Redone Dash board!

[italisti]

Not sure if anyone knows the recipe to re-do a cracked dash..


I have been working on mine for months. Sanding, layering with fiberglass and resin, re-sanding, and now adding some bondo...

<P>

Planned on painting to match the exterior color to give it a more vintage look...
This thing is bulletproof now and probably won't be cracking up anytime soon but the down side is that it is about ten or more pounds heavier... wish I could have gone the carbon fiber route...
Anyone have any experience with this??

[Zippy]

Looks like you're doing a fine job. Have you been able to check it for fit? Not sure the matching body color would be vintage since I have never seen a Fiat Coupe with a dashboard color other than black.

[azygoustoyou]

Looks good!
Isn't working with fiberglass just grand.
It makes you want to pull your hair out.

[italisti]

Okay here is after about 3 layers of fiberglass, maybe 5 layers of resin, and one good layer of bondo, then resin to fill bondo holes... I found that glazing the sanded and shaped bondo with a thin layer of resin will kind of seal in the shape and fill the holes and cracks a lot better! Plus it probably keeps the bondo from ever cracking! (FINGERS CROSSED)





I then did a few different series of sandings downs on the final coat of resin and today put a few coats of black primer... I will upload those pics next.. The next and final steps will be to paint it with my leftover car paint and some coats of strong clear...

I did a test fit and everything fit great as planned.. I sanded this thing to a perfection and it only took me a total of 5 months... probably altogether have close to 30 hours into this thing (without the drying processes)

I feel that being such a rare car, and with such a FRIED interior, I didn't have many choices on this!

[Redline]

Ah... brings back good memories of laying Kevlar & West Systems epoxy in a poorly ventilated garage.

Looks good. I also should (eventually) do something about my dashboard. There is one crack which has been "patched" with just a rubbery layer over top of the whole instrument cluster. It's ok, but not great.

[azruss]

nice to add 30 pounds to the dash.

[WBPDX]

Very cool - I can't wait to see the finished product!