I knew from the beginning of this project that I would be doing some form of a custom fibreglass dashboard. Because the custom work will take a substantial amount of time (during the cold of winter which will extend cure times too), I've split the overall task into parts - Upper dashboard, main/central dashboard, lower dashboard and centre console.
The upper dash/crash pad in my Mini was suffering by the common problem of cracking in the vinyl/foam and given that a new vacuum-molded and re-upholstered one was $600, it was an easy decision to go custom.
I removed the foam/vinyl cover that was glued to the pressed steel core and chose to take a mold of the upper dash pad and reproduce that in fibreglass. The bare steel piece was sanded, waxed and release agent applied prior to applying the cloth and resin. At the same time, I had also made a mold of the Starlet dash clock (the small piece purple coloured piece on the bench in the photo below)
A few thick layers of fibreglass were laid to make the dash mold
A small piece was also made for the Toyota Starlet clock
I made a copy of the mounting brackets that were on the original Mini dash piece
These pieces were bolted to dash frame in the car...
and the fibreglass dash (taken from the fabricated mold) placed on top with a small amount of epoxy glue on top of the brackets.
Once the epoxy was cured, a few layers of fibreglass were laid over the "wings" of these brackets to fix them in place.
Because the original vinyl dash cover (cracked, removed) was molded to fit the shape of the plastic demister vents, I also had to replicate these pieces for the new dash. This was a quick job to make a pair of these which were then trimmed and glassed into the main dash piece.
The centre of the new fibreglass dash piece was cut out and modified to retrofit the Starlet clock piece into it, as well as the vent pieces
The final few tasks was to put another couple of layers of fibreglass on the back of the dash to thicken and strengthen everything. I then mixed up a small batch of resin and phenolic microbaloons and applied it over the surface of the dash (just like body filler, except far easier to sand) in areas which had surface imperfections. This was then sanded, all the edges trimmed to clean everything up. I had to repeat the application of resin/microballoons mixture a few times to find and fill all the major problems.
A light coat of primer was painted on the dash piece which revealed quite a few small pinholes and surface inconsistencies but these will be addressed at a later date when it's painted with primer/filler and then painted black.
The upper dash/crash pad in my Mini was suffering by the common problem of cracking in the vinyl/foam and given that a new vacuum-molded and re-upholstered one was $600, it was an easy decision to go custom.
I removed the foam/vinyl cover that was glued to the pressed steel core and chose to take a mold of the upper dash pad and reproduce that in fibreglass. The bare steel piece was sanded, waxed and release agent applied prior to applying the cloth and resin. At the same time, I had also made a mold of the Starlet dash clock (the small piece purple coloured piece on the bench in the photo below)
A few thick layers of fibreglass were laid to make the dash mold
A small piece was also made for the Toyota Starlet clock
I made a copy of the mounting brackets that were on the original Mini dash piece
These pieces were bolted to dash frame in the car...
and the fibreglass dash (taken from the fabricated mold) placed on top with a small amount of epoxy glue on top of the brackets.
Once the epoxy was cured, a few layers of fibreglass were laid over the "wings" of these brackets to fix them in place.
Because the original vinyl dash cover (cracked, removed) was molded to fit the shape of the plastic demister vents, I also had to replicate these pieces for the new dash. This was a quick job to make a pair of these which were then trimmed and glassed into the main dash piece.
The centre of the new fibreglass dash piece was cut out and modified to retrofit the Starlet clock piece into it, as well as the vent pieces
The final few tasks was to put another couple of layers of fibreglass on the back of the dash to thicken and strengthen everything. I then mixed up a small batch of resin and phenolic microbaloons and applied it over the surface of the dash (just like body filler, except far easier to sand) in areas which had surface imperfections. This was then sanded, all the edges trimmed to clean everything up. I had to repeat the application of resin/microballoons mixture a few times to find and fill all the major problems.
A light coat of primer was painted on the dash piece which revealed quite a few small pinholes and surface inconsistencies but these will be addressed at a later date when it's painted with primer/filler and then painted black.
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