How to cover a dash with Vinyl

[cameron02]

I'm about to cover my dash with vinyl. Before I do I thought I'd ask for tips.

I'm interested to know if I should heat and stretch the vinyl, tacking and glueing the vinyl to the rear of the dash.....or should I put glue on the front of the dash and simply stick it on?

[Dwight]

I spray the dash with glue. Wait till the glue tacks up. Then I start laying the vinyl in the middle, working the air bubbles out to the edges. You spray a little glue on a bad spot so you can move the vinyl. I wait 15 - 20 minutes to make sure there are no air bubbles. Then I trim all but 1" off and then I spray glue around the edge (about 1" wide) of the backside of the dash and extra vinyl. Wait till it dry's a little. Then roll the vinyl (about 1")over and clip it down with a lot of cloth pins. With tacked up glue on both you cannot slide it aroung. Where you place it, it sticks but you can pull it off and re-glue it. If the glue is wet you can move the vinyl around but you have to wait till it dry's to see that it is where you want it with no bubbles.

Dwight

this is the only picture I could find with cloth pins. I use a lot of them to hold the vinyl in place till it drys.

[Rick162]

My experience is not to use a pad just use contact cement on backside of the "leather" (not a big cost upgrade from vinyl) with thin coat so that the back side is "wet" but not too thick. and do the same on the dash panel. Lay the leather on a flat surface and apply the cement to the backside with a clean paint brushand let cement soak in and sit a 20-30 min for the cement to heat up then drop the dash panel onto the backside of the leather and press flat making sure there are no air bubbles. Wait to cure...... then.... cut the holes

[427 S/O]

Like Rick said, why not leather?, some guy on ebay sells hides and most upholstery shops have hides. Not as expensive as you might think. I bought three hides, enough for seats, map pockets, dash, shifter boot and door hinge covers. Upholstery shop recommended brush on contact cement, works great.

On the holes, I cut them about 3/32 larger to accommodate the leather which was folded in the holes and glued on the back side. I thought the leather might shrink over time?.

[cameron02]

Thanks guys,
I thought leather was about 8 times the price of vinyl. Maybe I just went to the wrong place. A bit late now as the seats and door skins are already in vinyl and cloth.

The whole process sounds a lot easier than I thought it would be......which always worries me

[cameron02]

Hey Dwight,

Interesting that you call them Cloth Pins. We call them Clothes Pegs over here.

[Clois Harlan]

We call them Clothers Pins down here!

But they work quite well for all sorts of things, including what they were intended to be used as!

Clois

[427 S/O]

When I got the american flyer for Christmas, the first thing I did was grab one of my mothers clothes pins and used it to hold a balloon on my front forks. Sounds just like a motor.

[tkb289]

Originally Posted by 427 S/O

When I got the american flyer for Christmas, the first thing I did was grab one of my mothers clothes pins and used it to hold a balloon on my front forks. Sounds just like a motor.

Used to do the same thing, but with a playing card attached to the font forks with a clothes pin and jammed into the spokes. Went though a lot of cards that way ... sounds great


- Tim

[427 S/O]

That's right!, clean forgot I used playing cards too. Thanks for the reminder....