out or even searched for it, but if my wife's hair dryer doesn't make it stretchy encough, that was my plan when I decide to do this.

pcutt

Looks nice!

What brand and part number of cement are you using?

944J

I see, makes it look old to me, like its beyond the technology to do it in one piece... he does it to vinyl & alcantra, not just leather.

88BlueTSiQuest

Here are some pics of the dash we just finished up. It isn't perfect, but it's a huge improvement over what it was like. It's an early dash, so we were forced to pattern the dash, and stitch several pieces together to get it done. It doesn't look anywhere near as good as 928 Leather Shops dash, but hey, it only cost us ~$20 to do.

As to the vents. Heat gun. I used a 1500 degree Wagner paint stripper gun, and got the vinyl just to the point where it was too hot to touch, then using the handle end of some scissors, I stretched the vinyl into the vent as far as it would go. Then I'd heat it back up and stretch further. Once I was satisfied it wouldn't stretch any more without tearing, I sliced down the middle, shot some glue on the back, and pulled and stretched it around the back and tacked it down.

On the early dash, there was a molded vent panel bonded to the underside of the dash, that was also stapled from the factory. I carefully removed that piece to gain access to the backs of the vent holes, and this helped greatly in stretching the vinyl. You might try the same if the late dash is constructing similarly. I simply epoxied the vent panel back in place when I was done with the leather. I wasn't too worried about how well the vent vinyl would look, as I do have plans of finding a nice plastic vent to cover it up, but for now it looks alright.

88BlueTSiQuest

Next I get to do the 951 dash this summer. I plan to cover it in Leather, as leather can be stretched if you can find it thin enough.

philcav7

Is this standard vinyl (like you would get from an craft store) or an automotive grade that is designed to stretc wrap over interior panels?

Back in the day, when my buddy worked at an auto accessories/custom shop, they had "stretchable vinyl" that was quite pliable with a heat gun. I used it to wrap some kick panel speaker pods and it was 10x easier to work with than the regular craft store, fabric backed stuff.

GloriaRedStang

That's nice work for homemade, 88Blue. I'd like to see that inside your car.

88BlueTSiQuest

The stuff I used was a cloth backed stretch-able. You wouldn't believe how much stretch you can get without heat, but add heat to it, and the stuff was like butter.

It's been a while since I did custom audio work, but there was a company that sold some really high end vinyl that was supposed super stretchy... I can't remember the name of the company now for the life of me, but they were a supplier for the car audio industry. They had a 3 ring binder you had to buy(~$75-ish) that had vinyl and carpet samples, and showed off all the Esoteric accessories and other stuff they carried.

88BlueTSiQuest

As soon as I'm done putting it all together, I'll start a new thread. Just as a teaser though..... I also covered the center console from the armrest forward in the same manner