Anyone have any pic's or suggestions on bending up a custom dash for my Mav'? I'd like something racey but needs to cover the column and wiring on firewall. Bob
Get a bunch of pieces of white foam, not the packing styrofoam, but the stuff you buy in the flower section of a craft store. The green foam is way too dense. Hot glue the blocks together and install them in the car. Then start sanding, shaving, hot wire cutting the blocks into whatever dash shape you want. If you cut off too much, just hot glue some more back on there. When you get your shape, take it out of the car without destroying it. It's ok if it comes out in pieces, as long as you don't mind installing the finished product in the same manner. Paint it with any spray enamel. This seals the foam. Then cover it with mold release and lay down several layers of coarse fiberglass and resin. After that dries you can do one of two things. If you don't mind what the outside looks like at this point (not too much material) then you can lay down a layer of fine weave glass and several layers of resin. Then sand, paint, sand paint etc to give it a nice finish. Sanding down the surface and adding more resin and sanding again is another great way to get a really smooth finish. You can also line up where you will mount it and use coarse glass and resin to mold in nuts or bolts or whatever to attach it to the car. If you don't like the way it looks, then pull the foam out, coat the inside of the fiberglass with mold release and use that as your mold for the finished dash. Ta-da!! Instant custom dash. You can do the same thing with the center console, and kick panels and whatever else strikes your fancy. If you're worried about strength, mold some strips of thin steel, or wire mesh into the coarse fiberglass mesh. Wire Mesh is really hard to work with unless you get something really flexible like screen door wire mesh. Chicken wire and other such things are hard to get the shape exactly right. Make sure you leave some room for the HVAC stuff if you're interested in re-installing it. I would recommend at least putting in a cheapo heater core, fan, and vents for defrost, because that comes in handy on a rainy summer day. That's all I can think of right now. Thought of something. If you want a soft look, glue a thin layer of soft foam (like seat foam), to the dash, and then stretch some fabric over the top of that. A neat trick is to cut out a design in the foam, or to add another layer of foam to make a neat design. A lot of guys will do flames or a star burst or something like that. It's something subtle that will add character to the look.
heres my dash its made from a sheet of aluminum. it attaches to my roll cage dash bar. there are 5 pices. the main dash that has 3 folds in it. the angles of the folds are such that the gages are pointed directly at my head. there are two pices that fill the gaps where the cage wraps around the cage bars. the center stack is folded on the sides and has caps on the top that bolt to the dash and floor. the sides to the center stack screw on to the face. i found a guy who does race car sheet metal to make the dash for me. his skills are just awsome.
Very nice clean spartan look. I like it. You know you're in a car made for serious business only with a dash like that.
ATOM, THanks for the idea of using the foam. I would have never thought of that! And, once a mold is made, you could make several quickly for other members, and they could cut the holes wherever they want for whatever gauge setup they want.
I'm here to help!! They do the same thing on movie sets, and when people do custom speaker enclosures, and all kinds of fun stuff. Fiberglass is really fun stuff if you're creative, don't mind a mess, and enjoy resin fumes. Word to the wise. Mixing resin in small batches is a good idea. Mixing resin in large batches is a good way to start a fire... The chemical process that occurs when adding the activator to harden the resin can be quite exothermic. Also, if you are going to make a mold, make sure the inside of your mold has a nice surface finish and that will go a long way toward the outside of your finished producted having a good surface. Coating the foam with several coats of resin and sanding it smooth is a good trick to remove the texture of the foam.
