Dash it all!!!!

  Still hasn't warmed up outside yet to get really stuck in, so time to make a start on the dashboard and the final finish. Iv been having some ideas knocking around my brain on final finish and what i wanted as an end result and after having a play around with layout using printed gauges and switches i started putting my ideas into practise.

First thing i wanted to do was to blank off the glove box, i don't really see the point of it on a car with no roof as it will never be secure and anything that get put in would just rattle about and piss me off. So firstly removed the glove box molding off the back and set about filling it in. I did this by simply using some ridged card bonded to create a back then some skims of fibreglass bodge, not a professional way of doing things but its going to be covered so just has to give a little strength as opposed to a big void in the dash.

I also had to fix the dash into the tub, so that i can get some accurate width measurements. As the dash comes from AK it was short ether end by an inch or so and so i needed to make up some width so that the door cards line up nicely when they are fitted. AK probably make them a tad shorter to allow for padding and leather finish. I also needed to fine tune the fit around the steering column cowling. This is one of my little gripes with Cobra reps... poorly fitting round the column really gets me annoyed. So time was spent again firstly creating a paper template and then building up layers of fibreglass and cutting to shape.



All this fitting to shape is fairly tedious as its constantly trial fitting then adjusting to suit. But after getting a good all round fit it was time to start flattening down and making everything blend in nicely. This whole process takes hours but is very worthwhile as the final finish is only as good as the prep work. I found it very useful to spray the whole dash in black with a bit of left over rattle can to act as a guide coat this then showed me any high / low spots to concentrate on.

Once i was happy with all the prep work i did another quick guide coat, simply to act as a consistent colour to the dash in case i bodged any of my carbon fibre cloth i didn't want it too obvious when it was all finished. This now was not needed as i did the layering well and its a good finish, but certainly good practise for inexperienced fibreglass users.

So onto the start of the finish. I wanted a real carbon fibre finish as opposed to the vinyl affect carbon. Absolutely nothing wrong with some of the vinyl but i have never seen realistic carbon fibre with a gloss finish (which is what i wanted)

I found a local company "north east fibreglass" http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/ who stocked everything i needed and also offer a course on skinning and fibreglass layering a tad expensive i think so declined that. I took a trip over with the dash in the boot to get my stuff and ask for any advice they could offer. I'm very confident working with the material as i have done many many fibreglass projects before ranging from full ICE boot build to small Sub woofer enclosures (in my younger days)

So after setting up in the conservatory as my work area i started preparing the cloth for fitting, this involves roughly cutting to shape and making sure enough cloth is available to take all the contours of the dash. The cobra dash is originally a flat panel and the AK dash is very similar, but with a radius curved bottom edge and curved return where it meets with the transmission tunnel.

The process is to then start building up layers of epoxy resin, this is mixed with a hardener and rolled onto the cloth with a which then cures to form the cloth to the given shape of the mold or part you are covering in the cloth. This is a slow process as to get best result you need to allow the epoxy to cure short pile mini paint roller, before building up another layer, this takes 12 hours (overnight) and with a 3 coat finish this dominated a fair amount of space for a week and smells IMO great, but not to everyone taste in my house.. ops!!

Once i had built up about 3 coats of the resin and allowed all to cure it was time to start flattening down and then a gloss finish could be achieved. Its good practise to flatten down each cured coat of resin to eliminate air bubbles in the resin starting with a medium grade to a fine grade. You have to be careful after the first coat as so that you don't penetrate the resin and ruin the weave of the cloth.

The picture here shows the dash hanging from my garage after getting hours of sanding from various grades of wet n dry. After i got to this stage it was time to start getting a gloss finish, This can be achieved by ether using a cutting compound straight with the epoxy resin or in my case i used a rattle can of clear lacquer. This can be put on fairly think and when dried, a nice cutting compound to shine it all up.

arghhhh!!!

So happy for the time being with the overall finish of the dash. I like the contrast of modern alloy switches blended with sporty carbon fibre and will eventually have my classic style Smiths gauges fitted also.

What i intended to do was to get the carbon fibre finished dash and in the future if i change my mind it can always be covered in whatever fabric i decide. however i cant see that happening as although I'm not 100% happy with the finish i think it look ace!!!