reno808

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=245623

odonnell

Interesting. Here's another video to check out:

Winter44

Doing that. Thanks.

doabarrelroll

I've done the above video actually. They make it seem A LOT easier than it really is. Also, you need to completely remove the dash to do it correctly.

Winter44

Yeah I figured its gonna be more of a headache than it looks. And I have an early dash and those don't split half way, so its one big sheat. The thing that intrigues me about leaving the dash in is that one I don't have to take it out (obviously) and the other is that it is secured in place already. So when you go to stretch the vinyl over the dash won't move. I could make a dummy dash mount, but this seems to be the easier route. As long as I take my time, I think it will come out just fine.

sparkyman215

I would recommend the kit from classic 9. Also I would recommend removing the dash. I don't see how you could get the dash to look right without removing it and it would take 20 times longer. Removing the dash is not hard and can be done pretty quickly. I can have the dash out in about 30 minutes now. Also once you remove the dash it is easy to clamp it to the table using the piece that usually bolts to the center console.

odonnell

From your avatar I can see you have a late car- but do you know if the early dash poses a bigger challenge? I'm itching to recover mine...

86 951 Driver

You can still see where the cracks were. There is company that can repair cracked dashes. I know a few guys have used it on rennlist. One of them was in Texas. They fix the dash in the car.

Gawernator

That was a big improvement I'd say.

Winter44

I went out to my car after watching the video. The later cars hve the center trim piece that goes across the whole dash. Essentially cutting it in half. The video only showed him doing the top half. The early cars are one big piece. Plus the protrusion of the gauges, steering wheel column cut out and center console makes it more difficult.

Alright! I'll take the dash out.. I'm just worried about time. I have black carpet and door cards ready to go. Want to tackle it all in a weekend. But to your point do it once and do it right. I was thinking keeping the dash on would save some time, but might end up costing me more time and headache.

Dash01

There is four-way stretch vinyl upholstery fabric, obviously made to be much more stretchy. It's used for irregular shapes like motorcycle seat covers:


Could this be useful for doing dashboard recover jobs, esp. if the dashboard is left in the car?

I've not tried this, so am just asking if it might work.

Otherwise, YouTube for Plasti Dip treatment of dashboards. There are several such videos, here's one:


Food for thought?

kcoyle

I've never recovered an early dash (I sent mine out) but every recover I've seen short of professional vacuum forming seems to require stitching around the compound curves on both sides of the gauge cluster. It looks like a bitch of a job if at all possible with a single piece of vinyl.

Here's how mine looks.
http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.ph...3c2ab37f5999a3

Winter44

Looks like the vinyl they used is pretty thick and wouldn't stretch well. The material in sausagehacker's post looked to be pretty flexible when heated. Hopefully the gauge opening will help if you can form all the creases to the area and then cut it out. I do like the stitching however. It wasn't done that well, but with an off color stitching, I think it would look great.

kcoyle

I'm pretty sure the stitching is necessary to make it work but I could be wrong.

odonnell

That looks awesome... mind if I ask how much that job ran?