remember my old car?

I know I could do it myself, I have the skills and most of the tools or access to the tools, but I have issues that prevent me from doing things like that and having them turn out not looking like crap.

The sad thing is it's something I want but know I wouldn't be able to afford for awhile... so my thinking is if I help get it produced maybe when I can afford it, there will be 1 up for sale.

You can have all the fab skill in the world but if you can't keep your hands steady everything looks like a donkey at the end.

 

I just got a quote a few weeks ago for $450 plus shipping from justdashes.com. Just the stock dash pad, in black. Add $150 for a colour.

I asked them if they would be interedted in entertaining a group buy. They were not.

 

If all the tooling and crap is already available group buys just eat into the profit margins.

 

They don't use tooling, they repair what you have (by hand) then vacuum form a new cover to it.
Paul, don't forget shipping...I was already to send a dash pad to them, but they didn't seem too interested in matching the color I wanted, so we just repaired one ourselves, and painted it to match the rest of the interior.

 

Hmm then they are just totally ripping people off. If they truly hand carving the foam for the dashpad and then vacuum forming vinyl over it...

Do-able in your backyard for pretty cheap. Vacuum forming vinyl is super easy. If you can get your hands on a broken clothes dryer that doesn't spin but still heats up you can make a home vacuum former for VERY cheap. Or an old electric oven. Super easy.

 

You'd need a pretty big oven for a piece big enough to do a dash pad.

 

This is going to be a VERY off topic post now.

You buy the oven (or dryer) remove the heater elements and the heat controllers then you mount them over a custom box. Take a peg-board and tape off all of the holes except in your specific work area. Then you hook a shop vac up to the box. And voila home vacuum former. Typically for less than $100.

I used to do a lot of vacuum molding when I was into miniature table top gaming... also learned a lot when my dad owned a plastic packaging company. Vacuum forming is about the easiest and laziest way to make something. Especially since if you are patient enough you can do it with a pair of hair dryers and a hoover.

I used to have a 20'x20' foot table top that was covered in mountains lakes rivers... my biggest piece was an 8 foot long canyon that was 2 feet deep and had a hole cut in the table for it. I did it all on a homemade vacuum molder.
Like I said earlier in this thread, I have the fab skills to make a custom dash like that.. but factors prevent me from being able to do that work myself.


Thinking about the dash design, they must have some specialized tooling. At the very least a custom vacuum buck to set the dash on. They way it sucks the vinyl around the bottom means there is definitely custom tooling in the process.

If you really want some insights on how this could be done at home on the cheap in your backyard... PM me.

 

Love the upholstery!

 

Well, that car got ruined.

 

well if anything it has the motor/head/manifold i always wanted in the car. but i loved original paint.

 

JC Whitney makes a dash cover for the maverick. I have seen one and it looked ok. It is hard plastic but would probably worki good for the gauge cluster project. They just snap onto or glue over the old dash pad.

 

Very nicely done! Lots of modifications but to crazy. I like it