Carbon Dash!

trailpimp33 · 11-21-2008, 09:17 PM

Anyone ever thought of doing this? I am rehabing an 83' and I have looked at several options to repair the common "cracked to hell"dash. This is what I have come up with.
1. Pay someone WAY too much money to repair it.
2. Try the process that someone here at Pelican has done with epoxy, sanding, texture, sanding, and paint.
3. Use one of those plastic caps.(not really an option in my book)
4. Cover it with black Leather or a synthetic.
5. Cover it with Carbon Fiber!

Here is how.
You sand the dash to rough it up, then apply the resin, then the carbon cloth, trim the edges, then more resin. More cloth, trim, more resin. It would not take many layers since it is not bearing load. Then you buff and polish, and you now have a carbon fiber dash for about $150.00 and a few days worth of effort.

trailpimp33 · 11-22-2008, 12:32 AM

Anyone got a spare early dash laying around? I just bought some carbon fabric and resin!!

Schumi · 11-22-2008, 01:06 AM

My main research at my University consists of Carbon Fiber manufacturing processes. I would highly suggest not doing it the way you have outlined. Without a proper negative mold, the surface finish of your final product would be very poor unless you spend a very very large amount of time sanding the top layer, which will most likely result in you burning down to the next layer in some spots. You can do this and then clear coat the part, but the sanded spots will not look uniform. And if you plan on using polyester resin (the autozone cheap stuff) the results will most likely be very bad looking. A good aircraft grade epoxy resin like Aeropoxy or West Systems yields much better results.

The proper way to do it would be to bondo smooth an existing dash, take a fiberglass mold from that dash using a release agent, and then coating the inside of that mold with release agent and your carbon cloth to make a smooth finish on the side you look at.

All in all, it is a lot of work to do correctly.

speedracing944 · speedracing944's Garage

There is a guy here who does carbon stuff MixMasterK. I don't know if he has ever done a carbon dash though.

Speedy

Pops944 · Pops944's Garage

Unfortunatly when I got my car it had the plastic dash cap in it. Granted it looked better than the super cracked dash, but the reflection of the dash on the windshield was impossible to see through. As a short term "repair" I bought some hunters camo paint in brown. It's non reflective and is made for PVC and plastics. I wiped down the dash cap with laquer thinner, then sprayed it. The color matches the interior of my car and there is no reflection. Now I can take my time and find a spare dash that I can restore to original condition.

halik · 11-22-2008, 07:23 AM

Shiny gelcoated dash is a bad idea imo. Just get one of those caps and call it a day

dondarnell · 11-22-2008, 08:05 AM

There is a guy in Michigan that recovers them well. I don't think he is very expensive. Here is a link. http://www.928leather.com/

trailpimp33 · 11-22-2008, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dondarnell

There is a guy in Michigan that recovers them well. I don't think he is very expensive. Here is a link. http://www.928leather.com/

Yeah, but 800 bucks is a bit steep (if you send it in) and 500 bucks for the kit is more than I wanted to spend. The work looks great though!!!

I did not consider the glare from a glossy dash, but maybe I'll do the center console in Carbon.

Schumi · 11-22-2008, 09:53 AM

I just recovered a dash for my race car, search under "DIY dash recover" and you should find it, it was about a month ago. I used some felt like material and the results were great.

DKillaPorsche · 11-23-2008, 07:26 PM

Im actually thinking of doing something similar myself. Except along the lines of what Schumi is saying.

I intend to get another dash. Bondo (or what we call Bog filler) it all over and smooth it out. I want to remove the centre heater grill. I also want to change the windscreen ducts a tad too. I was also thinking of removing the glovebox and have the dash run straight across. I want the dash to curl underneath into the foot wells a bit more too - whether this is one or two seperate parts - to cover up all the fuses, etc.

I will then take a fibreglass mould off of that and then layup the final part within that.

I may also look into improving the centre console area by removing the cigi ligther (dont use it) and moving the fog light and status (!) light around a bit. I'd also like to orientate the central gauges towards the driver too - my car is a LHD converted to RHD so the gauges do currently angle towards the once driver now passenger.

I am also thinking of pulling moulds off of the door panels, etc and neaten them up a bit too.

Probably all going to be a Christmas holiday project me thinks.