Dashboard renewal - Carbon?
Discussion
Hello, I did exactly that about a year ago, and I am still pleased with the outcome. I don't know about a kit; I couldn't find one but I did manage to find a supplier of thin gauge carbon fibre sheeting which worked really well. Cutting it our with a Dremmel took quite a while but you can use the metal backing sheets from the dashboard as a guide which makes it easy to make professional looking cutouts. Have a look here http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0... and if you're interested, I will try to find the contact name of the carbon sheeting supplier. I can also email photos if you like.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the reply. If you don't mind it would be good if you could find the supplier details. I have the dash off at the moment to fix a sticky rev counter - just needed the connections cleaned after all the hassle of getting the dash off!I'm sure you knoe what I mean having done it before not an easy job! As I've went through the hassle of getting it off I thought it would be a good time to renew it. Carbon sheet sounds good apart from the fact that I'd be terrified of making an a*se of it and ending up with a bill for carbon fibre and nothing to show for it! Thats why I thought about a kit. If you have some pics i'd love to see them as I'd like an idea of how it woudl look. previous owner renewed the dash with marine ply and though it looks OK and he did a decent job I've always had it on the list of things to do.
Thanks
nigel
Thanks for the reply. If you don't mind it would be good if you could find the supplier details. I have the dash off at the moment to fix a sticky rev counter - just needed the connections cleaned after all the hassle of getting the dash off!I'm sure you knoe what I mean having done it before not an easy job! As I've went through the hassle of getting it off I thought it would be a good time to renew it. Carbon sheet sounds good apart from the fact that I'd be terrified of making an a*se of it and ending up with a bill for carbon fibre and nothing to show for it! Thats why I thought about a kit. If you have some pics i'd love to see them as I'd like an idea of how it woudl look. previous owner renewed the dash with marine ply and though it looks OK and he did a decent job I've always had it on the list of things to do.
Thanks
nigel
Thought I'd get this done while I thought about it.
The guy I bought it from was Mark Crombie. I found his contact details on ebay; the relevant part of the exchange is below. Note that the price may well have changed!
"I have cut a set of paper templates 10mm larger in each dimnsion and nested them.
I have worked out that the minimum ara I can sell you to do the job is a rectangle 930 x 400.
This does have some scrap, but it is the best I can do.
A sheet that size would cost £58 plus £4 postage and packing.
If you have any more questions contact me through ebay or email, markcromie74@hotmail.com "
Here are the pictures of the completed dash in my car. The holes were cut out with a Dremel-type tool (a B&Q cheapie); if you go down this route I would personally spend the extra and buy a genuine Dremel as the B&Q version was very easily stalled.
Other bits of relevant information & thoughts
1. Be careful to cut all pieces from the same orientation of matting; otherwise you can end up with patterns running in the wrong direction. (I have a completed centre panel cut to shape which proves that! :-))
2. I wish I had thought of not cutting out a hole for the blanked dummy switch in the centre panel; I'm not sure whether all cars have them, but it's worth thinking about;
3. The matting is supposed to be self adhesive but I found that it didn't stick and used evo-stick, painted on top of the adhesive on the mat. That still seems to be stuck firmly 12 months on.
4. It does take time and patience!
If I can help further - say so.
The guy I bought it from was Mark Crombie. I found his contact details on ebay; the relevant part of the exchange is below. Note that the price may well have changed!
"I have cut a set of paper templates 10mm larger in each dimnsion and nested them.
I have worked out that the minimum ara I can sell you to do the job is a rectangle 930 x 400.
This does have some scrap, but it is the best I can do.
A sheet that size would cost £58 plus £4 postage and packing.
If you have any more questions contact me through ebay or email, markcromie74@hotmail.com "
Here are the pictures of the completed dash in my car. The holes were cut out with a Dremel-type tool (a B&Q cheapie); if you go down this route I would personally spend the extra and buy a genuine Dremel as the B&Q version was very easily stalled.
Other bits of relevant information & thoughts
1. Be careful to cut all pieces from the same orientation of matting; otherwise you can end up with patterns running in the wrong direction. (I have a completed centre panel cut to shape which proves that! :-))
2. I wish I had thought of not cutting out a hole for the blanked dummy switch in the centre panel; I'm not sure whether all cars have them, but it's worth thinking about;
3. The matting is supposed to be self adhesive but I found that it didn't stick and used evo-stick, painted on top of the adhesive on the mat. That still seems to be stuck firmly 12 months on.
4. It does take time and patience!
If I can help further - say so.
An afterthought; the clock on my car was originally rectangular, and (more importantly) not working. The one you see is from a mark 1 Renault Clio, which is on a flat plastic surround and can therefore be stuck to the back of the (modified) steel plate. I personally think it looks better than the original (and being round it mirrors the other instruments better), plus it is quartz and so much more accurate. The only downside is that the lighting is amber, not green - something I didn't think of until it was too late!
DerbyCountyMark said:
An afterthought; the clock on my car was originally rectangular, and (more importantly) not working. The one you see is from a mark 1 Renault Clio, which is on a flat plastic surround and can therefore be stuck to the back of the (modified) steel plate. I personally think it looks better than the original (and being round it mirrors the other instruments better), plus it is quartz and so much more accurate. The only downside is that the lighting is amber, not green - something I didn't think of until it was too late!
I'm pretty sure the original clock in my car says 'Quartz' on it and it's pretty accurate. You can buy LEDs with dropping resistors fitted, that come with the same sort of bases as most filament lamps... drop one of those into the back of the Clio clock and bask in the glow 
Whatever you do, don't go for blue LEDs. May mate fitted them to his Subaru dash and it took about 5 minutes to adjust every time you looked at the instruments. Still, he was young, he didn't know better
Thanks mark, looks great. I found this site that sells CF sheet, I worked it out at about £100 for enough to do the job.
http://www.carbonmods.co.uk/Default.aspx
They also do carbon matting kits and I was thinking perhaps doing that would be easier but not sure. How did you manage to get such good edges especially around the circular holes?
http://www.carbonmods.co.uk/Default.aspx
They also do carbon matting kits and I was thinking perhaps doing that would be easier but not sure. How did you manage to get such good edges especially around the circular holes?
Sorry, I've been away with work again! Thanks for the positive feedback and the tip on lighting. I got carbon fibre samples (and some imitation stuff, which really is poor) from various places. This was no more than 1 mm thick which means that the edges are no big problem.
Edited by DerbyCountyMark on Friday 15th May 17:07
Regarding the precision of the holes - it was easier than it looks! The dash consists essentially of 2 similar steel sheets, with the instruments mounted in the back one and the front one as a dummy. After removing the front sheet and cleaning the old "wood" from it, I stuck the carbon fibre sheet to the steel plate with masking tape. I cut rough small holes with craft scissors and drill and then use a variety of dremmel attachments to cut them accurately. It is actually quite easy to keep the tool perpendicular to the steel and use it as a guide around the holes.
Don't try to cut too near to the finished edges with the craft scissors or drill because it crushes the carbon fibre sheeting and spoils its appearance.
Don't try to cut too near to the finished edges with the craft scissors or drill because it crushes the carbon fibre sheeting and spoils its appearance.
Also this guy Does very thin with 3m sticky backing http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...
The sample he sent was very good. plus should be about £75 from him for the size you wanted.
I still got large sheet (from someone else) That I'm still planning on using.
I got some plain matting also, so may give this a try 1st on the glove box. Also not sure how resin or (arodilte) sticks to metal but it sticks to CF very well.
The sample he sent was very good. plus should be about £75 from him for the size you wanted.
I still got large sheet (from someone else) That I'm still planning on using.
I got some plain matting also, so may give this a try 1st on the glove box. Also not sure how resin or (arodilte) sticks to metal but it sticks to CF very well.
Nigel_350I said:
Thanks mark, looks great. I found this site that sells CF sheet, I worked it out at about £100 for enough to do the job.
http://www.carbonmods.co.uk/Default.aspx
They also do carbon matting kits and I was thinking perhaps doing that would be easier but not sure. How did you manage to get such good edges especially around the circular holes?
Was looking at there skinning demo, looks like quite a bit of work, but should work well, and you could wrap round the holes so it covers the metal inside the holes, this would make it look more like a solid piece of CF, other option would be to get there 4mm sheet and don't use the metal sheet, this would save a some weight. also.http://www.carbonmods.co.uk/Default.aspx
They also do carbon matting kits and I was thinking perhaps doing that would be easier but not sure. How did you manage to get such good edges especially around the circular holes?
I was asking about skinning about 6 months back, but everyone said it would not work, as I was tempted to skin the whole of the racer. if my Vinyl Idea does not work, I may re-think about doing it.
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