Quote:
Originally Posted by Strife
Well, I got the garage up to sufficient temperature today and I did it; it went on really well and conformed darned near perfectly-I can't find that it is sticking up anywhere beyond the thickness of the silicone itself. A few things I learned:
1. IF you don't think it fits right on a test fit, read 2-8.
2. Tucking the L/R sides in between the pillar parts and dash is very important.
3. You have to start out with a "flat" dash, with no upward cracks; my previous attempt worked well for this.
4. Removing the temp gauge and gauge cluster is CRUCIAL to a good fit.
5. Roughing up the plastic and dash as per the instructions-important.
6. Removing the temp gauge gives access to feeling where the "hole" for the interior temp sensor goes; I put a dab of paint on my finger and located it perfectly.
7. I cut some pieces of wood, and by loosening and tightening the steering wheel made a "clamp" for this area. I also used some 36" outdoor railing turnings, braced between the headrest posts and dash to clamp that way. Turning the seat knob forward gives this pressure.
8. Stuff every item of "junk" t-shirts you can in between the window and the dash/cap, and inbetween the instrument cowl and window.
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Sounds like something that will work just fine. One of my areas of concern has always been arround the temperature sensor. If you dont get it down flat in this area the sensor will not have enough length to engage into the hose adapter underneath. Ive never used the silicone meathod so I dont have any experiance with it but the directions given to me with my coverlay dash asked for only about 6 dime sized dabs of silicone arround the parimeter and nothing near the temp sensor.
My understanding of the directions is that they want to allow for local expansion so they dont want glue the full area of the dash. If I were to do this job without removing the dash, I would probably do it according to the directions but add a good maybe 4" circle of contact cement arround the temp sensor hole and clamp it down with a nut and bolt with some large padded fender washers through the hole.
I'm hoping that with the 2 methods I'v used, of full area contact cement using lots of clamps or a vacume bag with the dash removed, that heat transfer will take place over the entire surface of the dash cover through to the original dash and both will expand and contract uniformally.
The first car I did was with contact cement and lots of clamps. That was done about 1 year ago and is holding up fine except in one area behind the right side windshield defroster. I attribut the failure in that area to be due to 2 reasons.
1) The cover was on the car when I bought it and already deformed and curled up in that area.
2) I had used brush on contact cement and had difficulty getting the cement fully coverd over the whole dash area before the first areas of application dried out. This could be corrected by spray on contact cement or the use of the Pliobond #20 contact cement which can be brushed on and fully allowed to dry, then reactivated with a spray bottle of acetone. I used that meathod on my second dash.
The second dash I did has yet to see a single summer thermal cycle so its sucess is still to be determined. But I used the Pliobond #20 and acetone meathod for this dash but with a vacume bag technice. So far it seams to be working OK. I think the vacume bag is over kill and the clamps would work just fine, but the application of the glue and the fact that I started with a new coverlay will make this work.
If I were to remove a dash and do this again, I would probably use the Pliobond and acetone and vacume bag only because its easy. But I would also investigate the possibility of putting several pop rivits with backup washers along the windshield edge, if I could do it in an area where it would not show. This might be along the edge where that cloth strip is (the one that turnes white over time and looks ugly). Hopefuly I could catch the rivit heads under a replacement cloth strip (something that wont turn white).
Keep us posted on the success of this installation
John Roncallo