S13 Suede Dash

[bova17]

I just finished my suede dash and wanted to show some of you how it looks and how I did it. Went to Jo-Ann Fabric and bought some suede-like material and 3M Supper 77, all the people in there were confused why I was there.
Things I used:

• Flat head screw driver
• Flat razor
• Super glue
• Epoxy
• Sand paper
• 3M/Scotch Supper 77
• Fabric
• Vinyl paint (black) if you have poop brown interior
• Rivet gun with rivets
• Thin cardboard
• Friends

So basically I took out the dash and thought about just covering the old vinyl but said no because it will probably crack again underneath, so I decided to pull off all the nasty old vinyl... short razor and flat head will be your best friend. I started off with one of these razors...

Get one of these short style razors, its much easier and you won't dig into the foam.

Anyways I found out the razor is best in the worst areas, and the flat head is probably what you will use the most. Scrapping it off is a pain though:




This is when I realized that the big razor wasn't working lol just the blade...

You can see where the sun hits the most and in some of those parts the vinyl melted to the foam.

This is when you want to sand it smooth, I filled the gaps with super glue, I don't know how great this will work but for $50 oh well. Some of the bigger gaps got epoxy but epoxy is a pain to sand so i would recommend against that unless drilled for zip ties. If the gap wasn't filled very good with the super glue we took the sanded foam and put that in the crack and re-super glued it. sanded to somewhat smooth. Remember that the thicker the fabric the less with show through, so I wasn't too worried. Also remove the Vin number plate by drilling out the rivets. DON'T LOOSE IT.



Now here's the deal with stretching the suede, it doesn't stretch that well. So you will HAVE to have somebody help you or it won't look very good. The key is to start from the middle out, do one side at a time and start one the passenger side to get the hang of it. Also you spray the Super 77 on both fabric and dash and wait a minute or so, or else they won't stick very well.


My brother started Drawing "Man Sausages"-Jeremy Clarkson. also was test fitting the vents, and painting things black.

Another folded area to keep from wrinkles.

You need to now put your Vin number plate back on with rivets



Unfortunately I stepped on the defroster vent...

Well here I used the thin cardboard and made this to cover up where the suede would stretch.


You will have some spots with wrinkles unless you make a stitch or fake stitch. The way we did it was fairly simple, it just gets folded over and glued. *Try to make it face down, like my Dad was saying stuff will get stuck in there.


Excuse the steering wheel I got an Ebay one and it cracked... stock for now. And also has end caps on the dash to keep from wrinkles.
Notes:
The glue does come off with mineral spirits but I would still be careful with it getting on the fabric.
Removing the foam (myself) took about 7-8 hours :/
Doing all suede stretching and cutting took about 4 hours
Install took me a week...lol, I was waiting on LEDs for gauge cluster
Vents up top are brittle from sun be careful.
Smells horrible for a little bit.
Don't cut too much off

[my1s14]

Good job man, looks good!

[the_strange]

That's pretty cool. Good job.

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[SamsonS4]

idea=A

execution= F

Any project that consistents of jo-anns fabric you know is gonna turn out terrible

[bova17]

Originally Posted by my1s14

Good job man, looks good!

Originally Posted by the_strange

That's pretty cool. Good job.

Thank you, when I get bored I have to do something.

Originally Posted by SamsonS4

idea=A

execution= F

Any project that consistents of jo-anns fabric you know is gonna turn out terrible

Glad to hear, because it looks so much worse...

[brndck]

i dunno what samson is on about, +rep for you for this awesome thread!

[conrad_s13.5]

Looks great man

Got more patience then me, sounds like i would have gave up an hour into removing the vinyl....lol

[the_strange]

That would surely help with the dash glare in my vert. Lol. But my dash is clean and crack free!

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[bova17]

Originally Posted by conrad_s13.5

Looks great man

Got more patience then me, sounds like i would have gave up an hour into removing the vinyl....lol

Yea once I started on the vinyl I was like oh god this is going to take forever.


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[blueshark123]

It looks a lot better then a fucked dash, but i wouldn't be happy with this quality personally. I like stuff to a high standard.

[Rich260z]

Now suede your horn button to match

[mechanicalmoron]

Originally Posted by blueshark123

It looks a lot better then a fucked dash, but i wouldn't be happy with this quality personally. I like stuff to a high standard.

While it may not be perfect, you make it sound like it's of generally objectionable quality.

From the last pictures, I think I've seen bigger seams and imperfections in factory interior parts.

It's neat, though I'd think a way to do a better job would be to buy a super soft, thin, cow hide, as that looks like imitation suede fabric, not actualy leather, though I could be wrong.

[bova17]

I forgot to say I didn't get to clean it off yet, I'm going to vacuum it then get any glue/overspray off of it. You can see some of the white specs are from the overspray

[PeaceOnesxWai]

^That has to be the hardest part to get the suede settle down.. Great job!

[89bucketsx]

Bet the bitches love it!

[supersayianjim]

good work. now iam defitenly going to send out my dash and have someone else do it!!

[bova17]

Well just an update, it looks kind of like shit starting to peel up in a few places, but I just wanted to see how long it would last. Anyway I'm going to be fiberglassing it then flocking it to have a clean dash; that will probably be in the summer though. I'll post pics of what it looks like now later tonight


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[Aspire818]

Cleannn
Im goin to do it on my S14

[dsastr_clan]

how much fabric did you buy?

[bova17]

I want to say 3 square yards

[rb25s13vert]

i think it looks pretty good. you will regret using that fabric probably. that's a high sun area and I bet that fabric fades. even regular suede fades bad. if your planning on doing this properly your going to want to use genuine alcanara.

[bejota180sx]

i wrapped a few interior pieces on my vert with that type of fabric, just to cover up how bad the stock ones were damaged. And before a few months it had faded so much it was just horrible.

[bova17]

Looks fine to me, looks 100x better than poop brown cracked dash.

[Kuma]

Originally Posted by mechanicalmoron

It's neat, though I'd think a way to do a better job would be to buy a super soft, thin, cow hide, as that looks like imitation suede fabric, not actualy leather, though I could be wrong.

Suede is leather... There is also pig suede which feels great, but it's not durable enough to use in a car... It's mostly for purse lining and stuff.

Originally Posted by bova17

Well just an update, it looks kind of like shit starting to peel up in a few places, but I just wanted to see how long it would last.

Next time don't use the 77. The best adhesive I've been able to find is 3M 90.

Originally Posted by rb25s13vert

i think it looks pretty good. you will regret using that fabric probably. that's a high sun area and I bet that fabric fades. even regular suede fades bad. if your planning on doing this properly your going to want to use genuine alcanara.

alcantara (Ultra-suede with a fancy name) is like $90/yd here... Real suede would be cheaper. If you're looking for an affordable option that probably looks a little better than that stuff, go to a real fabric/trim supply. The local place you can order alcantara from. Get white backed suede. It's the faux suede with a white cloth backing, the backing helps to keep the glue from bleeding through, it seems to stick better to foam than non backed faux suede. It's like $20/yd locally.




That stuff is cool for headliners and seats; stuff that is somewhat protected by tinted windows. But it will fade fairly quickly. If you just want to redo your dash and make it last. Do it in marine quality vinyl. So many grains to choose from. It looks like leather and is more durable than both leather and automotive grade vinyl that came on your dash. This is what I'll be doing my dash in. It had the least glare in the sun, out of the blacks.


This is marine quality vinyl on top of a 2000 something Porsche 911 leather seat. I'm making a dog seat he can drop in that matches his interior and seat stitch pattern.



If you know how much genuine Porsche leather is, you'd opt for this $25/yd marine quality vinyl.

[DanielS14]

dantack is really good to use as well or contact cement

[NismoDriverS13]

Very nice! I've been looking into doing this in my hatch...but too lazy. Maybe this weekend I'llbuy some stuff an cover my hands dirty.

Gonna buy a cracked dash and save my clean one before it starts to crack.