Fiberglass Dash?
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Teching In
Joined: Jul 2005
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From: Paintsville KY
Fiberglass Dash? Has anyone seen an actual camaro fiberglass dash with everything functional? I'm talking about the headlight controls, the gauges surround, the cd player and AC control area, and the vents actually cut-out..I'm trying to get out of working with a fiberglass one without the stuff the way i want it... But i have no knowledge of them..I'm lookin too some custom gauge placement and do away with the passenger side air bag area for a my own car computer..Any help anyone could offer would be great and much appericated
Launching!
Joined: May 2003
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From: Arlington, VA
I have one on the way but it is for a pure drag car. The VFN piece requires fabrication as it will not mount the same as stock (ie, you'll need dzus fasteners or some other way to bolt it in).
At least that is what I gathered from the nice lady from VFN that I spoke with. I'll let you know for sure in about 5 weeks when it arrives.
At least that is what I gathered from the nice lady from VFN that I spoke with. I'll let you know for sure in about 5 weeks when it arrives.
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2005
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From: Paintsville KY
Plus i have a probelm with VFN one..its a trans am/firebird dash..not a Camaro lol...don't get me wrong i do actually like the bird dash's and door panels better.. but i've done came up with the ultimate plan for a fiberglass camaro dash...lol..but isn't there any other companys that make one? or is there anyone that has ripped the vinyl and padding off there and made a form? something lol..Anyone ripped the dash what does it look like under it? I'm thinkin i may be able to form one out of the original dash but it would be a lot of work... and Thunder let me know something once your's gets there... i'd called before to...and it seems for my purpose it would be a lot of work for that dash
Launching!
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From: Arlington, VA
Originally Posted by 2001KuztomRSEdition
Plus i have a probelm with VFN one..its a trans am/firebird dash..not a Camaro lol...don't get me wrong i do actually like the bird dash's and door panels better.. but i've done came up with the ultimate plan for a fiberglass camaro dash...lol..but isn't there any other companys that make one? or is there anyone that has ripped the vinyl and padding off there and made a form? something lol..Anyone ripped the dash what does it look like under it? I'm thinkin i may be able to form one out of the original dash but it would be a lot of work... and Thunder let me know something once your's gets there... i'd called before to...and it seems for my purpose it would be a lot of work for that dash
what happened to xxtransamxx? he fiberglassed his dash! Put over 50 man hours into it tho! **** just starting to smooth out my 4 rear interior panels and I've put close to 25 man hours into that and I'm only half way done! Still have the doors and dash to do!
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Thread Starter
Teching In
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From: Paintsville KY
Well so far I think im going have well over 100hr in nothing but the interior...but hey im not going complain...considering the fiberglass will start at the windsheild and end at the trunk latch lol... i don't mind though..DirtyBird if you know this xxtransamxx.... get him to join in this post and give me a idea of what its going look with his pics...also man i'd love to see your work on your interior parts when your done...I think a glassed up f-bod beats the carbon fiber/tweed/vinyl lowriders interiors anyday
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Joined: May 2003
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From: Arlington, VA
Originally Posted by 2001KuztomRSEdition
Well so far I think im going have well over 100hr in nothing but the interior...but hey im not going complain...considering the fiberglass will start at the windsheild and end at the trunk latch lol... i don't mind though..DirtyBird if you know this xxtransamxx.... get him to join in this post and give me a idea of what its going look with his pics...also man i'd love to see your work on your interior parts when your done...I think a glassed up f-bod beats the carbon fiber/tweed/vinyl lowriders interiors anyday
Thread Starter
Teching In
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From: Paintsville KY
Well so far the plan:Replace CD Changer Area to Flat Area For 2 Compressors
Replace Spare Tire Area for 3 Gallon Tank Take Subthump box/rear panels/ and add middle section (then fiberglass) (farad cap,3 amps,2 12's subs,
I'm going try to copy cat my other post and put the high backs for rear seats too and then take and fiberglass the console between the rear seats and back to the amps... and either put a nos tank there or some kind of monitor set up...
Then fiberglass the pillars,the plastic piece in front of the dash, the dash, the trim pieces,vents, then cut out the air bag area PSG side for a plexiglass cover over a car pc set up and put the DVD-RW in the glovebox and put a screen in place of the cd player..So one bad *** idea and some where along the line i have to add a battery or two... so i may end up with a rear seat delete(to hide the batteries, and air ride gear) but if i do that ill move the subs up and retain the ttop holders in more of a custom look... and then a huge monitor above the amps lol... but hey all this is just in the plans... i'm still lookin for a LS1 convo before i start any of this stuff lol....but hey its hard to tellin..i've got most of my parts i need already too start glassin...i just have to finish the plan...
Replace Spare Tire Area for 3 Gallon Tank Take Subthump box/rear panels/ and add middle section (then fiberglass) (farad cap,3 amps,2 12's subs,
I'm going try to copy cat my other post and put the high backs for rear seats too and then take and fiberglass the console between the rear seats and back to the amps... and either put a nos tank there or some kind of monitor set up...
Then fiberglass the pillars,the plastic piece in front of the dash, the dash, the trim pieces,vents, then cut out the air bag area PSG side for a plexiglass cover over a car pc set up and put the DVD-RW in the glovebox and put a screen in place of the cd player..So one bad *** idea and some where along the line i have to add a battery or two... so i may end up with a rear seat delete(to hide the batteries, and air ride gear) but if i do that ill move the subs up and retain the ttop holders in more of a custom look... and then a huge monitor above the amps lol... but hey all this is just in the plans... i'm still lookin for a LS1 convo before i start any of this stuff lol....but hey its hard to tellin..i've got most of my parts i need already too start glassin...i just have to finish the plan...
I'll get some pics up later on this week. All I'm doing is smoothing out all my interior panels, except for the small area of the door panel where your arm can rest and you can grab to pull the door shut. Red preforated leather insert for the door panel. Seats are being changed to black with red suede inserts, red stitching, possibly red piping. Black Floor mats with the phoenix and trans am engraved in red with red stitching and piping. If my budget permits this summer I'll be upgrading to all component speakers. Oh yea I'm changing the carpet to black and putting in a ABS plastic headliner, and sound deadening material. Hopefully I can finish this by the end of june, but we'll see! I want to see pics of yours when youa re done!
Thanks for the shout out Dirty, Yes I made my OEM dash smooth as glass...do a search you will see pics....Ok fine I know you wont click the search button so here...
Here is some other parts...
Here is some other parts...
xxxta, you fiberglassed everything right? Even the other panels? I'm wanting to do the same thing, but I might be doing it the hard way. I applied PLAS-TIK from Dupont on all the pieces, then sandable primer and have been sanding away and applying layers of primer to get it nice and smoothhh. Here is my progress. I don't know what Im going to do for the dash, my old man thinks you can't just put fiberglass over it and he is a fiberglass master. And those 5 holes were in the freakin panel when I bought the car, I'm cutting that out and putting an LED light bar back there so when I open my hatch I have light in the trunk!
Thread Starter
Teching In
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From: Paintsville KY
Dang! That is exactly what i'm lookin for except mines in a camaro..but TransAm here is the question did you A.)glass over top of the vinyl B)make a mold over the metal C)just rip the vinyl over and then use it as base to bulid up your glass?
sorry i'm so complicated but i'm just doing to know and that was great work...and I'm no pro but dirty bird what is Plas-Tick ? lol personally the panels do look great and look really smooth...but i'm not sure about how smooth and shiny the panels will be after but hey paint over primer usually works really well but the fiberglass allows stiffening of the panels...and if the right flex additive in the paint..it'll never crack...but hey idk...it may work..im in ky lol i've seen s10's door panels sanded down and painted in a day and are whiter than my car still
sorry i'm so complicated but i'm just doing to know and that was great work...and I'm no pro but dirty bird what is Plas-Tick ? lol personally the panels do look great and look really smooth...but i'm not sure about how smooth and shiny the panels will be after but hey paint over primer usually works really well but the fiberglass allows stiffening of the panels...and if the right flex additive in the paint..it'll never crack...but hey idk...it may work..im in ky lol i've seen s10's door panels sanded down and painted in a day and are whiter than my car still
Last edited by 2001KuztomRSEdition; May 16, 2006 at 12:52 PM.
I am using DuraTec, it's a Gray Surfacing Polyester Primer that builds extremely well, and is known for it's leveling properties, and is EASILY sandable. It will even polish! Not that I polish the primer lol, I used 80 grit on all of the things and brought them to 220 then hit them with some DuraTec, then sanded it to 220 one more pass of Duratec till, once I sanded again up to 220/320 area it was free of impurities. Then I sanded up to 400-600 grit, acryli-cleaned inbetween sandings, and washed with warm soapy water before the PPG Acryli-Klean jobs, then hit with 3 passes PPG DBU9700 blk, then 3 of DCU2002 High Gloss PLyurethane Clear. The DuraTec I shoot down with a 2.2mm tip. It's known alot in the boat world, and prop world for making molds. The dash I treated the same with up to 220, then used Fiberglass Resin, as a filler to get a hard coat to BITE down, then got it smooth up to 400, then used a lightweight filler, up to 600, then a glazing compound up to 600, and then did the primer, etc....as above. Dirty if you wanna fill the holes, just put some duct-tape on the backside of the panel fill it with the fiber-resin, and go from there, whala no holes. Key to sanding plastic is all by hand don't press or you will build up heat in the pastic making grooves, and causing it to pill or "ball" up....
2001, The OEM dash is underneath what you see, I just did everything over it...I removed the AirBags from the car, notice no airbag seams on the pass. side. I would recommend if you want me to do this, or you even try doin this to do the same. Otherwise you put the dash in 10min later you could hit somehting to cause the airbags to deploy, then you just busted the dash, and tossed the work, or money out the window....
Thread Starter
Teching In
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From: Paintsville KY
hhummm i'm actually planning on cutting the air bag on passenger side out all together for more of a mount spot for car pc and putting plexiglass over it..but idk yet... i'm lookin into fuel management, engine controller, tranny management and then my audio all from it...but im not sure bout any of this yet im just gettin the plan and the how to and gettin a rough guess on materials need for everything... i'm going put the fiberglass down on panels then and fill in the gaps i don't like lol... plus im thinking about cutting up the speaker covers to glass in some black or polished mesh grille lol..i think it'll look better than those POS covers..by the way i love the switch panel...im not going do away with my ac or move it ...but i'm going do something similar after i start figuring out how i want to do my console...after some ppl start helping me on my high back rear seat plans..Oh by the way i hate you lol i checked your photobucket out...Nice targa :-(.... dude i could talk to you for hours now lol....but to save ya the trouble have you had this discuss on here before because i do know how to use the search button lol? and not to mention your engine bay...!!!! awe you so have ESP..you still my mass plans of destruction for all else...but as long your runnin a bird and v8 im happy for ya..lol...cause mine is stuck a v6 for now ...but hey there maybe plans for a LS2 some where down the road if my work doesn't run out
Last edited by 2001KuztomRSEdition; May 16, 2006 at 01:11 PM.