[Proficio]

Well I guess my luck had to fail me eventually. So far Ive spent about 50 bux and been able to refinish almost everything in my interior...........until the dash. I started with a vinyl/leather repair kit from walmart(6 bux). I filled a bunch of small hairline cracks and one large/deep crack with the included filler. Then I sanded it all down with a orbital sander. Next I used the vinyl paste and heat tool to match the pattern. All was well. Then I attempted to refinish using the same duplicolor leather/vinyl dye as before on the rest of the interior. The results were very splotchy. It looks like the duplicolor dye is great on leather but not so hot on vinyl, especially sunbaked vinyl like the dash. I'll be headed to the paint/body shop tommorrow to get some professional dye to try again.

Before:

After Filler:

Vinyl Pasting and Pattern Matching:

After 3 Coats of Dye:

Another:

Good news is the crack repair kit seemed to work well..............

 

[a70]

looks good. Color matching that shit is hard.

 

[AGlobalThreat]

What did you use to repair the crack? I have a huge one.

 

[Proficio]

What did you use to repair the crack? I have a huge one.

A repair kit from walmart, I would only recommend it if you are spraying the whole dash. It does come with several colors to mix so it would be possible to match your dash color.............difficult, but possible

 

[sportinct26]

but how did you repair those cracks at the defroster thing?

did you use the same thing?

i couldnt really tell if its fix or not since its black...

 

[SupraMkiii24]

looks awesome, hope the professional dye yields the results you want. Great fix thou.

 

[Proficio]

but how did you repair those cracks at the defroster thing?

did you use the same thing?

i couldnt really tell if its fix or not since its black...

I didn't do anything with those. I really didn't notice them until I got the dash out of the car anyways. Plus the black really hides them.............

 

[Larry_A]

Your project throws me back to the '75 Celica I color changed the interior on....white to black in a burgandy body. Some of my pieces came out splotchy like your dash, but additional coats helped some, but I didn't have repairs to hide, luckily. Doing the headliner made my fingers sore from holding down the spray button so much, LOL. Even back in '80, the vinyl coatings worked great, so I bet current-day stuff rocks.

Anyway, my hat's off to anybody willing to go to that effort- if you haven't done it, you can't begin to imagine the work it takes. Show us done pics!

Take care.

 

[89supraX]

yeah deffinatley post pics of it when you get it back in the car.

oh and good job too.

 

[supra92]

removing the main dash panel

Proficio, do you have step-by-step instructions that you used to remove the main dash piece that you show dyed in your post? That is the intimidating part of doing an interior dye job...

Cheers,
bca

 

[Superjustin13]

That looks Great man, Good idea, !!!

 

[AGlobalThreat]

Re: removing the main dash panel

Proficio, do you have step-by-step instructions that you used to remove the main dash piece that you show dyed in your post? That is the intimidating part of doing an interior dye job...

Cheers,
bca

Bust out a search. I'm positive there is one about this, I've read it before.

Yea I'm gonna be coloring mine so the color of the repair won't matter, thanks a lot man. Lazy me, I was just gonna go out and buy a new dash.

 

[Justin727]

WOW PROPS ON THE CRACK REPAIR! good news for others here! i myself keep a shade thing when its out in the window! but the dye man that has to be insult to injury! hope u can get it fixed but mad props on the crack repair!

 

[Proficio]

Picked up some Dupont Vinyl Paint today, had it custom mixed in some black color I found on the chart, Satin Black Something or another. Its supposed to be flawless if applied correctly. Will update on friday once the dash is resprayed.

 

[supra92]

Definitely keep us posted --- I currently have a bottle of the SEM Vinyl Dye that i got several years ago, but haven't had the cajones or time to start the actual dye process. I'll be interested to know how your Dupont stuff works.

And agreed with the earlier advice on busting out a search on how to remove the main dash --- been off the SOGI list and supraforums for too long, i'm forgetting the age-old unwritten rules