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240SX Dash Mod

customtronic

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Jul 22, 2014
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Olympia, WA
I thought I'd share a quickie build that I did a little while back. A customer came to me to clean up the dash area in his Nissan 240SX. As you can see from this first pic his dash/radio surround was a cluster. My plan was to do a little fab work and move things around to look a bit better. Notice that his turbo timer is in the ash tray and his gauges are stuffed into the area below the headunit. The USB cable is coiled up on the floor near the pedals. Also notice where the AC controls currently are.




My first step was to take it all apart and remove the ac controls from the top panel.




Next I cut three small rings out of 1/2" MDF using a Jasper circle jig and gathered up some materials I would need.




I then cleaned and prepped the plastic so my fab work would adhere properly.




Next I mounted the rings using CA glue (superglue).




The next few pics show the fab of the gauge cluster. I used a combination of light fabric, polyester resin, and lightweight body filler. The final step is a texture coat by SEM. I usually do a much lighter, softer texture but this is what the customer wanted to match some vinyl he has.








I then moved the AC controls to the headunit location and mounted the headunit below the ac controls.




I then took it back apart and prepped the plastic bezel for the next step.





Next I started reworking the ashtray opening to house the turbo timer and USB port. I used ABS plastic, CA glue and fiberglass reinforced body filler followed buy a couple of coats of high build primer. The final step was the SEM texture coat.









And here's the finished product.


 
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97nismo

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Finish would look better if smoother and maybe a wrinkle finish to match Oem

But cool idea
 
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customtronic

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Thank you guys for the comments. I agree, it would've looked better with a softer, smoother texture. Here are some pics of some dash pods I fabbed up for another customer in a 2003 Nissan 350Z. This is they finish I would usually go with.




 
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ChevyEFI

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Nice work! I'm sorry Lieutenant Castillo showed his face on this project.

Any thoughts on whole-dash covering with a spray-on that will give Madrid grain appearance?
 
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customtronic

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wish he trusted your judgement!! very nice, i kind of miss seeing that dash

Same here. It was actually harder to get that heavier texture than how I would normally do it. I had to play around with a bunch of different tips until I found one that would shoot the product in that fashion.
 
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customtronic

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Thank you all for the comments. Much appreciated. I've owned three car audio shops over the last 25 years, the last one being in Olympia, WA until I sold it a year ago. I still take some jobs in at my home shop, also in Olympia. I'm a retired Army veteran with some good service connect injuries that have me at a 90% VA disability rating. Makes it hard to do the grunt work every day. Because of my injuries I'm not able to do the kind of work I did while on active duty so the VA will pay for me to go back to school. My plan is to attend the local community college for a welding/fabrication degree program they have. That will allow me to work in my shop, at my own pace, when able. It will supplement my income and keep me active. I might be retired at 48 but some days my body feels like it is 70 years old. 21 years on active duty with the last 13 being in the special operations community will put a good beating on the body. When I assessed for the last job I was 6' 1", 205 pounds, with 7% body fat. When I retired I was 5' 11", 200 pounds and 16% body fat. Makes for some cool memories and stories though! LOL
 

stsmytherie

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Ouch. Thank you for your service customtronic!

Really nice fab work. What would you normally use for a surface texture coat, if you don't mind sharing shop secrets?
 
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LXCam

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Awesome work bud, I'm very impressed. Damn shame the customer wanted that finish. And too bad you're not closer, I have project that needs those kinds of touches.
 

79cmc

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Wow, that's fantastic. I'm in the process of redoing my interior (just ripped out the dash yesterday) and need to do fab up a shadow box for my custom gauges too. Thanks for all the pics with details--you could do mail-order services; wouldn't be much to flat-rate the bezels to you and email you the gauge model numbers and measurements.
 
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customtronic

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Ouch. Thank you for your service customtronic!

Really nice fab work. What would you normally use for a surface texture coat, if you don't mind sharing shop secrets?

Thanks for the compliment. The industry standard for texture coating is SEM 39853. It's usually between $15-20 a can. It comes out a satin black. You can then use any color SEM dye that you choose. Great stuff to work with. Also, in one of the first pics of this thread I showed some of the products I use. Stay away from that Bulldog plastic prep. I've since stopped using it because of issues on a few different jobs.

Nice work man.

Do you mind telling us what you charged the customer for that project?

I can't really remember but I think I charged him $80 per hour for about 4-5 hours.
 
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customtronic

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Awesome work bud, I'm very impressed. Damn shame the customer wanted that finish. And too bad you're not closer, I have project that needs those kinds of touches.

Wish I could help. I know some great fabricators in CA. Audio Xperts in Vacaville and Simplicity in Sound in Fremont. Google these shops and be prepared to be amazed at what you see!



Wow, that's fantastic. I'm in the process of redoing my interior (just ripped out the dash yesterday) and need to do fab up a shadow box for my custom gauges too. Thanks for all the pics with details--you could do mail-order services; wouldn't be much to flat-rate the bezels to you and email you the gauge model numbers and measurements.

Thanks! I see you're in NC. I don't know how far you are from Spartenburg, SC but a buddy of mine owns Elite Audio. They are one of the top fab shops in the country. Amazing quality work out of these guys!
 

afbrian13

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Nov 23, 2014
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Gauges look great! I really like the speaker pod, much better finish.

I want to do some work like that in my 280z. The middle dash and console mostly. Good write up.

I know what you mean about the physical stuff. Only been in 13 years and working planes isn't as bad as what you were doing, but it puts a hurtin' on you. I've never heard of so many 30 somethings with back and leg issues.
 

gte718p

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Wish I could help. I know some great fabricators in CA. Audio Xperts in Vacaville and Simplicity in Sound in Fremont. Google these shops and be prepared to be amazed at what you see!

Thanks! I see you're in NC. I don't know how far you are from Spartenburg, SC but a buddy of mine owns Elite Audio. They are one of the top fab shops in the country. Amazing quality work out of these guys!

Small world. I used to do a lot of work with and for Elite when I was in high school. Of course that was 20 years ago, I had no idea they where still around.
 

MotoCARR

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Looks great and I couldn't have come across this at a better time! Going to be redoing the pillar pod in my 300zx.

Have any more pics or detail of the rings you made? I have yet to even be able to make a speaker ring as clean as that!
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TK-421

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How much did you charge him? I'm actually planning on getting a 240sx eventually, but have no idea would, but would love for something like that to be done to the dash when I get it, if you're still going stuff like that when I do.
 

Kevin54

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Just out of curiosity, but what if you smoothed something like that, then used black wrinkle paint on it? Would that work?
 

MotoCARR

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Just out of curiosity, but what if you smoothed something like that, then used black wrinkle paint on it? Would that work?

Wrinkle paint wouldn't achieve the same "dashboard" finish look when you're done. It would have more of a truck bed finish to it.
 

crab

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Jan 8, 2015
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Great work ! Since you obviously know what you're doing I have a question. How would you repair a cracked dash on a dodge pickup ? Molded covers are available that you glue over the original dash, a new dash isn't available and would probably be a lot of money if they were .
 
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customtronic

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Great work ! Since you obviously know what you're doing I have a question. How would you repair a cracked dash on a dodge pickup ? Molded covers are available that you glue over the original dash, a new dash isn't available and would probably be a lot of money if they were .

I haven't repaired a cracked dash yet but if I were to give it a shot I'd probably try to fill in the cracks/gaps with polyester resin, and then either vinyl wrap it or if the contours made it too difficult to wrap I'd probably try the SEM texture and a vinyl dye. Can't say exactly how this would work out but that's what I'd try. Last resort would be to fill in the cracks and then have an upholstery shop stitch and vinyl wrap. Much more expensive option.
 

frozen-stitches

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Great work ! Since you obviously know what you're doing I have a question. How would you repair a cracked dash on a dodge pickup ? Molded covers are available that you glue over the original dash, a new dash isn't available and would probably be a lot of money if they were .

this is how I have done them.
First I really clean it up so that the bondo and my glue will stick.
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add bondo
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sand smooth and apply foam. I had left out how to fill in the hole but i had used chipboard and foam to level it.
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and finished with a sewn up vinyl cover all glued down.
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