Restoring S14 Dash To OEM

[S142Fast]

What started as a project to restore my dash to OEM has now turned to a service that I am thinking of providing. I have always found the process of putting body filler on your dash and painting it as a very unsustainable way of repairing a dash. I reached out to a company to restore my dash and I got quoted 2500$ without shipping fees and a few months wait time. So I decided to try and restore it myself along with my brother that has 7+ years of experience in vinyl/ppf. I started by removing all OEM Vinyl because once the original vinyl is cracked it becomes so brittle that any pressure on it just breaks it and putting anything on top of that would just be dumb. I then re-foamed any imperfections it had, we then shot a industrial glue and wrapped it in 1 piece of high quality vinyl leather that is darker than the OEM black/charcoal dash color. This was our prototype dash we have now found better ways of improving the overall quality and will continue to improve. For anybody interested in this service I want to ask for feedback and price discussion for this type of service.


https://imgur.com/a/C3p8R5i

[sylvias-s14]

its looks very good
well done mate

[C. Anderson]

Great work! You are on to something. Sailrite has a lot of vinyl in different grain patterns and some of them appear to be nearly identical to the OEM s14 dash grain. I bought some from them a while back for a job on my 4runner.

[biasword]

can we see before pics? ive repaired and flocked my dash, i think it came out pretty decent considering how bad it was

[S142Fast]

Thanks guys, I have attached another photo to the album unfortunately i didn't get the full damage but that crack was 1 of 3 big ones it had and the far edge near vin number being gone. I'm currently in the process of restoring the famous S14 Driver Door Panel with a large hole. I am also trying to source a cracked S13 Dash to do the same thing and applying all the new tactics we have learned.

[S13SilviaGirl]

Very nice!

[slider2828]

Originally Posted by S142Fast

Thanks guys, I have attached another photo to the album unfortunately i didn't get the full damage but that crack was 1 of 3 big ones it had and the far edge near vin number being gone. I'm currently in the process of restoring the famous S14 Driver Door Panel with a large hole. I am also trying to source a cracked S13 Dash to do the same thing and applying all the new tactics we have learned.

Damn it I wish you weren't so far.... I would have totally taken advantage of this.... Maybe we get a group buy and fly you out to Norcal to get this done....

So awesome man! Great job!

[jr_ss]

I’d be curious to know the cost for this. I know Justdashes is $2600 without shipping…

[Om1kron]

Originally Posted by jr_ss

I?d be curious to know the cost for this. I know Justdashes is $2600 without shipping?

they have a big ass object vacuum thing they just put the dash in, bout as close to oem as possible. I imagine the prep works is where the cost comes in plus paying for such a thing

[Tuckedin]

Not bad at all. S14 door panel restoration would be great as well. keep us posted please.

[collegekid]

That looks nice.
For those of us that are kinda far from you (I'm in Pa), can you do some kind of writeup?

For me to ship you my dash, I'm getting quotes over $600 to ship.

[S142Fast]

I been a bit busy testing, finding and waiting on products to find what works for me to achieve the quality I want. I think I have found the best vinyl to redo a dash and door panel and I find it personally better than OEM. Sorry but there’s no way I can do a writeup as it is far to complicated to teach someone how to wrap something or work with some of this foam and vinyl. I took some pictures of the door panel that was midway wrapped but I had to unfortunately redo as it was not good enough, this was done with the new fabric. As you can see the door panel is so fragile it just shattered to pieces once I removed the vinyl this door panel only had holes, but the door panel is now reinforced and feels solid. I’m debating on reusing the same fabric from the OEM one in the center section but I still don’t know. If anybody knows where I can find some nice abstract patterns online let me know I’m limited to some fabric stores near me at the time.

https://imgur.com/a/EeVJweV

[C. Anderson]

Wow! That is great work! What foam and vinyl did you use on that door panel?

[S142Fast]

I used Capriccio Black from Sailrite and the foam I can't remember as I have around 8 foams I am not sure where that foam was ordered from but its 1/4 inch thick.

[cgtdream]

Originally Posted by S142Fast

What started as a project to restore my dash to OEM has now turned to a service that I am thinking of providing. I have always found the process of putting body filler on your dash and painting it as a very unsustainable way of repairing a dash. I reached out to a company to restore my dash and I got quoted 2500$ without shipping fees and a few months wait time. So I decided to try and restore it myself along with my brother that has 7+ years of experience in vinyl/ppf. I started by removing all OEM Vinyl because once the original vinyl is cracked it becomes so brittle that any pressure on it just breaks it and putting anything on top of that would just be dumb. I then re-foamed any imperfections it had, we then shot a industrial glue and wrapped it in 1 piece of high quality vinyl leather that is darker than the OEM black/charcoal dash color. This was our prototype dash we have now found better ways of improving the overall quality and will continue to improve. For anybody interested in this service I want to ask for feedback and price discussion for this type of service.


https://imgur.com/a/C3p8R5i

Great work! Nice to see folks are still working on keeping these vehicles looking fresh!

[schassis240]

dashes always get sunburnt so good your doing this