I recently took on smoothing my dash from my sunfire, and i didnt want to bother with glassing it, because that would be a waste time. With a lil help from winks, and alot of work it came out really nice.
First step was to take out the vents, take the air bag cover off and clean the whole thing really well. I cant stress enough about how clean this needs to be and if you have ever used armor all or anything cleaning is the key. I used regular dish soap, and a red scotchbrite pad to clean it, first thing i did was just to dry scrub the dash with a red pad, then i scrubbed it 3 times with soap and water and a different red pad, then i put it in the paint booth and baked the the dash for 30 minutes then i scrubbed it 2 more times and baked it again to dry it out and see if anymore silicon would surface. Then i wiped it down 3 times with an alcohol cleaner and let it sit for an hour just to see if any more armor all would come out. Then i wiped it down again with alocohol cleaner and a tack rag and put it in the booth
The next step was to spray ppg k36 high build primer. I primed the dash 3 seperate times and blocked it down 3 times with guide coat and 400 and 600 grit wet sand paper.
Next was to wipe the dash with alcohol cleaner and a tack rag and spray 4 coats of base coat, normally i would have only sprayed 3 but i just dusted the first coat on and it fisheyed like i expected, so i needed 3 more full coats of base to fix the fisheyes, and get everything looking good.
Last step was 2 coats of clear coat.
Under normal circumstances the dash would be installed but there is alot of other work that need to be done and i dont want to get the dash scratched so for now its out the car, i also and having winks make me a diamond plate air bag cover, and when the dash is installed, there will be pics of that.
brilliant! will you come to SC and do mine for me? heh...
im impressed..i want that!
HONDAS ARE LIKE TAMPONS…EVERY PU**Y NEEDS ONE!
Nice....But it wont crack? since it is soft under the paint (like the dash is sqwishy)???
I added universal flexibilizer to the primer and the clear, and base coat is naturally flexible, i dont reccomend it, but you can actually push on it and its just as flexible as the vinyl was, and ppg says that you can use the flex additive for dash pads. The only problem i have is that its against the law to refinish an airbag cover so i have to swap it in and out for inspection but the cars a show car, so its not too much trouble.
man that came out slick, i cant wait till my brother builds his new shop so i can finally have a clean place to spray my projects down, that dash is nuts man great looking redo looks better than most of the fiberglass ones i've seen.
J~
That came out really well. I really like that color of blue. You won't like when the sun hits that dead on though.
Proud member of
JBOK (J-bodies of Kentucky)
looks really good. But I am worried about it flexing and cracking on you. If I were you I would put the dash piece on only at the show. Get another cheap dash that you can drive around daily and use this one only at shows. Cause if it cracks all that work will be worthless.
I put the flex into help from damaging ti when its installed, thats what it is intended for. Im not too concerned with the dash cracking, i have another dash so if it does, then i will just have to redo it. I thin the true test will be once it sits in the sun for a while, im not overly concerned about it
Nice man, you used PPG paint too? I need to talk to you sometime. I have some questions for you about painting a few things. Excellent work!
<img src="http://registry.gmenthusiast.com/images/mattsrad/sig.gif"><img src="http://www.houston-imports.com/forums/images/smilies/headbang.gif">
That look's exactly like what i did to mine. Hope it works out better for you! Mines cracking like WOAH! This spring its going to be redone RIGHT.
im thinking of smoothing my dash as well. After the cleaning, you just primed right on the vinyl and sanded the primer down, did it again, etc.? I didnt think any amount of primer could get rid of the flexyness and texture of vinyl.
if you dont know what your doing ( ie - paint with an actual gun not rattle can) then i dont suggest doing it this way...
how do you get the airbag cover back on? glue?
air bag cover bolts in like stock. i have to tell you that you are not supposed to paint the air bag cover and you will fail inspection for having it painted
thats why you get a spare air bag cover for when you go in for inspection
haha
ummm..... i used vinyl dye on my dash and airbag cover and mine just passes inspection last month.... idk if NY laws are diff from yours?
Geeza, could you do this w/o baking it? Id like to do it in my garage because I have all the necessary equipment....But if you can, could you give me a detailed step list on what you did? Because if i do mine i want it to come out looking as good as yours
Damn that does look good...like Dufus Head asked can u do this without the baking? some of us don't have a oven that big to fit a dash
Lothurin
<img src ="http://gra.midco.net/lothurin/loth/SoulMotorSportz/Lothurin/sig_NEW_FINAL.gif">
<A HREF="http://www.Soulmotorsportz.org">Soul MotorSportz<A> <A HREF="http://www.gmfwd.com">GM FWD</A>
i hate to say it, but i'm very scheptical that this will stay nice... i've messed around with lots of interior paint before... if it last, awsome but... i dunno i have my strong doughts. i personaly don't think it's possible to do this with simply primer.. primer is not made to spray a 1/4 inch think over a soft surface to make a paintable smooth top surface... it`s made to remove tiny imperfections in the surface such as higher grit sandpaper marks... BUT!!! looks GREAT dude... i hope thjis works out well.. and if it does, someone's finaly figured out how to do this without fiberglassin! awsome.
ooops sory about all the "enters" was an accident i had my elbow on the keyboad and didn't notice it made that lmao
