Tech/How to request - Padded dash

I was thinking about the final out come of my car today and figured out that the way my dash was set up I could make it look really good padding it in a second color.

Now, knowing next to nothing about interior work, could somebody who has the expertise share how you would go about padding it? Is it just a thin layer of 1/8" foam contact cemented to the metal dash with streched vinyl over it?

FWIW heres my idea on this particular dash. (nevermind the dirty dash or the missing radio bezel/radio. I have those in my room) Use the pieces labeled 1 and 2 as hold downs for the seam of the vinyl and contact cement the foam to the dash then contact the vinyl to the foam.

 

im assuming that your current dash is metal then with no padding?

alot depends on how accurately you want your pad to follow the curvature of the stock dash, and also how padded you really want it to be.

like youve said, a simple and easy way to do it is to cement a layer of foam down and then stretch whatever material you choose, over it. how hard you stretch it can compress the foam underneath...depending on how rigid or forgiving the foam you choose is. the thickness of the foam really depends on how plush you want the dash and like i said how much you want it to accurately follow the stock form.

if you dont really care about it being that 'cushy' you can just cemet the new fabric directly over the stock dash as well, for a new look/color.

if you want to do something fancier like 'tuck n roll' then make a pattern of the overall dash with a very cheap but similar fabric to your final fabric so the amount of stretch will be close. then sew up your pleats and cut out the pattern. when you lay the foam down a good way to do it so that it hides the seams is to either mark on the foam and make gouges/slices for the seams to fit into, or you can just cut separate strips and cement them to the underside of the new cover first. To make sure that they fit inbetween the seams perfectly...then cement it to the dash.

also sometimes, depending on how shapely your dash is, you dont have to cement it down, so if you wanted to you could change it at a later time.

hope that helped somewhat.