How To Install a Padded Dash Page 2

This shows the process of gluing small sections at a time. If the whole area was adhered it would be nearly impossible to remove the vinyl without destroying it.

The main portion of the dash looks nice, so here we go to the gauge area. Notice the depression where the speaker grille will be attached, and the two end wings which have not been glued yet. These will be left for last.

Once the vinyl was stretched over the main area of the dash we stopped to address the wrinkled areas around the gauges. Since there is dramatic curvature in these areas the vinyl will wrinkle, even though it's stretched. These will be further stretched (sometimes with the use of a heat gun) to pull around and under the openings.

We left the vinyl alone for a few hours to allow the contact cement to set up and cure. Coming back to it we carefully cut out vinyl covering the instrument holes, leaving enough overage to pull and glue to the underneath of the dash. There's no "secret" to getting the wrinkles around the openings smooth, just stretching, smoothing and lots of patience. It took us over two hours to stretch the wrinkles out of the openings sufficient to install the gauges.

Notice the wrinkles over the "eyebrow" of the round instrument hole.

We test-fitted the speedometer cluster after some smoothing just to see if we'd done enough. No vinyl was glued to the underside as yet, only held in with tape.

We're almost there! There are very few wrinkles left to stretch out, so we can remove the instruments and do the final tweaking.

Now For The Wings

We determined that the best way to stretch the remaining vinyl over the end wings was to do so without the foam padding. This is one of those situations where you have to be willing to change plans from time to time. We found that the compound curvature of the wing areas required strong adhesion to keep the vinyl in place and the foam simply wouldn't hold without shredding. That's why, no doubt, the factory didn't use foam backing on the original cars.

This operation went pretty well, with just a few wrinkles left to stretch out. Once we glued the material to the metal we wrapped it around the edges and glued/taped the underneath.

What About The Vinyl Edge?

The edge of the vinyl that is glued around the front curve and onto the vertical section of dash remains in place. Over it is installed the machine-turned aluminum trim that runs across the dash and onto the doors.

With the foam stripped off we were ready to glue the vinyl directly to the metal and roll it around the edges.

It looks pretty good, doesn't it? The clamps will be left in place until the dash is installed and the chrome trim is attached to the ends. Notice the glove box lock, neatly protruding through the padded dash.

The aluminum trim is clamped into place, to be held rigidly by the control switches and radio knobs.