Thanks for the comments guys. I have few more things I want to add to my car still and new ideas poping up all the time. Its difficult to gauge when to stop. Hopefully I won't overdo it!
Thanks for the comments guys. I have few more things I want to add to my car still and new ideas poping up all the time. Its difficult to gauge when to stop. Hopefully I won't overdo it!
These kind of cars are never finished. There is no stopping.... you just take breaks.
I love this car! I've said it before, I'll say it again, that's the most creatively beautiful interior I've seen yet.
Changed my 'leccy windows for manual winders. Mo' retro!
Also trimmed the ragged hole in my tunnel carpet I'd cut for the handbrake with some carpet tape. Not 100% sure I'll leave it like this though. Need a something neater!
Greasemonkey2000 (10-16-2016),Paul B (07-24-2015)
Can you put better pics of the center lower portion of your dasH?? how did you delete the radio, and all that stuff? The interior design is freaking genius!! love your silver roadster!!! FYI, I voted this thread 5 stars!
Here's a clearer shot of the lower part of the dash (Glovebox and steering column panel weren't wrapped in leather at this point but main dash body was). You can just see the cut out you need to make at the bottom of the dash if not removing the heater blower (or modifying the mount).
. . . and some in progress shots.
I cut off the two side panels that hang down from the dash to the tunnel behind the tombstone with a dremmel (making sure the lip that leaves where they join the dash was sanded down COMPLETELY flat). Then I cut off the central steel supports that connect the dash bar to the tunnel.
I also cut off the mouldings for the bank of 3 switches to the side of the steering wheel and the cigarette lighter socket and removed the interior lights.
Then I fibreglassed a spare glovebox door into the gap left in the centre which I had cut to shape. I used a glove box door as it is already moulded to exactly the same curve at the top. It doesn't quite fit all the way to the top though so I had to use a piece of metal (aluminium Bathroom tile edging I had left over from fitting a bathroom) to create the 'lip' that the crash pad sits in.
I then fibreglassed over all the holes from the back of the dash and then filled them from the front with plastic filler before sanding everything completely flat.
Then I wrapped the whole dash, glovebox door and steering column panel with 1mm soft leather hide using high temp web spray adhesive and a wallpaper roller. I used one piece for the top and another for the bottom butting up the join at the windscreen pillars (You can just see the joins in these photos where the two pieces meet).
The custom crashpad with switch panel was lot more complicated and I'm not sure that I could make sense of how it was done in words but I'll try.
Basically I used dowel and gaffer tape to close the gap which originally accomodated the tombstone and sprayed it with cavity filling foam. Once set this was cut and sanded back to shape. The foam was then cut from the centre portion of the crash pad by making two parallel cuts (the width of the air vent apart) along the length of the crash pad and the foam peeled away. This created the inset for the diamond pressed aluminium fascia panel.
I then stitched and wrapped the crashpad in matching leather hide.
I cut the fashia panel from a 1m square sheet which I had to purchase from a DIY store in order to get the length I need. I make the straight cuts using a knife to make multiple scores along the panel and then bending it to snap it. The curves were shaped using a rough sanding drum on a Dremmel.
I then cut out the shape of the switch panel in the same manner but had to score the straight lines until I had gone all the way through as bending the panel would effectively junk it (once bent it would always show). The switch panel itself is aluminium plate which I polished up and drilled the holes in for the switches. To create the inset panel I sandwiched 5mm hardboard between the switch panel and the diamond pressed aluminium fascia which I had first marked out and cut a corresponding hole in and sanded to a perfectly smooth finish on the inner edges. Once all the layers were epoxied together I then used a fine paintbrush to paint the inner edges of the inset black.
Does that make sense?
Total materials cost for the build including the spare dash (about $30 from ebay) was £365 ($555) and took me about 60 man hours of effort.
Last edited by OnePaintedMan; 04-20-2013 at 03:32 PM.
Fishbulb (02-29-2016),Greasemonkey2000 (10-16-2016)
60 hours well spent. A one of a kind that looks DYN-O-MITE!!!
the outcome is well worth the cost and time spent IMO, definitely one of my favorite dashes ever.
Thanks guys. I've been asked several times to do a build thread on my dash but given that it was a lot of trial and error I ended up not taking that many photo's so thats about as good as its going to get I'm afraid.
Last edited by OnePaintedMan; 04-21-2013 at 04:45 PM.
Congratulations on your build. This is the stuff I like to see on miata builds
Holy cow! Simply amazing! I Have been thinking of doing custom door cards and a few other things but you're on a whole different level! Love it!
My '93 rust bucket build thread: http://mazdaroadster.net/showthread....5539#post85539
Engine was meant to be next but I've currently got seats to sort out and a spare front bumper sitting around waiting for me to attack with a dremmel, fibreglass, filler, lexan and rivets!
Getting very frustrated now.
I'm trying to find somwhere to buy a Brey-Krause miata fire extinguisher mount. I have found several suppliers in the US where the mount is $85 (very reasonable) but they all seem to want ~$175 for shipping to UK via UPS (absolutely not reasonable). Had too many bad experiences with USPS to trust them with this.
Really need this before my trip to the Nurburgring at the end of next month. Grrrrr
Wow, this car is freaking awesome! Next time I am on the other side of the pond I MUST see this car!