Possible Dash Pad repair material
Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 3:52 pm
Hi All, Just wanted to let everyone know that I may have found a suitable option to repair cracked and busted dash pads on our cars. I have no affiliation with the distributor of the product, but I found this material pretty impressive and I am very picky about these things. The material is called Whisper Vinyl. I learned about the product on some custom audio forums, and what they seemed to say was that it was easy to use, conformed to odd shapes, and had the apperance and feel of real leather. And it was very cheap, about 19 bucks per yard. My Elan dash was not terrible, but did have cracks and was a bit fragile and brittle to the touch. So I bought a fiberglass replacement from Sue Miller and while it was better than what I had, it just didn't look right. I did say I was pretty picky about these things. But without any other options, it is what it was. So when I learned about this material I decided to give it a try and bought 2 yards.
When I recieved the roll of material, it was a lot, enough for more than two dashes and then some but needed the two yards for the length of the dash. And since I was not ready to recover the dash in the car I decided to practice on another part. Recently I came across a 1970 GT6 Triumph project car, please don't ask me why I bought it, but I did, and started to sort out all the boxes of parts to see what I needed. It had an ABS hinge cover that was busted to bits and broken in half. I found most of the big pieces, but many of the smaller bits was lost. Unfortunately, this is one of those Unobtainable parts for the car. So I carefully glued all the bits I had together with crazy glue and then reinforced it with epoxy. I taped over the missing bits, using it as a mould and layed up epoxy behind it to bridge the missing pieces. While it came out pretty well in terms of finally having a solid part and it was straight and complete, it looked horrible and a coat of interior paint would not have worked. So this was going to be my test bed. The part had two humps on either side to cover the hinges for the rear hatch that I was almost certain that the vinyl was not going to conform to, and if it did it would certainly lift, but it would be a good test.
I decided to tackle the center section first as it was flat and easy to do. I used the best 3M Yellow spray adhesive I could find (20 bucks a can) and sprayed the center of the part and corresonding back of the vinyl. Waited 5 minutes and started to stretch the vinyl over the middle section. It laid on perfectly as I assumed it would. Massaging down the vinyl around the dome light protrusion, it immediately fell into position and contoured perfectly.
Now the hard part, I peeled back the non glued vinyl and part from both ends, working on one side at a time. Sprayed the adhesive, waited 5 minutes, and started to stretch the vinyl around the hump, applying and then peeling off and re applying the vinyl to work out all the wrinkles and bumps. I did use a hair dryer to help out a bit, but very sparingly. The vinyl tended to want to conform on it's own. After slicing some darts around the hinge opening and the corners where it curls under the part, the vinyl finally settled down and smoothed out. But I have to say, I did stretch the hell out the vinyl and it did want to lift up several times where the humps turn up at 90 degrees, but I continued to press it down and massage it into place and applied a bit of heat with the hair dryer. After a few minutes, it stayed on it's own.
I was very happy and impressed with the outcome, I put the part in the direct sunlight for a day and it was hot and humid, in the 90's, and the vinyl did not lift. The claims that it was close to leather was true, the feel and texture is not like vinyl, but closer to the inetrior of my Cayman S, not shiney, rather just the right amount of dull. I may attempt to wrap my fiberglass dash before I leave for overseas again, but will definetly get to it and perhaps the real dash when I get back in November. Very happy with this product. Good luck with your projects and I hope this had been helpful, Allan
When I recieved the roll of material, it was a lot, enough for more than two dashes and then some but needed the two yards for the length of the dash. And since I was not ready to recover the dash in the car I decided to practice on another part. Recently I came across a 1970 GT6 Triumph project car, please don't ask me why I bought it, but I did, and started to sort out all the boxes of parts to see what I needed. It had an ABS hinge cover that was busted to bits and broken in half. I found most of the big pieces, but many of the smaller bits was lost. Unfortunately, this is one of those Unobtainable parts for the car. So I carefully glued all the bits I had together with crazy glue and then reinforced it with epoxy. I taped over the missing bits, using it as a mould and layed up epoxy behind it to bridge the missing pieces. While it came out pretty well in terms of finally having a solid part and it was straight and complete, it looked horrible and a coat of interior paint would not have worked. So this was going to be my test bed. The part had two humps on either side to cover the hinges for the rear hatch that I was almost certain that the vinyl was not going to conform to, and if it did it would certainly lift, but it would be a good test.
I decided to tackle the center section first as it was flat and easy to do. I used the best 3M Yellow spray adhesive I could find (20 bucks a can) and sprayed the center of the part and corresonding back of the vinyl. Waited 5 minutes and started to stretch the vinyl over the middle section. It laid on perfectly as I assumed it would. Massaging down the vinyl around the dome light protrusion, it immediately fell into position and contoured perfectly.
Now the hard part, I peeled back the non glued vinyl and part from both ends, working on one side at a time. Sprayed the adhesive, waited 5 minutes, and started to stretch the vinyl around the hump, applying and then peeling off and re applying the vinyl to work out all the wrinkles and bumps. I did use a hair dryer to help out a bit, but very sparingly. The vinyl tended to want to conform on it's own. After slicing some darts around the hinge opening and the corners where it curls under the part, the vinyl finally settled down and smoothed out. But I have to say, I did stretch the hell out the vinyl and it did want to lift up several times where the humps turn up at 90 degrees, but I continued to press it down and massage it into place and applied a bit of heat with the hair dryer. After a few minutes, it stayed on it's own.
I was very happy and impressed with the outcome, I put the part in the direct sunlight for a day and it was hot and humid, in the 90's, and the vinyl did not lift. The claims that it was close to leather was true, the feel and texture is not like vinyl, but closer to the inetrior of my Cayman S, not shiney, rather just the right amount of dull. I may attempt to wrap my fiberglass dash before I leave for overseas again, but will definetly get to it and perhaps the real dash when I get back in November. Very happy with this product. Good luck with your projects and I hope this had been helpful, Allan