98 S-10 Dash

wanting to glass my dash and shave all the air vents and airbag pocket...never messed with this kind of thing so i need some help and pics of what i need to be doing....anything would be a huge help..thanks

anything? bump      

  check these out, one is on door panels but has alot of pics youll get a idea of the work it takes.  not really hard just time consuming.http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=45&i=74970&t=74970   http://www.ehow.com/how_2250694_build-custom-fiberglass-dash.html   

pull the dash out. wrap it in grille cloth. cover all the holes you want to shave.cut out the ones you dont. put the dash back in the truck so it doesnt warp.soak the grille cloth with resin. when its dry, take the dash out of the truck and reinforce all the holes you shaved with some good ole hand laid fiberglass from the back. bodywork and paint. ive done a bunch and have had no problems from dailys to show trucks. hope this helps.

He doesnt have to fiberglass the entire dash. That would be alot of extra sanding for no reason.  The dash itself can just be sanded down to take out all the texture. The parts you will need to fiberglass are the things you want to shave. I would build a filler panel off of what is there now and once you have that cut it to fill the hole in the dash. You then want to get some plastic weld stuff (I cant remember its actual name but it is a container which has two tubes that when combined form an adhesive) and glue the fillers into place. Once those are in place then just body work it.

Its not bad. Grille cloth leaves a very smooth finish and only needs a light skim coat. Also, filler panels plastic welded in have a tendency to crack, from contraction and expansion due to tempature changes. That's why I glass mine all in one piece and reinforce it from the back. And paint sticks way better to bodyworked resin then it does a plastic dash with some adhesion promoter and high build primer.

Also, grille cloth is skinny enough so all of the plastic panels will still snap back onto the dash. Using something thicker, like fleece, makes it a very tight fit and usually requires trimming.

any pics? if you strech the cloth out over everything...stapling it down or clue? plus how you eliminate the humps where that ugly ass grab bar is? thanks

no progress pictures, just finished ones. You can staple it down in some spots, but spots where the staples will come through the front, you can just glue it. as far as the grab bar goes, cut as much as you need off so when you wrap over it, you wont see the hump anymore.

finished pics will work