okay this is my little ghetto buildup of a new fiberglass dash for the new year. i picked up cyberdyne gauges as a sponsor this year so i have new digital gauges to install so figured i'd might as well try my luck on a new dash. going to try and give some halfassed directions to anyone wanting to build up a fiberglass structure. there are tons of ways of doing it and this is my way for this install.
first off the gauges.
i started off by removing the dash and taping off the painted portion of the interior. it always amazes me when people dont take the 10 minutes needed to protect the area their working in.
i took an old dash top and pulled the cover vinyl off. i dont know why everyone complains about this, u just grab one end and yank. keep the plastic piece and throw out the skin. (oh and some may remember this dash from back when my interior was all blue.
then i trimmed around the outter edge with a dremel. this was to be the edge of my new dash so i could still retain the general shape of the dash and have all stock screws to hold it in place.
once that was on i started looking at what i had to go in and what would fit. as usual i had drawn up some plans ahead of time of what i thought it would look like but as i started laying things out i didnt have the room so had to make changes. one change that i added that made my dash more difficult was adding a set of mb quart 6.5" midbass drivers on each corner. if anyone has dealt with mbquart they know how big a mounting baffle you had to make wich took up allot of dash space. but after testing them in place (note the towels wrapped around the speaker for listening tests) i liked the sound and decided to go with them. figured it was this or to entirely rebuild the doors since they are to deep to fit behind the stock door panel.
this is basically how i test most speaker placements. plop them down. wrap some towels around them to help absorb the backwaves and have a listen. sound quality will be bad but you can still get your placement and soundstage down.
next was the gauges for my airride. (3 of them) this location worked out good.
then i started on the center gauge cluster, this will hold my speedo and tach and most likely fuel and water temp. myself i work with cad so i drew the design up full scale at work, plotted out the dwg and glued it to my wood. it works great for complex designs and as long as you dont use allot of glue it doesnt gum up a scroll saw to much. just makes for an easier cut rather then tracing it.
seeing how it will fit in the car.
cutting out a trim ring for it
with trim ring attached after routing the edges round and sanding it down.
seeing how the gauges will be in the center i had to ditch the vents. to most people it would be a big deal. but i dont use a/c so i ditched that during the motor swap. and its not driven to much in the cold. and when it is i pretty much have the heat coming out of the floor. so as long as that remained and i kept my defroster that's all that mattered, so i ended up taking some abs plastic and diverting the main vent in the center of the dash. i taped it in place with good ole ductape, while i cut the plastic pieces to fit, then glued them all together in place. now all the air is diverted to the passenger side footwell. so im still getting the air from the vents its just coming out lower.
and if there are some old school drafters out there. i still have my set from high school wich was a ummm well about 15 years ago.
once i had my gauge holders cut out, i taped up what i didnt want to get fiberglass on and set them in the dash to recheck placement. this will happen time and time again to try and find the right setup.
once i was satisfied. (which really means, once i got lazy and decided, " screw it, this is good enough and im running way behind on time") I started laying up the framework to hold everything into place. this was done with simple dowel rods and a hot glue gun. i just started by cutting dowel rods to fit and gluing them in place. its not very sturdy when you start off but once you get several dowels in place the structure will become quite strong.
the framework looks pretty elaborate but only took me maybe an hour or so to mockup. once everything was in place i brushed resin on all the joints to help bond it toghether better. this gave me a great framework to start with. and lookig at how things were laying out i new there would be a large flat spot right in front of the steering wheel. i went ahead and decided on putting 3 more gauges there. i added this tonight. it puts allot of gauges in my dash (10) and i was trying to avoid making the dash look like one big gauge holder. but it was a wasted space as it was and this at least gets rid of my 3 gauge pillar. so i added in the new one today
this is how it stands today. im going to try and hit it hard tomorrow. getting it wrapped in what left over fleece i have and getting fiberglass on it. i need to have the shape fiberglassed and a few coats of cloth on it by early next week because the cars going back to the painters for some minor work. so the goal is to have it fiberglassed and have 48 hours to cure in the car before i risk removing it. once its removed i'll be able to finishup in fiberglass work and filler work then it will be off to the upohlsterer to be wrapped in black suede.
i'll try to update it tomorrow night or early next week if i can. and for those of you who managed to read the entire thing, heres a kid on a pig as a reward
(nolan my son outside of a bar-b-que resteraunt in cincinnati)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sndsgood/ https://www.facebook.com/#!/Square1Photography
looks great man....I love what you've done with your car so far.
lookin forward to progress jay
knowing your glassing skills, should come out nicely
and thanks for the reward
man J that's freakin sweet and Nolan is gettin freakin huge. Man it hard to beleave he is going to be 3 in Oct. Good luck man and Krysten and I will be seeing you guys soon. Now all you need is the charger.
A J-body owner since 1998
91 cavy, 99 sunfire, 00 cavy
06 cobalt SS/SC YELLOW
09 cobalt SS/TC sedan WHITE 1 of 41
dash is looking good jason and like ive said multiple times before make me a box.
I saw your facebook status so I came onto the .org right away lol.
I love it dude. You've inspired me to go ahead with my interior plans afterall....thanks...haha.
Yes! Keep the defroster vent! This is one reason why I want to re-do my dash... I want it more practical. In Nov and Feb when I was driving to both shows, I had to wipe my window clean with a cloth b/c I had no defroster vents :S.
Keep the build pics coming man. I'm loving what I'm seeing already.
thats gonna look awesome J....but i'm assuming it won't be done by winged warrior?
poppa. yeah the defroster was major important, i had been to a couple shows last summer where with humidity and rain the windows were fogging so i couldnt lose the defroster. vents i could care less about but the defroster was important.
jake. unless a miracle happens it wont be done for winged warriors. most likely if im lucky the dash will be getting wrapped at that time. so im either going to throw the old dash back on for the show, or just come and hang out and hang out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sndsgood/ https://www.facebook.com/#!/Square1Photography
by the time i have a free weekend you'll prolly be done with it, but i would love to come up and help/watch you lay the fiberglass... but i know next weekend is impossible, the following weekend is DEFINATELY out..(WEDDING!!!), then after that...honeymoon (so you know thats out!!) then after that who knows... hahaha all really depends on when andrea works on a weekend!
Can you say what cad is???
To me looks like Laminate sort off
It looks like its coming together good,the only thing I see a problem is that last Gauge Group you put in,Looks like one might be blocked by the 4 way flasher button
Might just be the angle on the camera through
Good Work None the less
Wish we had people around here to do interior work(A very dieing trade) No one wants to do sewing anymore and if they do watch out you will pay 3x for that part you just made to get wrapped.
Just glad I learned it haha
CAD
Crazy work man, really good stuff.
^ The wiring of the gauges are very simple. Gary sent me an email last year with what colored wire is for what on the cluster. I can try to dig it up for you if you want. Let me know.
You do some amazing work my friend!
big poppa if you have some better instruction find them. i HATE wiring with a passion. so much i was thinking about taking it to my local shop and having them do it just so i didnt have to go thru the hassle. i reall hate wiring lol.
godspeed your always busy, youve been here about a year now and havnt' visited me once yet.
1cavy was meaning autocad to draw up the design on. print it out on paper. then just glue the paper to the wood and cut. and the gauges should be fine. the guage really only lights up in the center area so having it block the bottom a little bit isnt much of an issue, that and your high enough that looking down on it when your driving u shouldn't notice it.
andy yeah wiring sucks i hate it. can't say that enough lol.
UPDATE well took me about two hours to get that thing wrapped. should have thought out my speaker mounts a little better and was my first time working with superglue to hold the material down. holds it allot better then i thought, just a little slower to do. got my first coat of fiberglass on and its drying now. need to run out to the store and pick up some kitty hair and filler. and cloth/mat.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sndsgood/ https://www.facebook.com/#!/Square1Photography
sndsgood wrote:jake. unless a miracle happens it wont be done for winged warriors. most likely if im lucky the dash will be getting wrapped at that time. so im either going to throw the old dash back on for the show, or just come and hang out and hang out.
i vote for old dash....you'll still probably take at least one award....plus then we can have the canopy to sit under and watch the racing (the show is on the strip between the dragstrip and the lot for the auto-x)
i was down one or two times to during the swap.... lol
it seems that every weekend people are meeting up or whatever, i dont have available..... sigh..
Nice job. The framework looks great!
^CLICK ME TO SEE HOW I BUILT EVERYTHING^ How To in Interior Forum
well its looking good. and to be honest, i have had so much @!#$ going on, i havnt looked at the dash in about 4 or 5 weeks. but to be fair. your just doing the dash pad. i am replacing the entire dash....
but it looks great. and i cant wait for some more progress pictures.
but i was thinking about the 2 1/16 gauges infront of the wheel. and i think you just convinced me... hahaha
Lookin good. I wanna see glass laid on it though!
soo apparently everyone is going crazy and im going back 4 steps lmao, gonna look killer man
so glad i came across this, with this recent warm weather I can finally get back to my project and seeing something very similar to mine is very much inspiring. I wont be doing many gauges in the car, only 3-5 that will be in a hideaway compartment(still to be decided on location). stock gauge cluster will be molded in middle above the double din alpine unit.
I however deleted all heat and A/C, which i do kind of regret (sucked in the winter) but wanted to clear up room in dash/engine bay. heres some pics
what i'm driving right now
i'm putting the new alpine type X 6.5's in the dash, they are pretty small and easy to work with, I put a little bit of a tilt on them. The sound stage is going to be nice and high
I need to get another cluster from the scrap yard tomorrow so I can mold it in and still drive my car. I'll post some more pics after a little progress. Oh, and it's going to be covered in black suede flocking.. weird. When I saw this post I flipped, the top dash cover is cut out almost the same, and covered in black suede...
happy fibreglassing to all, and to all a good day
