Hey,
I know this is a long read but it's worth it.
I'm always up for trying new things when it comes to ways of doing things.
Well, i've lately been trying to decide how to do my dash. My whole interior is going to be fiberglass smooth so I didn't want a textured dash but then again, I didn't want to fiberglass since IDK how to and I'm pretty sure i would mess it up.
That got me thinking... how could I make a smooth dash without fiberglassing.
Well when I read the FAQ, they said you couldn't sand the dash cause you can't sand the vinyl, so I gave up on that idea for a while. Well lately we have been having some cold mornings and when I get into my car, the dash is almost as hard as the plastic on the door panels and such.
This gave me an idea. I can sand the plastic pieces and the dash is almost like plastic when it's cold. So i just have to get the dash cold before I sand it.
I headed off to the junkyard to find a trial piece of dash. I managed to find one, ripped of a piece and brought it home.
First I cleaned it off with a little some soapy water. Then I took it down to our freezer and left it there for about 30 minutes.
When I went to go get it, it was hard just like in the cold mornings. I stuck it in the sink and started wet sanding with cold water and 600 grit paper. I found that by the time I sanded that amount of dash about two times, it was warm enough and soft enough to go back into the freezer. I wiped as much water as I could off and stuck it back down in the freezer.
I repeated this with 600, 1000, 1200, and 1500 grit. If i was to do it again, I would do more 600 and 1000 grit to get more of the main texture off.
You may find that the sandpaper likes to "catch" itself on the vinyl, but if you get a strong hold on the paper, you'll be fine.
When your all done, you're left with a dash that looks and feels almost as smooth as fiberglass.
There is only really one problem with this way... how are you going to fit an entire dash into your freezer??? I would suggest trying to see if a grocery store or someplace with a walkin freezer would let you borrow their freezer and then wetsand outside or something.
The next part is what to paint the dash with. I sorta split my piece of dash into 3 parts and one part did black vinyl dye, one part filler primer and red spraypaint, and one just filler primer.
The vinyl dye looks amazing and the filler primer is holding really good. The only one that didn't work was the filler primer and spraypaint. IDK why, might have been the cheap walmart spraypaint, but it is sticky.
I got some pics and keep in mind that...
this is a junkyard piece so it has some nicks and cuts in the vinyl
the smoothness on the vinyl was hard to get on camera
I could have gone farther and had it as smooth as glass
The piece with the 3/4 zones.
Tried to capture the smotthness.
Looks a BUNCH blacker than in the pics.
Filler primer and red spray paint.
Filler primer.
Any C&C or questions welcome.
-Seth
Personally I would just fiberglass it! It doesn't look at all like the texture is gone or even a little bit is gone. It kinda looks like you just painted over it without sanding. Maybe its just the pics but even though it would take more time to fiberglass and sand you'd come out with a better result.
^^^
wizkiddrummer wrote:I got some pics and keep in mind that...
this is a junkyard piece so it has some nicks and cuts in the vinyl
the smoothness on the vinyl was hard to get on camera
I could have gone farther and had it as smooth as glass
I stopped sanding quite a bit earlier than to where it would be smooth as glass. I just wanted to post that you CAN sand vinyl and that if you were to keep going, you would get it as smooth as fiberglass.
In some parts, where it got sanded more than others, its smooth as fiberglass.
-Seth
well if your going that way and the filler primer worked fine why not just slap a whole bunch of layers of that junk on and sand that smooth instead
anyways i dont think it will ever look like true fiberglass because i have a piece of smooth vinyl that never had any texture at all and even when stretched over a hard surface it still doesnt look like fiberglass
better than the textured stuff yah but its definitely not a glass finish
You cant sand vinyl period, dont look for the easy/cheap way out. If your looking for the easy/cheap way, just rip the vinyl off and its plastic underneath. Sand that and paint it. But its still not going to be as nice as fiberglass, plus you just weakened the dash by removing the vinyl.
not to mention if you remove all the vinyl from the dash and then just sand and paint, it wont fit back on right. that vinyl and the foam have a thickness which fills in the gaps on the dash. if you have it off and dont add anything back on, there is gonna be gaps all over
I'll have to get some pics of it when I do one again and sand it more.
M-tay (White Rice) wrote:well if your going that way and the filler primer worked fine why not just slap a whole bunch of layers of that junk on and sand that smooth instead
anyways i dont think it will ever look like true fiberglass because i have a piece of smooth vinyl that never had any texture at all and even when stretched over a hard surface it still doesnt look like fiberglass
better than the textured stuff yah but its definitely not a glass finish
Granted it's not gonna look exactly like fiberglass, its "fabric" so it's always going to look like its "fabric" except now it'll be really smooth. The less filler primer I have to put on there the better cause I'm not sure what the primer will do in heat/cold yet.
Meckster (The Angry One) wrote:You cant sand vinyl period, dont look for the easy/cheap way out. If your looking for the easy/cheap way, just rip the vinyl off and its plastic underneath. Sand that and paint it. But its still not going to be as nice as fiberglass, plus you just weakened the dash by removing the vinyl.
Did you reach that conclusion on the fact that I sanded the vinyl or on the fact that I sanded the vinyl??? It's not the easy/cheap way, its just an alternative to fiberglassing. Just like sanding door panels smooth instead of fiberglassing or making your own intake instead of buying a 150$ one.
-Seth
waste of time
just fiberglass it
suckin ain't fuqin, and eatin ain't cheatin'
95% of older dashs have cracks under are on top over the dash are both just sanding and filling primer is ok. I just like doing it right. I don't like hearing rattles and seeing the textured look I reinforced my dash with a glass backing and re foamed the edges. to me painting the vinyl is like driving a primed car around in the rain.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/4235/jim25ek.jpg
just wait until summer and starts bubbling and looking crap.. heat is the enemy
The reason you can sand the doors is because they are plastic, you can not sand vinyl and have it come out properly and stay looking right..
P&P Tuning
420.5whp / 359.8wtq
Doesn't sanding create heat too? How can you keep it cold enough to keep the vinyl from getting warm during the sanding process ?
Semper Fi SAINT. May you rest in peace.
i painted my dash black with tsome vynl paint and had held for the last 3 years.
2004 Grand Prix GTP (Competition Group)
SOLD-->1999 Z24 5M-#30 to register on JBO
"You can please some of the people some of the time but you can't please all the people'
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