Refinished the instrument panel

[RikRok]

After looking at a peeling, nicked, scratched, dull instrument panel for ther last decade, I decided it was finally time to refinish it. I found a guy locally that does the water transfer printing. Not wanting skulls or all sort of camoflage, I went with a carbon fiber look. I was going to stay away from it as I thought it would look more at home in an import tuner. But after he coated it with a black candy coat, it got much more subdued. After I put it in, I thought should have went with a matte clear coat, but the glare is not a bother at all. Plus with this, it can be hit with a coat of wax and stay brillant for the next decade.

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[bluesrt]

looks good, what is it? paint?

 

[RikRok]

Its a film that they apply to the part, then top coat it with automotive paint. Being as thin as a coat of paint, it could be recoated and put back to orignal at any time.

 

[bluesrt]

very kewl.....

 

[gb66gth]

Looks great!

 

[Jack B]

Pulling the dash always seems to put a few nicks into it. Did you have any problems hurting the new surface when you reinstalled.

 

[RikRok]

No nicks, this is a hard clear coat finish. I layed a shop towel across the steering column just in case.

 

[V10SpeedLuvr]

That looks great! Do you mind saying what it cost you? I wouldn't mind doing something like this to my car. PM me if you'd prefer.

 

[RikRok]

I paid $425 plus tax. That included the instrument panel, radio bezel, glove box door, both door triangles and painting and clearing the handle bezels. Hard to tell from the pics, but I did not have the CF look done to the guage pods, they just painted those. Here is a link if anyone is interested. They have snakeskin if anyone is feling gutsy.


http://www.grace-fx.com/

 

[VYPR BYT 94]

I see what you mean about the top coat making it more subtle. It has alot of depth.
Very nice.

 

[vpower01]

It looks good I might have to do that at some point.

 

[aloushi]

RicRok, did you have it shipped out to them and they shipped it back or are they local to you? It looks very nice, does it look equally as good in person like real carbon fiber or??
thanks...

 

[WDW MKR]

Looks very nice. I agree on the matte clear coat, but the gloss doesn't look bad. I had a lot of engine parts and a few interior pieces on my Cobra dipped... turned out great.

 

[RikRok]

RicRok, did you have it shipped out to them and they shipped it back or are they local to you? It looks very nice, does it look equally as good in person like real carbon fiber or??
thanks...

These folk are semi local, it is about an hors drive away. I dropped it off and the turn around was about a week. It looks great in person. I don't know about looking as good as real carbon fiber as I don't think that it is all the attractive. If you were to go with a matte clear finish without any tinting, it would look closer to real,

 

[John Baringer]

I paid $425 plus tax. That included the instrument panel, radio bezel, glove box door, both door triangles and painting and clearing the handle bezels. Hard to tell from the pics, but I did not have the CF look done to the guage pods, they just painted those. Here is a link if anyone is interested. They have snakeskin if anyone is feling gutsy.


http://www.grace-fx.com/

I am getting a quote from this place now. What pattern did you pick out for your dash? I like the way that yours turned out! Probably will get the matte finish on it. Thanks for the help!

 

[Knight Viper]

Looks awesome, would love to see it in person! Good pick.

 

[CEJ]

+1 on the matt finish as the sun has a pesky way of always finding something glossy to blind you. Price seems pretty reasonable too, and it really makes the interior pop!

 

[Fatboy 18]

WOW..I just watched some of the videos, that spray on Chrome looks fantastic, I would love to get that done on my Autoform Roll bar

Thanks for posting this up, and your dash looks great

Now I need to find a company that has this process in the UK

 

[Fatboy 18]

Oh Yea, I just found one, not too far away from me too
Looks like the same thing http://www.chromespray.co.uk/contact.html

 

[overzealous1]

water ink transfer is a process that the ink design is on paper, they lay it into of a water tub/container, ink peels off, then they take the part to be covered and push it down through the ink and it transfers to part. cool process. water temps and stuff have to be perfect though. the ink transfer process is done to many things. most camo you see on hard parts, and carbon fiber like here. they have gotten better with the carbon fiber stuff.

looks good!

 

[Bird325]

Sorry, but just not doing anything for me. Maybe it's my age showing and the fact that I didn't grow up with imports.

 

[v10enomous]

I like it but I'm OK with the rustic look too...

 

[48 Viper]

Well, having a 95, I am tired of the pitted flat black look. Although it is fun to fill your fingernails with black paint when bored on long drives. Unless there is a better solution out there, other than replacing sticky, pitting, flat black paint with new paint that will turn to sticky, pitting, flat black, I may be game.

 

[aloushi]

I spoke on phone with Tom from Grace-FX a couple days ago, he was very pleasant to speak with and is sending me out 2 samples of 2 types of carbon fiber ink transfers. He said he just got a new type of ink that is a gold carbon fiber ink and when placed on black it gives a very real BLACK carbon fiber look. The samples should be in with in the next day or two, I'll post pics or opinion on what it looks like in person.

 

[John Baringer]

I spoke on phone with Tom from Grace-FX a couple days ago, he was very pleasant to speak with and is sending me out 2 samples of 2 types of carbon fiber ink transfers. He said he just got a new type of ink that is a gold carbon fiber ink and when placed on black it gives a very real BLACK carbon fiber look. The samples should be in with in the next day or two, I'll post pics or opinion on what it looks like in person.

Yes I also called him to, and sent my dash to him on Friday. Very nice guy. He should get my dash on Wednesday. Please post up those pics of samples if you can, like to see them. He was telling me the new gold pattern. Forgot to ask him for samples.

 

[eucharistos]

nice work, looks great

 

[aloushi]

Yes I also called him to, and sent my dash to him on Friday. Very nice guy. He should get my dash on Wednesday. Please post up those pics of samples if you can, like to see them. He was telling me the new gold pattern. Forgot to ask him for samples.

do you plan on doing the carbon fiber finish?? If so you might wanna hold off and have him send you a sampel or two to compare, hopefully I'll have the samples in today, we'll see but from what he told me it sounds like the gold cf is the way to go, the end result will look like real cf...I will post the pics soon as I get them!!! Also since you're having yours done before me please let us know how everthing turned out and post pics...

 

[John Baringer]

do you plan on doing the carbon fiber finish?? If so you might wanna hold off and have him send you a sampel or two to compare, hopefully I'll have the samples in today, we'll see but from what he told me it sounds like the gold cf is the way to go, the end result will look like real cf...I will post the pics soon as I get them!!! Also since you're having yours done before me please let us know how everthing turned out and post pics...

I will keep you posted and take many pics when get back. Post up those samples when you get a chance. He also told me the gold would be the one to go with. He pretty much has me sold on that. I like how the guys dash from this post came out and told him I wanted it the same has his execpt with a matte finish!

 

[aloushi]

So I got the samples today and I gotta tell you guys I'm very impressed, to be honest they're actually better than what I expected!! I believe the one the left is the one that OP has and the one on the right is the gold one we've been mentioning, as you can see the gold one imo really does look like real cf but you guys be the judge, either way they both look dam good and the finish feels and appears to be very durable!!! I'm sold!!!

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[Jack B]

Has anyone looked at the 3M carbon fiber Di-noc. It is a vinyl overlay that has body/texture. The product already has the adhesive applied. You can also use heat to make your compound bends. If you do a google search there are tons of videos showing it being applied. A popular application is wheels, if that can be done, a dash should be easy. I just bought a roll,of the black carbon fiber, for a dash you will need a piece that is 48 X 72 ($133). It comes in six different colors. I am going to try the black on the dash and the graphite on the cover that goers over the console and the radio.