My DIY Dash recovering - experimenting without (with) seams
I am midway through my dash wrap experimentation and I thought I would share my results, insights and pose a few questions.
Here are some reference threads that I am cross linking to: - https://rennlist.com/forums/928/8028...h-recover.html - https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...ow-to-fix.html Caveats: Yes I am aware of Robert Bud's awesome products and services, in fact, I am using him for new carpet and recovering some sport seats. However, I wanted to try this myself on this spare dash. My original dash is off getting recovered by a local professional. Also, I wanted to use vinyl over leather as a personal preference. Yes I know some folks prefer leather over vinyl and prefer the stitched look. I prefer vinyl and no stiches. I started off removing the original plastic covering off the foam in a previous thread: DIY Dash Recovering: Removing original vinyl + Crack Repair. I ordered up some Porsche OEM dark blue vinyl from Global Upholstery. 2 yards was about $60. I needed a little more than 1 yard. In hindsight I would and probably gotten away with a single yard but wanted to have some extra since this was an experiment. Here are some photo of my progress so far. I have made some mistakes and I will likely remove the vinyl and start over with a fresh piece but I figured I would continue to fit the vinyl and continue learning. Here you can see I have too much material on the end and no way to move it off to one side or the other. Subsequently I will need to cut out the middle and have a seam. Here is where I would have wrapped the outside edge first and then gather the excess material in the opening for the pod. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...81b96db436.jpg Things are going pretty smoothly, but in my hast, I my cuts are uneven. Better scissors needed If you look closely you can see a riser on the top. that is a covered over crack. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...3d802dbe81.jpg You can see some imperfections on the substrate. better prep required. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...0121cca7bc.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...394e203e30.jpg This corner was particularly tricky until I poked with a screwdriver. I will admit the trim job is messy. The vinyl is actually a lot tougher to cut than I thought. Use a strong sharp blade which enough to put firm pressure on. In these corners use a 45-degree angle so you don't catch an edge like I did. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...46a3dc1bbb.jpg Here you can see the problem with finishing on the ends. There is too much material and no way to pull out the excess. I tried to pull as much as I could. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...e902e8f947.jpg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...59181063aa.jpg I ran into the same problem on the other side. I decide to cut the excess out and create seam. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...ca46e80f94.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...74af963a6b.jpg These defroster vents didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. I need more material to fold over but can't figure out how to get more in there without pulling to foam off of the metal base. Also I struggled with how to best form the corners. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...449149acdf.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...3efc20675b.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...d9ab23ebbb.jpg Key Insights so far:
Things I don’t have figured out yet:
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Looking great so far. I've often thought about putting the finished recovered dash in a huge vacuum press (bag). There was a guy with a sort of exotic hand-made furniture show on HGTV years ago. He would do really interesting glue-lam projects and apply his own interesting hand-made veneers (lots of mirrored grain patterns) to large flat pieces. He made frequent use of very large vacuum presses. I imagine a vacuum press would rapidly degas adhesives, and more importantly apply 14.7 lbs to every square inch of the vinyl while the adhesive cures.
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You have done a good job from what I can see, I contemplate doing this on mine soon. But I think I’ll go with stickers and seams. Post more photos of progress, super cool. What adhesives are you using? |
I agree, great job. |
Originally Posted by Mikebte
(Post 14758273)
You have done a good job from what I can see, I contemplate doing this on mine soon. But I think I’ll go with stickers and seams. Post more photos of progress, super cool. What adhesives are you using? From Home Depot and recommended by Robert Budd EDIT - this glue was not strong enough! I had lifting over time. I switch to DAPLandau cement which is much stronger and more tolerant to heat . https://www.dap.com/products-project...ndau-top-trim/ |
Instant "HERO" status!!!
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Vinyl is hands down the best dashboard material. It won't shrink and warp like leather does when exposed to direct sunlight.
Great job BTW, those corners can be really finicky to get right. |
Looks great Benno - i am am getting ready to do that job myself so I am following with great interest. -scott |
watching with interest as well , as this project is in my future. +1 on contact cement, I have used it for many interior projects already
James |
When Porsche leather wrapped the dash they had to use defroster vent inserts to retain the material. Perhaps you need those too.
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I've thought about doing this often.
There is a stretchable vinyl that would be interesting to try. I think you would need 4-way stretch vinyl to make it work. Google search shows a lot of suppliers, and you can also get some on amazon. I was considering trying it on an older pod first, using solid black. But I don't think it comes in (or would work) with early dashes that have light & dark coloring in the vinyl, like my brown dash. |
Ghosteh - Tell me more about your concerns about covering a brown early dash as you mention ^, if you don’t mind. thanks -scott |
How difficult is it to remove/reinstall the entire dash panel?
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Originally Posted by Hymodyne
(Post 14759546)
How difficult is it to remove/reinstall the entire dash panel?
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Originally Posted by drscottsmith
(Post 14759478)
Ghosteh - Tell me more about your concerns about covering a brown early dash as you mention ^, if you don’t mind. thanks -scott I would really like to try, or see someone else try if they can find something that works. I did buy something that was similar in color to the original vinyl, but it's not at all stretch and I doubt that I'd get it to work. That's the other issue; whatever I use on the dash has to be used on everything else (door panels, headliner, trim, etc.) or it's going to look wrong, IMHO. |
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