Dashboard Construction
 

Just a thought





Why not make a car's dashboard out of stiff foam and cloth, just like the seats? You could mount things like stereos and instrument clusters on a flexible plastic frame mounted internally. Surely it'd cost about the same as a complex set of fancy UV resistant, soft-touch plastics. It'd surely be safer in an accident too.



I've seen enough crap on the internet about making FRP, CF and aluminium dashboards, but I think that if you could come up with a good way to mount all of the gauges and air vents, this would not even be that difficult to do at home.



Also zero glare and zero maintenance. The dash will fade at the same rate as your seats.

You can't injection-mold a stitched cloth seat in one throw, and plastic padded dashes can be made to custom shapes on BOTH sides which means you can have insane geometry with way less difficulty than a cloth thing which would require its own support to hold shape. Why not just cover the plastic dash with seat material when you re-upholster your car?



And it would fade faster, BTW because the sun beats down on the dash but only bounces into the interior. Or is it the moon? I don't know how Australia works.

Good points mang. Injection molding is great on a big enough scale I guess.



Well, my dash is actually cracking and falling to pieces. I'm actually worried about the crash safety of the car because it splinters and cracks off in jagged shards - Accent seatbelts stretch enough for both occupants to impact the dashboard.



*edit* No it really is bad.



http://zarnochwf1.com/gallery2/d/4726-3/Photo0079.jpg

Minor cosmetic blemish, will buff right out. Maybe a little armor-all is required.

http://www.excelrally.com.au/forum/s...ead.php?t=3143



Have a chat with this guy wheels??

Now that's what I'm talking about! I'd try to do everthing myself though, it's more fun that way.