easy fiberglass dash

holy crap... dude... your corolla is probobly the first corolla i have seen that is from the early 90's look good :O

easy fiberglass dash

is it possible to get the fiberglass "look" by applying a real thin line of bondo to the soft vinyl of your dash and accent pieces then prepping,painting and wetsanding etc or will it crack, remember a THIN layer

hmmmm, well not sure what dashes are made out of. But if there is a way to peal it off you can buy this sticky fiberglass or carbon fiber stuff to replace it with. I have a cracked dash and don't want to put old man river carpet on the dash

My only suggestion is, don't do it. If you don't have any experience at this kind of stuff there is a good chance you will destroy a dash. But if you serously want to do it, my best advice is to use resin and mat as your first layer. Then smooth it out and apply a layer of kitty hair, its a bondo/fiberglass mix. Then come back over that will a layer of bondo and sand it down really smooth. Take and apply a few good layers of primer and wet sand it all down really smooth and apply your color and clear. I almost forgot take a drill and drill some small holes in your dash so the fiberglass will have something extra to adhear to. Overall the bondo thing is a BAD idea, it will probably start to peel off after a month or so.

Agreed, don't do just bondo. It will just crack and ruin the dash.

you can get carbon fiber online. you apply it similar to fiberglass, but it's difficult because you have to make sure you don't mess up the weave pattern when maying it down.

Its very easy to screw up the weave in the CF .. if u stretch it too much its messed up.. you have to use a soft bristle brush when you're applying the resin and you have to be real careful.. but a full CF dash would look hot

Early 90's....?

Use a couple of layers of fiberglass matt on the dash first. Once it's dry, apply bondo to help smooth it out. There will be a lot of sanding involved, so be prepared. Also, use good bondo and not the cheap stuff. Ask around at a body shop for recommendations if need be. Also, don't do this unless it's warm enough out for the fiberglass and bondo to cure.

do it right, pull out the dash, support it correctly, make a mold, and do it CARBON FIBER.. it'll take about the same amount of time, look 100X better, and cost just a bit more.

vamp u done this b4?

No, but I've hung out in shops and watched them layout an entire dash in carbon fiber before.

how hard is it to actually get carbon fiber material and whats the adhesion process?

carbon fiber comes in sheets? i wouldnt think it comes in liquid form since it has a weave pattern

The CF is in sheets.. the resin is the liquid chemical that you lay on top of the sheets .. it drys in like 30 minutes ..

dont you put sumthin under the CF for it to stick? if not how would it contour to curved areas?

what year is it? oops... is that a 2000? X_X blargy i always never get the years right...

its a 93

Like Prodigy said.... it's a 93. Which is early 90's, but the corolla had that body style until 97.

yah 93, thanks for the comment

so i was right... Make me feel all bad X_X

I found a site the other night where you can buy a pre-made fiberglass dash. I'll have to get it for you tonite, currently Im at work and don't have access to my favorites. PM me if you are interested.

if you can just post up the links that would be great!

To answer your question-- NO. Not possible because the thin layer of 'glass will crack. This is UNLESS you saturate a thin layer of fiberglass cloth / fleece underneath the fiberglass resin.

If you want a 'glassed look without fabricating the whole dash itself, you can sand the plastic dash with 80 grit Sandpaper, prep it with adhesive promoter, THEN automotive primer, Wet Sand with 300 all the way to 500 grit, then apply Polyeurethane high gloss paint.. apply three thin layers (allowing some time to dry before the next coat) then apply clear coat, then Glazing compound. Remember, there's no going back to the OEM dash once you do this... and this is a lot of work.

PS- watch for humidity/room temp, unless you want orange peel

u did it?

Here is the link, sorry its been hectic lately.
http://www.stylinconcepts.com/parts...=1105&brandid=0

WTF? Universal fit on a dash? Thats like saying a roll of fiberglass and a gallon of resin is universal