98 TA Dash Pad Repair/Wrap *Pics*
11-02-2011, 05:26 PM
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98 TA Dash Pad Repair/Wrap *Pics* First, this took a lot of time and is by no means perfect. I am going to go back fix some errors I made along the way, but it turned out about 90% of what I was hoping for. I will eventually fix the imperfections and update this thread. I'm sure I reinvented the wheel a little bit, but I haven't seen too many write ups where people have successfully repaired and re-wrapped their factory dash pads.
I went to Joanne's fabric store and purchased the black vinyl, I got like 6ftx3ft piece and it end up costing around $35. I also got some adhesives that were around $15 and I ended up paying local upholstery guy $20 to do some stitching that I couldn't get right on a regular sewing machine.
Grand total $70 and about 6 hours of work, not including driving and drying time. I took me about 3 weeks to do all of it, I drove around without a dash pad for awhile, but only because I got tired of working on it.
My dash was cracked, and really cracked by the time I got it out of the car.
I used some JB Weld plastics epoxy and card board cut outs to hold it together. This was very tedious and took a lot of my time. I used 2 of the dual nozzle containers but honestly should have used 3. The dash felt really, really strong to my surprise after getting it welded back to somewhat original form. The FL sun had really warped the pad, so I wasn't getting too picky when gluing it back together. I did do some light sanding and degreasing before and after the repair. Yes, that's Cinnamon toast crunch.
I then used some fabric that you would use on a headliner to cover the top side of the dash pad. This layer gave it some cushion so you wouldn't see the repairs and any humps and dips in the plastic as easy. The fabric is like a felt material and is still relatively thin.
I then, with help of my Mom, yes my Mom, traced out the defrost vent to use as a template to cut out the vinyl i purchased. I am married and have my own place but my Mother volunteered to help and she helped me out a ton! It was good bonding for us, how many of you needed a hand working on a car and asked your Mom? Be honest!
I made a mistake here that I can't fix now. I should have trimmed the headliner material on the very edge of the plasic and not a 1/4 inch from the edge. Not a big deal but in the end the vinyl will wrap better on the edges if the headliner goes all the way out to the edges.
And once we traced it onto the leather using a fabric pencil we cut out a piece of the vinyl for the defrost vents. This was tricky and unfortunately I don't have a picture to show you guys exactly what I did. Basically I cut the hole out slightly smaller than the edges of template and sewed on a piece of regular black fabric to the back of the vinyl around the hole. I then glued that fabric on to the back of the vinyl which left me with a really good, flat seam around the hole. Ill try and get some pics when I update this thread in the future. Here is after I finished it.
I ended up using 5 pieces total to cover the dash leaving me with 4 seams to stitch. I ended up taking it to a local auto upholstery guy to top stitch the seams into a french seam. It took him 3 mins and he charged me $20 for the thread and labor. The french seam makes it lay flat and looks really cool. I went with red because it fits the car, but almost went black to be more subtle, but figured screw it.
I used loctite spray adhesive to attach the vinyl to the pad. I then trim the windshield side and didn't worry about tucking it because you cannot see the edges of the pad when it is installed in the car. The side closer to the cabin I rolled and glued on the back side. I used pieces of cardboard to the top side to keep the clothes pins from marking the vinyl when the glue was drying.
Honestly the clothes pins were not necessary and I don't recommend using them. If you spray the adhesive on both materials and let it sit for 1-2 mins and then join the surfaces together, they are not moving and you can pull it tight during the bond. Even with card board on the other side it left little dimples that have now gone away with some FL sun warming them up but they are still somewhat visible to me.
Here is the pad after trimming and the final install.
There you go! Let me know what you think!
I went to Joanne's fabric store and purchased the black vinyl, I got like 6ftx3ft piece and it end up costing around $35. I also got some adhesives that were around $15 and I ended up paying local upholstery guy $20 to do some stitching that I couldn't get right on a regular sewing machine.
Grand total $70 and about 6 hours of work, not including driving and drying time. I took me about 3 weeks to do all of it, I drove around without a dash pad for awhile, but only because I got tired of working on it.
My dash was cracked, and really cracked by the time I got it out of the car.
I used some JB Weld plastics epoxy and card board cut outs to hold it together. This was very tedious and took a lot of my time. I used 2 of the dual nozzle containers but honestly should have used 3. The dash felt really, really strong to my surprise after getting it welded back to somewhat original form. The FL sun had really warped the pad, so I wasn't getting too picky when gluing it back together. I did do some light sanding and degreasing before and after the repair. Yes, that's Cinnamon toast crunch.
I then used some fabric that you would use on a headliner to cover the top side of the dash pad. This layer gave it some cushion so you wouldn't see the repairs and any humps and dips in the plastic as easy. The fabric is like a felt material and is still relatively thin.
I then, with help of my Mom, yes my Mom, traced out the defrost vent to use as a template to cut out the vinyl i purchased. I am married and have my own place but my Mother volunteered to help and she helped me out a ton! It was good bonding for us, how many of you needed a hand working on a car and asked your Mom? Be honest!
I made a mistake here that I can't fix now. I should have trimmed the headliner material on the very edge of the plasic and not a 1/4 inch from the edge. Not a big deal but in the end the vinyl will wrap better on the edges if the headliner goes all the way out to the edges.
And once we traced it onto the leather using a fabric pencil we cut out a piece of the vinyl for the defrost vents. This was tricky and unfortunately I don't have a picture to show you guys exactly what I did. Basically I cut the hole out slightly smaller than the edges of template and sewed on a piece of regular black fabric to the back of the vinyl around the hole. I then glued that fabric on to the back of the vinyl which left me with a really good, flat seam around the hole. Ill try and get some pics when I update this thread in the future. Here is after I finished it.
I ended up using 5 pieces total to cover the dash leaving me with 4 seams to stitch. I ended up taking it to a local auto upholstery guy to top stitch the seams into a french seam. It took him 3 mins and he charged me $20 for the thread and labor. The french seam makes it lay flat and looks really cool. I went with red because it fits the car, but almost went black to be more subtle, but figured screw it.
I used loctite spray adhesive to attach the vinyl to the pad. I then trim the windshield side and didn't worry about tucking it because you cannot see the edges of the pad when it is installed in the car. The side closer to the cabin I rolled and glued on the back side. I used pieces of cardboard to the top side to keep the clothes pins from marking the vinyl when the glue was drying.
Honestly the clothes pins were not necessary and I don't recommend using them. If you spray the adhesive on both materials and let it sit for 1-2 mins and then join the surfaces together, they are not moving and you can pull it tight during the bond. Even with card board on the other side it left little dimples that have now gone away with some FL sun warming them up but they are still somewhat visible to me.
Here is the pad after trimming and the final install.
There you go! Let me know what you think!
11-02-2011, 07:55 PM
#6
That looks really good! Well you've moved the f body upscale - I've noticed that the supercars like Lambo etc have leather stitched dash pads too! The texture of your fabric, and underlay, coupled with the stitching really give the dash a quality look!
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11-02-2011, 08:33 PM
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Now that I have done one, I could do another one relatively easily. If my dash wasn't smashed into pieces it would have been a lot quicker. I also learned how to take out the pad without breaking it and installing it without breaking it.
11-02-2011, 08:38 PM
#9
Now, start buying used dahspads & convert them!
Hell yea, I'd buy one.
Hindsight, but would it have been nice to be able to line-up the stitched seams with the passenger side airbag seams, maybe?
Of course you'd have to duplicate/mirror the seams like you did on the driver's side & I don't really know where they'd come out.
Maybe no seams would be best, ...
Ya did good man, ..., Mom too, ...
11-02-2011, 09:09 PM
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Now, start buying used dahspads & convert them!
Hell yea, I'd buy one.
Hindsight, but would it have been nice to be able to line-up the stitched seams with the passenger side airbag seams, maybe?
Of course you'd have to duplicate/mirror the seams like you did on the driver's side & I don't really know where they'd come out.
Maybe no seams would be best, ...
Ya did good man, ..., Mom too, ...
I also thought it would look really good to line up those seams with the air bag seams but if it is duplicated on the other side it looks horrible. The way it is now it is even and the seam on the driverside is directly at the top of the cluster hump. The tricky part is the defrost opening.
11-03-2011, 02:43 AM
#13
Now, start buying used dahspads & convert them!
Hell yea, I'd buy one.
Hindsight, but would it have been nice to be able to line-up the stitched seams with the passenger side airbag seams, maybe?
Of course you'd have to duplicate/mirror the seams like you did on the driver's side & I don't really know where they'd come out.
Maybe no seams would be best, ...
Ya did good man, ..., Mom too, ...
11-03-2011, 07:11 AM
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I did the stitching because I wanted to experiment with auto uphostlery and liked the look of the french seam, I could very easily do it as one piece and save a lot of time and it would look great as well, but it was a learning/experiment thing. My dash had just cracked and I can't stand having a cracked dash pad, makes me feel like a redneck.
Last edited by FirebirdTransAm; 11-03-2011 at 07:18 AM.
11-03-2011, 11:09 AM
#17
Its been done before. You may have seen this thread. I like the vent solution.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...n-fbodies.html
Yours looks pretty good, but I would change a few things. Nothing ever turns out right the first time! LOL
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...n-fbodies.html
Yours looks pretty good, but I would change a few things. Nothing ever turns out right the first time! LOL
