I wrapped my dash for $20

[herbie]

Hey guys, so I was tired of seeing cracks on my dashboard. I originally wanted to flock the dash but my initial job of filling the cracks was terrible so I decided to go to Joann's and got a yard of vinyl pleather and a can of spray adhesive. This was a budget project that will go to a gutted beater so my expectations are not very high. Total cost was about $20 maybe less if you use a coupon. the spray adhesive I used was the Loctite brand that can be bought for $6-8 and the vinyl was about $15/yard. I used less than one yard because I didn't approach the project with perfectionism, i.e. I didn't care if there are seams. Anyway, here are the pictures. they are pretty self-explanatory.

[Mike36]

Nice job! Looks ten times better than what it was.

[herbie]

Nice job! Looks ten times better than what it was.

Thanks! I the more cracks the dash has, the more effective this gets. Lol

[ButtJuice]

Wish these were high res photos, but either way I can tell it looks awesome

[Eddiemeister]

Wow looks fantastic!

[reelizmpro]

That's pretty cool. It got the job done and it looks decent too. I filled and plastidipped my dash once and it came out much nicer than how it used to look. This looks even better.

Now that I think of it, I would be concerned about longevity using Joann's vinyl. UV treated automotive vinyl would be ideal.

[E30-325iS]

It looks really nice. You should offer dash wrapping as a service. I'm sure lots of people would be interested in having their dash wrapped.

[herbie]

Thanks for the comments. I'm happy to provide guidance to whoever wants to do this. It really wasn't that difficult especially since I wasn't aiming for a perfect or professional finish. My goal was simply to cover existing and future cracks.

It took me three hours, with a lot of breaks in between. All it is is spray, lay, pull, staple, cut excess. It can probably be done without stapling as that's what I did at first until I decided to staple them.

Of course, this is easier if you have the dash off. I'm sure it can be done with it on the car with a paint brush and some type of liquid adhesive. It is not perfect, but I think it is much better than seeing cracks since it doesn't cost too much and it wasn't that difficult.

Oh, I forgot to add that I used a heat gun to stretch the vinyl in some areas. A hairdryer would work too.

[HCMW Adam]

Great work man! Thanks for sharing. I will probably be doing this after seeing your results.


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[jdance30]

Did you fill in the tray on the passenger side? Or just wrap over it?

[herbie]

Did you fill in the tray on the passenger side? Or just wrap over it?

I did not fill the tray, I just wrapped over it. It's holding up nicely and I don't press on it. LOL

[Nlandeta]

Great job. I started to fix my dash using padded filler, sanding and so on and failed miserably. Now my dash looks worse than it was. This gives me some hope. Could you please add some details, how did you do it? Did you start from the center moving outside? Or started from the back moving toward where the cluster and the ac control goes? Many thanks.

[cory58]

Now that I think of it, I would be concerned about longevity using Joann's vinyl. UV treated automotive vinyl would be ideal.

I've been shopping for OEM-type interior vinyl. It's not very expensive - about $40/yard from World Upholstery or Global Upholstery. Less from Veteran Company.