Whitaker717 Posted September 16, 2023 Share Posted September 16, 2023 I just finished up semi refinishing my dash. I say semi because I am not a body guy and it’s not perfect. It did turn out great though. I am having the heater core and evap coil replaced so I thought I would try to fix some cracks while it’s out and truck is in the shop. Started with my dremel and slowly drilled out all the cracks I had. My biggest problem with that was my depth consistency. Some places I went a bit too deep I feel. Once I got that where I wanted it, it was time to start layering bondo. After quite a few layers, sanding with an 80 grit in between it was finally getting pretty smooth again. I finally got it all filled and sanded to my liking. I did have a few bondo pit holes I just couldn’t get rid of. Albeit small. After that I lightly sanded the entire dash and sides to help primer adhere a bit better. I primed it and let it sit for a few hours. Came back a few hours later and painted my first coat of SEM Palamino paint. As you can see from the pictures it is a bit lighter than I really wanted. I could have probably used the camel color in my truck. A couple coats later and I was all done. I went ahead and painted inside the storage area by the glovebox too. I was also able to paint my vent trim piece, my kick plates, and the dash valance or whatever it is called, and the glovebox. At least it will all match. I will probably do the pillar pieces too when I get it back. Any questions just ask. It was pretty time consuming but no more cracks. Hopefully the paint holds up for a few years anyway. The last picture shows the color difference of what mine looked like to the Palomino color. Hope that helps. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitaker717 Posted September 16, 2023 Author Share Posted September 16, 2023 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvagedcircuit Posted September 17, 2023 Share Posted September 17, 2023 Nice work! Definitely bookmarking this for future use Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitaker717 Posted September 18, 2023 Author Share Posted September 18, 2023 22 hours ago, Salvagedcircuit said: Nice work! Definitely bookmarking this for future use Thank you! It turned out pretty well for a guy who has never done something like that before. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnQ Posted September 18, 2023 Share Posted September 18, 2023 Looks good. I'm getting ready to tackle mine soon. Would love to find a nice crack free one, but no luck yet. Did you just use regular Bondo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitaker717 Posted September 18, 2023 Author Share Posted September 18, 2023 3 hours ago, JohnQ said: Looks good. I'm getting ready to tackle mine soon. Would love to find a nice crack free one, but no luck yet. Did you just use regular Bondo? I did. Just the bondo step 2 I believe. I had some spots that just kept cracking when I was routering it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drahcir495 Posted September 26, 2023 Share Posted September 26, 2023 Excellent - now I can try it on another dash I have. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldSch88L Posted October 1, 2023 Share Posted October 1, 2023 Great work sir!!! I'm keeping my old dash just to practice doing that eventually. I was planning to use urethane expanding foam to fill the cracks in the padding, but I need to find one with the right "squishiness"; I once saw one that was a dark gray and was softer once dry than the regular yellow stuff, I just have to find out which brand it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted October 24, 2023 Share Posted October 24, 2023 On 10/2/2023 at 2:10 AM, OldSch88L said: Great work sir!!! I'm keeping my old dash just to practice doing that eventually. I was planning to use urethane expanding foam to fill the cracks in the padding, but I need to find one with the right "squishiness"; I once saw one that was a dark gray and was softer once dry than the regular yellow stuff, I just have to find out which brand it was. This stuff was about the right consistency for the dash foam: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/v000213391/ To the OP: Looks nice! Never seen one done in bondo before but we used plenty of bondo while making custom sub enclosures so don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Let us know how it holds up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manche757 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 On 9/16/2023 at 6:52 AM, Whitaker717 said: Amazing results! Any hairline cracks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitaker717 Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 Just now, Manche757 said: Amazing results! Any hairline cracks? Not at first, but due to the freezing cold here in the Midwest I noticed I have a long skinny one now. My truck sits outside and for over a week we barely made it above zero. I will fix it this Spring. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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