So I saw a set of leather wrapped JCW dash panels for sale in the classifieds, and thought, "that's pretty cool, never seen that before". Then I had a brainstorm. I had some heat formable vinyl laying around at my job, and thought I would give it a go. At first I wasn't sure if it would take away too much contrast on the dash, but after installing them, I am very pleased with the results. It gives the interior a more high-end feel. The phone pic could be better, but it's all I have right now.

 

WOW, that actually looks good. Looks like you did a good job too.

 

Sweet. It looks great. How easy was it to do? Looks like you glazed over the seam on the right.

That's a phone picture?! That's better than what my digital camera does.

 

It's an 05 or 06 and the dash is in three pieces rather than the five pieces of the 02-mid 2004. I have to agree it looks nice. I like the texture.

 

looks nice! very nice job too!

 

Looks good, what tools and material do you need? Is it time consuming to do this?

 

Very nice! Other than the red stitching on the leather JCW dash, I would have a difficult time telling them apart.

 

Good to know.

 

Yes, that's why I want to do it. 1. the leather JCW dash kit is super rare. 2. the leather 5 piece dash kit is even rarer.

 

Thanks for the compliments. It was a little time consuming, but not too difficult. This particular vinyl stretches very nicely when you apply heat with a heat gun, helpful for doing the corners. I used 3M super 90 spray adhesive to hold it on. I was worried it might squeak where the panels meet, but i put a strip of fuzzy velcro where the panels join, and so far, no squeaks. The color is almost a perfect match for the stock colors, but the texture is different, so it still brings some visual interest.

 

That looks incredible...it looks as if the dash was molded with that material.

Did you do the down tubes too, or are those the factory anthracite?

Can you post more pics? Where can we get this stuff?

 

Is that one piece of material for around the speedo area? I assume you had to make some cuts to get it to fold over so well while still covering it all and not puckering.

 

If its high quality material you should have no problem getting it to shape around the edges with a little heat from a hair dryer etc.

 

that is awesome.. does anyone remember or know who it was at the dragon that had the dash pieces you could get done in colouors.. i want to say someone with chicago minis.. you ordered the pieces ahead of time and they installed..im not verry good at diy stuff

 

Nice work. That looks really nice!

 

WOW. just wow. nice work

 

That does look really nice! that brings up another question, If you could wrap in in anything, what would you wrap it in? ( besides carbon fiber ) im thinking alcantera? possibly the carbon color 6404 found here
http://www.gulffabrics.com/Alcantara.htm

how hard do you think this would be?

P.S> better and more pic please, your a genious

 

here are some more pics with my real camera (which is still a crappy 2MP point and shoot)




I thought about using alcantara, which i think would be real nice, but all I had was the vinyl. The vinyl came from a company called Select Products, they make all sorts of stuff related to interior fabrication and custom audio systems. You might be able to find similar stuff in a fabric store. This stuff is amazing and will stretch a great deal when heated up. I was surprised how easy it was to work with.

 

That looks very, very cool.

 

Wow the last shot really makes it look like leather. How much was the Vinyl to do all the dash pieces? Could you do this with a hair dryer? When you glued it, you just glued the back after you fold it over correct?

 

Not sure how much the vinyl cost, I had some laying around the shop where I work, so I cost me nothing . I glued it in the front and folded it over and glued the back. You could do it with a hair dryer just as easily.

 

that does indeed look awesome!! i have a couple of questions tho..
is this the vinyl you used? http://74.175.101.66/dealer/itemdesc.asp?CartId={410435DA-8EVERESTC9A-4968-B523-D611D35CA63B}&ic=HFVBLAK&eq=&Tp=

and also do you NEED the adhesive? or can you just apply it without it?

but other than that..i really like it..i intend to this do myself soon too

 

Same here.

 

minjae, that link didn't work, but here is what I found
http://http://74.175.101.66/dealer/itemdesc.asp?CartId={C64CEVERESTBB9C-F1D2-4381-936F-ED2B77D4B2AA}&ic=HFVBLAK&eq=&Tp= "heat formable vinyl"

you definitely need to use the adhesive, i would stonngly suggest using 3m super 90. anything with less holding power won't work well enough. if you need to re-do it, the adhesive can easily be removed with adhesive remover.

 

Ok, For those of you looking for this vinyl, I ordered some more heat form vinyl from Select products, but it is not what I used on my car. Now I'm not sure what it was that I used. I think it may have been their Monte Carlo vinyl, but I have no way to tell. One thing i did find was this:

http://www.perfectfit.com/15989/1678...-Vinyl-54.html

This may be the same as the stuff I used. It has the same type of perforated, stretchable backing. It is also way cheaper than select at only 12.20 per linear yard. They seem to have loads of other stuff on their site that could be interesting as well. I am going to call Select back tomorrow to try to identify what it was that I had, and will post back if I get any answers.