Tex's Dash project... WILL IT EVAR STOP!?!?!?

[Tex Arcana]

So here begins the window and dash project...

First, a package arrived!!

And, lookie there!! A sunglasses door for the upper console! Thanks XBMS!! ldtu:

Yes, the old one broke:

So, out with the old, in with the new:

Went in like a glove. And gave me a source for some ABS sludge:

But even tho it's supposed to be ABS, it won't melt in acetone!!

So try something else... and, no luv for me, either:

But, I finded something that does work!!

Even if it's old computer parts, it works:

Chopped up nice and dumped into acetone:

Yeah, some inspiration on the tube:

 

[Tex Arcana]

And here's why I need the sludge:

.

Damn thing was busted pretty good, I'm surprised it hasn't spilled my coffee all over the ***king place:

And yes, my "fauxDremel" lives up to its cheep chinee roots :tard::

And the fix:

And the fix for the cupholder:

Some reinforcing is in order:

And yep, it's real ABS:

And while I'm at it, let's install these beauties:

Test fit:

Clean it all up:

Ugh, dirty:

 

[Tex Arcana]

Hm, this is a bit large, so I trimmed them down and installed:

A little clamping action to get the mirror frames to lay flat, thanks to some double-sided tape:

After shots:

I kinda like them, they disappear nicely against the black, and they keep the ***king rain out when I have to windows cracked--which has been a HUGE
Problem for me, because I hate leaving the windows shut during the summer.

 

[Tex Arcana]

And now, on to the REAL reason: the dash "refurb":

It started with a can of Plasti-Dip and the steering wheel surround:

Hmmm... that's lookin' GOOD... let's do some more!!

***k yeah, it looks like azz when it's wet... but when it dries...:drool::

Hell, you can see the paint imperfections under the shyt!!

And it looked solid and nice on the decent bits:

More "garage-mahal" entertainment (GP2 action):

(***k shytty ipwn pics)


So while it was all drying, I went to work on the ducts themselves, the foam seals had rotted away:

So, clean up the old shyt:

 

[Tex Arcana]

So nice of them to mark which one is which:

The advantage of working at Lowe's: 10% off on all purchases, and access to this stuff:

Cut to fit, then trim to fit... of course I got stuff that was too big, but they don't call me the "Overkill Kid" for nothing:

Even cut it and fit it in the doors:

nice and snug, much like a virgin:

Methinks it'll work.

 

[Tex Arcana]

And the other reason for this therad:

Some scraping to get ride of the loose shyt:

Taped and prepped:

Hold yer horses, kiddos!! I'm not gonna PlastiDip this shyt! Originally, I was going to do something akin to what Ferrari did to their mid-late-90's cars,

which was fabric-covered dash panels. And I went to JoAnn's Fabrics to find some... and was striking out; OTOH, I saw some nice faux-suede that
looked and felt good, and if I had found some dark charcoal grey stuff, I'd've bought it. But the ghods were not smiling on that project idea... instead,
they tripped me with this:

Yeah, naugahyde. It's a nice matte charcoal color, and has about the same leather pattern the steering surround piece has.

So, get the wrinkles out:

Gotta keep it smooth... what to do...?

HAH! Roll it up on an old closet rod!!

Gotta watch the Dallas Tampons play the J - E - T - S Jets Jets JETS!!

Spray the dash and upholstery with heavy-duty spray glue, and go to town:

Smmmoooth... and a fan or two to keep the Tex cool:

mostly done, and looking damn good, IfEyeDoSaySoMyself:

Edges folded:

Yes, looking CLEAN!!

***k, yeah!!

Radio surround on the panel, to check looks... I think it works:

Let's not forget the power point door:

Test fit on the back side:

 

[Tex Arcana]

And the other reason for this therad:

Some scraping to get ride of the loose shyt:

Taped and prepped:

Hold yer horses, kiddos!! I'm not gonna PlastiDip this shyt! Originally, I was going to do something akin to what Ferrari did to their mid-late-90's cars,

which was fabric-covered dash panels. And I went to JoAnn's Fabrics to find some... and was striking out; OTOH, I saw some nice faux-suede that
looked and felt good, and if I had found some dark charcoal grey stuff, I'd've bought it. But the ghods were not smiling on that project idea... instead,
they tripped me with this:

Yeah, naugahyde. It's a nice matte charcoal color, and has about the same leather pattern the steering surround piece has.

So, get the wrinkles out:

Gotta keep it smooth... what to do...?

HAH! Roll it up on an old closet rod!!

Gotta watch the Dallas Tampons play the J - E - T - S Jets Jets JETS!!

Spray the dash and upholstery with heavy-duty spray glue, and go to town:

Smmmoooth... and a fan or two to keep the Tex cool:

mostly done, and looking damn good, IfEyeDoSaySoMyself:

Edges folded:

Yes, looking CLEAN!!

***k, yeah!!

Radio surround on the panel, to check looks... I think it works:

Let's not forget the power point door:

Test fit on the back side:

 

[Tex Arcana]

Cool thing about PlastiDip: if it gets ***ked up (and I'm sure some of you caught the closeup pic earlier), just peel and start over!!

Looking at the dash panel, I wasn't all that happy with the portion below the radio surround, or how it trimmed around the power point door:

So... OFF WITH IT'S HEAD--I mean, UPHOLSTERY!!

Yuk... that spray shyt is nasty, that's the real cause for the lumpiness, I had to reposition it a couple times, and it just globbed up under there.


So, ***k the spray glue, get some Weldwood contact cement, and do it RIGHT:

Goes on... lahk BUUTTAAHH!

Smoooooth...

Even the seams were tight:

 

[Tex Arcana]

Correctly cutting the edges so they'll lay flat:

CORRECTLY cutting the power point hole, so I have enough material to fold over smoothly:

The hole from the backside, with enough material to work with:

Ah, yes: the spudger tool, basically a popsicle stick with the edges smoothed, to fold the edges tightly:

Folding@Tex:

And how's it's SUPPOSED to look:

Another test fit:

The door is ready to go:

The door in place:

Looking awesome!

A test fit in the dash showed it's all going to fit properly, with no real issues.

 

[Tex Arcana]

Of course, we're in the slowest part of any project like this: all the itty-bitty details that need buttoning up (the edges of the panels, etc), that seem to

take the longest. :-/



So, in test fitting the dash and power point door, I found out that my MediaLink bit won't fit where I wanted it (under the power points, where it's been

sitting the last few months):

This is the USB/AV plug-in unit for the radio, another reason I chose the thing.

When test-fitting the radio surround and ducts, I found out that the left-side duct has a nice area beneath it, corresponding with where the airbag defeat

switch for the passenger side seat sits on the right side... so, hmmmm... let's put it there!! Break out the fauxDremel, and get to cutting!

Coming thru the front... uh, oh: forgot that I've got the piece PlastiDipped:

So, peel that shyt off!

Cut done!

Uh oh... I cut it too big. ***k me! Luckily, I've got ABS sludge to the rescue!!

Hmmm... should I do it this way... or fill it and start over??

***k it: start over.

More blood'n'guts for the project!

Mmmmm, sluuudge:

While we're waiting for the slude to set, let's reinforce the cupholder some more:

While working with the steering wheel piece, I found the rubber gasket had a small tear... so fix it with super glue and PlastiDip!!

Hmmmm.... I need to upholster the cupholder, too:

That'll be in a bit.

 

[Tex Arcana]

The ABS is set, and ready to be sanded:

Nice... but the relief needs cleaning up:

Good thing I got that nice TaskFarce jeweler's file set for $2 from the (b)Lowe's!!!

Nice and clean now:

And smoothed cleanly:

Liitle problem, tho, the damned stuff is holey. I've tried filling them with more sludge, in various states of thickness and thinness, and it's still sets up

with bubbles in the stuff. I guess I'll ahve to do what a buddy suggested, and get some Bondo and put a skim coat on it. :meh:

 

[Tex Arcana]

Okay, back to the MediaLink:

Here's a possibility:

Or, should I take it out, and put just the connectors in??

Discussing it with K0ll, I decided to ditch the front panel of the link, and just let the connectors show thru. I still ahve to use the enclosure to mount it,

but it'll mount nicely under the duct, with a couple-three screws to secure it, without interfering with the operation of the door:

So, start chopping here:

fauxDremel to the rescue:

and, front panel gone:

test fit:

.

Yeah, that's gonna work...

 

[Tex Arcana]

Hmm, gonna need a shim:

(b)Lowe's to the rescue!!

This is what happens when you get old, kiddies: you need a ***king magnifier!!

At least a nice 75W-equiv. CLF fits:

Base plate trimmed to fit, with shim in place. Stuck it there with DS tape.

I pulled the connect cable, and desoldered the ground wire FGJ, and ease of assembly:

Another ttest fit, looks good:

Now some blue tape, so I can mark the holes:

Faux-Dremel again, cutting inside the lines this time:

cant' find my ***king reamer, so a spade bit to the rescue:

Test fit:

Looks good. Now to tweak it for perfection... but along the way, find I got the hole for the USB a bit big and out of position--so, ABS sludge again!

 

[Tex Arcana]

And while the sludge dries, working on the defrost port on the driver's side of the dash... I wasnt' sure exactly how to proceed. See how the port's
covered on the left side?

So let's try some trimming and fitting material inside it...

So far... eh, but better than nothing. Edges folded under:

So I kept messing with it, tucking the edges down, gluing them, cutting the stuff I put in to make it lay tight, and this is the result:

I'm not real happy with it, but it's better than nothing. Altho, I'm thinking seriously of cutting that end off and trying over... anyone have any ideas or suggestions??

 

[Tex Arcana]

So while we're thinking, I started upholstering the cupholder unit, starting with sanding it, cleaning it with acetone and alcohol, then coating it generously

with contact cement, as well as the material piece:

And covered:

The edges are tight:

Well, mostly:

Anyone have any suggestions on how to finish these kinds of corners off?? I'm lost here... I've never done this shyt before!!

This is clean here:

This not so much:

So, moving on... sanding the cupholder down, cleaning up the repaired parts:

And to our old friend PlastiDip, who coats all the hard plastic parts (and the edges of the upholstery, too) to a nice sheen:

 

[Tex Arcana]

Which brings us up to today. I've been doing all thing in between fixing the front yard, sprinklers, prepping the house for sale--yes, we're downsizing
again!! And shedding about 600lbs of dead weight to boot... :devious: We had an estate sale this weekend (didn't go as well as expected--DAMN
YOU TEXAS-OU!!), and I busted an irrigation line that I had to dig out and fix. Not to mention painting the front and back doors, touch up paint
throughout the house, fixing the fence, and trying to get some ***king grass to grow in the front yard... I think I have a whole section that can't grow
nothing but rocks!! Oh, and let's not forget watching the ALDS, ALCS, Formula One, and the Bathurst 1000... But I can do some of that

on the TV in the garage.


Holy shyt, what a project!! I'll get more pics as I move along and update the thread... I'm close I think.

Oh, no more 8-ball:

:bigtu:

 

[Tex Arcana]

Okay, more action:

Nice rainy day, no beisbol thanks to the rain , so put on Bathurst 1000 for eye candy (watching Darrell Waltrip shyt himself on a ride-along lap was ***king PRICELESS!!:lol--I wanted to watch the Suzuka GP, but the rain the night before ***ked up the recording.

Walk out to the garage, to this sight:

Yeah, that's the cupholder... I think that's a nice place to start!

But first, gotta have some food! Nom, nom...

Mmm, sssllluuuddge:

The cupholder, sans blue tape, ready to go in:

Damn, I do lurves that thar dere PlastiDip!! It do look so SSSMMMOOOOOTH!!!

And the upholstery bit looks good, too:

It's not without it's rough edges, tho:

I managed to get them folded and stuck down with superglue, and blacked out with a marker; but, I can't figure out how to make it truly disappear. These bits aren't obvious or noticeable, but there are lots of others elsewhere that are more visible, and I can't figure out how to hide them! . Suggestions welcome!


Trial fit:

Yay! Went right in... then wouldn't latch!! :angst: I fiddled with it awhile; then figured out what the problem was:

I sludged in under the eject springs. As can be seen here:

That little convoluted area at the top is the guide path for the latch mechanism--a little wire in the dash that flops left-right, and follows that guide to lock it into the dash. OMGWith the sludge under the springs, they don't fold flat against the back of the cupholder frame, and keep the latch wire from engaging fully inside the guide. OMGSo, I had to clear the sludge, clean up around the springs so they moved smoothly, and the drawer went in fully, and latched. No pics, but I got it.

Shot this morning on my way to work:

***k yeah. :bigtu:

 

[Tex Arcana]

A few days later...
So, little problem with the cupholder:

Well, hell. I guess I gotta fix it.

Why ***k around, when you can use this??

A little under the edges, and some pressure til it sets, and voila! Repaired!

I think that'll do it:

So, while that's setting, I turn to the radio panel, and find this:

WHAT THE ***K!!!11!!1!??

Dammit... One step forward, two back. Just the way these projects go.

So, fill and fix:

Hmmm... A low spot to one side of the USB port, and the hole isn't quite right. Shyt, fill and fix again:

At least I had some nice inspiration to work with:

I had already primed the front and back doors on the house, and likely will paint them tomorrow; and with Game 1 of the World Series starting, I doubt I'll get back out there tomorrow night. It'll be Friday, if I'm lucky, before I can do any more.

 

[voodoocustoms]

Sir, that looks good, and I am just going to guess that you may have been an mobile installer in a former life. I see a lot of my old tricks being used for good here.

Bean

 

[Tex Arcana]

Sir, that looks good, and I am just going to guess that you may have been an mobile installer in a former life. I see a lot of my old tricks being used for good here.

Bean

:beer: thank you...

And, no: never been a professional anything, just a shadetree duffer. I've done a few (mmmm.... 4?) car stereo installs, but with the advent of new(er) cars in my life, pretty much ended the need for standing on my head trying to wedge a Supertuner into place.:rolling: and I've NEVER done any sort of upholstery work in my life, either, so the success with the dash panel is a definite surprise--I was fully prepared for a fail, and a shot with the PlastiDip can. :idea:

What trick are you seeing? Remember I've grown up in an automotive sound/trim vacuum bottle, so I'm guessing here. And ANY suggestions are always welcome!! :thumbsup:

Since you're an (ex)installer, please check out my other thread, and weigh in, I'll take any suggestions.