How to: Fiberglass dash

[ta2ddaddy]

I am new to this forum, I am a motorcycle painter an fabricator and have built a few cars. I am currently redoing a 1968 Coupe deville, fairly modified and custom. I am doing about 95% of the work and have been going back and forth with the idea of turning it into a fiberglass dash in order to paint it to match the kandy and flaked paint job of the exterior. The dash in it is original and has cracks in both the vinyl and foam. I have read allot of forums on this job and none have really been straight forward and overly informative. What I am most curious about is the beginning steps, I have used fiberglass and many other fillers for shaping. I am unclear about the starting point, should I create a plug, remove the vinyl and foam and form a fiberglass shell over that, or can I remove the vinyl and somehow seal the existing (shaped) foam and fiberglass over that directly. Either with Fleece or fiber mat. I would obviously prefer to do what is easiest BUT it needs to be right also.

[mnsour]

Curious :

[RCR]

Strip the vinyl and as much foam as you can. Glass right over the existing frame. Add whatever features you'd like, gauge pods, video, etc.

Bob

[ta2ddaddy]

I thought about that, but there’s quite a bit of foam on there. I didn’t really want to build up that much material. I did however have what i believe is an epiphany last night. Lets see if I can explain this and have it make sense. What If I make a mold (female) of the dash as it exists now(because the fit is perfect) and then pull it off, make a plug of that (male), shave it to where and what I want. Meaning I can get rid of speaker wholes and what other shapes or wholes there are. Remake a female mold that is of what I want the finished product to be and cast my final male mold off that. Once I have the male mold set, it will be the exact shape I want it to be, then I can remove the vinyl cover and begin to shave what foam I need to in order to retain that perfect fit, and use an adhere the fiber glass cap over the foam.

Don’t know if this is too many steps or if it is even possible to work in that order.

Cheers!

[prototype2]

it wont be a perfect fit if your planing to do it that way.

your best bet is to do all the chages you want on the orginal dash, make your mold after than cast your part and your done and ready for paint

[ta2ddaddy]

ok so if I make my changes to the original, and make a plug of that to get my new paintable dash, what stes shouild I use in both the original(over the original dash) and applying the newly made dash to the foam. i.e. what should I use to coat the vinyl before I put my fleece on and ressin it.