The Dash Epic

[Matt88S]

Once upon a time long, long ago, Matt started upon a dash restoration epic. Matt has been in the middle of this epic for eons, hanging on the very verge of finishing it. Matt has still not totally finished all the little nips and tucks, but he did finally get around to taking some pictures of how it turned out.

Note this was done on Thanksgiving day in freezing cold weather, using a space heater to keep the Bondo and glue warm enough to cure, and being in a confined area while using an entire can of 3M glue gave me a 24 hour headache. I recommend you do not do this in a confined area in cold weather if for no other reason than you will do a shoddy job because you are cold and your head hurts.

Anywho, this is what was done. A couple yards of Automotive/Marine quality Faux Leather, or as most of us know it, Naugahyde, was obtained. The dash was then removed from the car.

As you can see from the before picture 20 years in the Oklahoma sun had not been kind to the dash. It was in such horrid shape that I figured anything I did to it could only be an improvement. So I boldly ventured forward where I had never before voyaged.

The lips of the cracks on the dash and lifted and separated forming little mountain ranges with valleys between. They had to be sanded, ground, cut, bashed, smashed, mashed, burned, and otherwise made flush with the rest of the dash. Since I was cold and did not really expect this to work I did not do a very good job and you can still see little bulges in areas on the dash.

If anyone else tries this I would strongly urge you to spend a great deal of time getting everything totally flush, any little bulge is going to show up in the Naugahyde.

After everything is flush I used regular old automotive bodywork filler, aka Bondo to fill all the cracks, the center dish on the dash, and to flush everything up in general especially in areas where the original material had broken away or simply degraded. I applied several coated of Bondo, sanding it flush in-between coats just like you would on a car.

After all this was done I used 3M spray on adhesive to attach the Naugahyde to the dash. You will want to kind of experiment around a bit and know exactly how your piece of material will fit the dash before you start using the adhesive. I used one solid piece for the whole dash so getting it to conform to all the angles was a bit of a trick. I adhered it in sections though, spraying the adhesive on and then fitting the Naugahyde and trimming and cutting it as needed to make it conform.

After all this you just trim everything up, put it back in the car, and stick the gauges and controls back in.

There are two folds on the very outside edges of the corners where I took slack out. I did not think they would be visible after I put the dash back in so I didn’t bother with them when I had it out. However they are visible and I plan to cut, seam, and cover with some kind of trim or bead, or cut and seam it out with some small upholstery tacks so everything is flush and looks proper.

Its not a professional job or anything but it at least looks better than it did. I’m going to do this to another one of my cars. I think if I take my time and make sure everything is flush and even before I apply the Naugahyde it will look better.

Cheers

[Matthew]

Looks good And an entertaining read

I quite like the 900 dash with that top dish thing filled in flush. Looks more streamline. That old dashboard certainly was in bad shape! Are newer 900s more resistant to dashboard sun damage?

[Willy Wonka]

Nice work. Good to know the Nauga didn't give up it's life in vain.

[Albert Trout]

Originally Posted by Matthew

Are newer 900s more resistant to dashboard sun damage?

I've got a late 1992, and unfortunately I have absolutely no idea

[ShadowWorks]

It looks so smooth now, a job well done, it does sound like a lot of work

[unkleG'sif]

Originally Posted by Matthew

Are newer 900s more resistant to dashboard sun damage?

i think its less an age/MY issue, and more a problem in the US and Aus, rather than Grey Britain

G

[Matt88S]

Thanks for the lovely comments, you all are too kind.

I'm sorry about the fuzzy and undersized pictures. I used the digital camera at work, I'm not very familiar with it and it seem like its not a very high quality camera either.

I thought I might point out that the speaker/vent area looks like it is not flush in the pictures. They actually are, it’s just in the picture they are just sitting on the surface, they are not screwed in place. I just set them in place for the picture so you could see what it looked like with everything in place.



I have other ones I made for it to accommodate different speakers but the speakers have absolutely ghetto covers that buldge up. I didn’t want them in the picture. lol. I’m looking for some lower profile speaker dust covers, perhaps ones that fit a little more flush.


Cheers

[SteveTheFolkie]

when did you take a picture of my dash??? (the before). The sun and all have not been kind to my '85 - I might just follow your lead and fix the damm thing one of these days.

Working with glue and bondo in a confined area - you must have a really strong constitution since you can still remember your own name and spell "saab"! Out of curiosity did you smoke while you were doing this chemical brain eraser process as well ???

Final product looks great though - nice job!

Steve

[Orca]

That's one pro-looking job and a great read! Thanks!
... nice to see a pipe smoker, too

[TumbleWeed]

Splendid! One o' these days I wanna see that!Good job!I grew up in NW Ok and the summers are brutal!

[Matt88S]

Hey Tumbleweed, welcome aboard. I think besides you and me Skip is the only other Oklahoman on here.

NW Ok eh? You wouldn't have been in the moonscape we call the panhandle would you?

I'm over in the NE corner of the state, Tulsa area. I think Skip resides somewhere in this corner of the state as well.

I'm waiting to see how the dash holds up to the sun. I think a lighter color might work better. I have a white turbo that I think I might re-cover in white. I think that would look neat.

So far though I haven't noticed any problems, I've had it in the car since thanksgiving. I have noticed the black gets almost too hot to touch if you leave it parked in the sun. I need to get a windshield sun reflector thingy. Whatever those things are called. If one keeps it covered and puts a UV protectant of some sort on it, Armoral or whatnot, I think it will hold up for quite a while, several years at the very least.

If you do this be sure you go to a fabric store or upholstery store and get Automotive/Marine quality. The stuff I used was considerably thicker than the average and is supposedly UV resistant, they said it was used for boat upholstery and whatnot so it must be pretty tough.

Another option would be to use real leather. It would be pretty expensive though. I went to a local leather shop, a Tandys leather, and it would have been about $150 for enough leather to cover the dash. If you were to mess up or if it didn't hold up to the sun you would be very unhappy. At least I would.

That's one pro-looking job and a great read! Thanks!
... nice to see a pipe smoker, too

Shhhh, don't tell anyone........I'm a very low key pipe smoker. I don't smoke a whole lot, mainly when I'm under a lot of pressure or feeling stressed. Then its kind of a ritual. If I get a chance I'll find a quite place somewhere outside and sit back and ponder the universe for a bit. I find the whole pipe smoking process calming, the packing, tamping, lighting, its very calming.