Hi,

I'm in the process of designing the dash and want to cover it with black vinyl and have been playing around trying to figure out the best way to do it.

So far this is what I've got......



Covering Dash?

It's early days yet and nothings set in stone but I was wondering how to get the best finish when I come to cover it in the black vinyl, particularly in the areas in red.

I've got some vinyl with a bit of stretch in it but not nearly enough stretch to get it to return back around these corners. Looking through other peoples pics a number of people have done something similar and I just wondered how?

The obvious solution is to cut the vinyl and just fold it around but of course this wouldn't look too good! Should I heat the vinyl gently or what?

Any help much appeciated as always


Cheers,

Martin

A Steamer on the corners would stretch the vinyle, and allow it to shrink, but i dont know if it will to the radius you are after.

What about sprating the dash with a textured finish instead?

I just cut daggers up to the corner (but stopped about 5mm short) and stretched it round then stuck on contact adhesive (solvent free). I used the vinyl from Woolies that was stretchy in one direction but no other other so had to make sure I cut it from the right bit of the cloth.

as above cut triangles out of the overlap material to allow it to pull around the internal radius.

Depending on what the dash is made out of I found having a staple gun handy as some of the bends the adhesive didn't seem to keen to keep the material stuck when I tried moving on to the next section and pulling it tight.

Take your time and it should turn out good, like the design.

Yes, should be able to stretch quite a bit with steam or heat, here is mine....



Cheers

Ian

Spray contact adhesive onto both contacting surfaces.

Carefully lay out the vinyl and then lay the dash on top.

Working evenly from the centre top work the vinyl over to the revers side and staple gun the vinyl to the reverse (assuming you are useing an mdf or ply premount), checking for and stretching out any wrinkles on the front as you go. Staple about every 10mm and about 10mm in from edge.

When you get to the reverse indents you will possibly have to put cuts or darts into the reverse.

When you have gone all the way round then allow about 25mm past the original staples and second row round with the staples. Trimming off any excess as you go about 10mm past the staples.

Where you have the bits marked in red, I had a similar issue, but the vinyl was just about stretchy enough to cope, however where it was not or the dart tips could be seen I then carefully applied some black PU adhesive to give strength/bonding/camoflage.

Also I laid my dash vinyl over some some soft execise mat foam over the ply base.

If you are unsure, make some practise pieces out of scrap/offcuts and try it out first so that you feel comfortable with the process.

Do be careful with the contact adhesive. I got some from woolies for soundproofing and it dissolved the vinyl I got from them also when I tried to recover a motorbike seat. It made a right mess and I’d hate to see that happen to your dash after all that work. Personally I’d opt for staples or a good superglue like Zap-a-gap which you can buy in big bottles.

Cheers guys,

I'll give it a whirl. I think I'll radius the internal corners as well to make the return more gradual (rather than a sharpish 'angled' corner as it is at the moment). The combination of that, the stretch of the vinyl, daggers cut out of it and some steam heat may just combine to do the trick!

Thanks again,

Mart.

heat it up with a hairdryer to the point that it is almost burning your hand and it will stretch round easily.

i used to trim car stereo installs for competitions

Blimey - had another 4 responses while typing the last post!

Thanks very much for the detailed replies - really helpful. Feeling a lot more confident about the job now!

God I love this site!

Cheers,

Mart.

If worried about disolving foam etc I used copydex from a stationary shop for areas near foam with no problems, so you could use that in conjuction with staples.

Staples always work best, instant fix and you don't get messy!

quote:

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Originally posted by jabbahutt
If worried about disolving foam etc I used copydex from a stationary shop for areas near foam with no problems, so you could use that in conjuction with staples.

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