I just wanted to put a post out there and give back to this board a little bit. I have a 1968 Ford F250 Camper Special that I am slowly restoring. It is not the prettiest thing right now, but I decided to do the Dashboard. My buddy down the street is an Intel Engineer, but he used to do upholstery. He told me to pull the dash and he would put vinyl on it. (I also had him do my seat which looks great!)

I went down to an upholstery shop and purchased some thin stretchy vinyl and felt for the backing as well as some super duper 3M adhesive. Everything cost about $30.

We smashed down all the cracks and filled them with caulking. The speaker area basically crumbled so we covered it with plastic. We also cut out the metal vents from the foam. We covered the dash in felt. My friend stitched two pieces together around the vents and two pieces for the dash. Everything was glued around the edges. We pressed the metal vents underneath teh dash and also glued them to the vinyl.

It looks great. I think it even looks better than the old dash. Definitely too nice for my truck at this point.

Although everybody may not be as lucky as me to have a friend with a sowing machine, you may be able to bring the dash to an upholstery shop and have them cover it.

I thought I could attach pictures to this, but I can't figure it out.

Josh

 

sounds like a great idea. i'd never thought of that.
try to post some picture so we can see

 

How do I post photos?

 

create a gallery and then just use the upload function

 

I created my Gallery. Here are the photos of the Dashboard:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...?&albumid=8444

 

Nice!! Is that an AM/FM 8track?

 

Honestly, the stereo is the least of my problems with this truck, but idealtrucks I will post a picture of the new stereo when I install it.

 

looks nice. What kind of tools did he use to work with the vinyl?

How'd your buddy go from upholstery to working for the Dark Side?

Sorry, couldn't resist. I work for their biggest competitor :-)

 

We used no special tools for doing the vinyl. A good pair of scissors and an old sewing machine. We did use a heat gun to stretch the vinyl and make the 3M Adhesive really stick. It was a contact adhesive that we sprayed on the dash to hold the felt. Then, after all the stitching was done we sprayed the adhesive underneath the dash and on the backside of the vinyl. Used the heat gun to warm the adhesive before pressing the vinyl under the dash.

 

wow looks good and for $30 better the the $90 for a cap

 

Wow! That looks great! It beats what my friend's dad did to his Fairmont. His dad took some carpet and nailed it to the old dash!

 

You know what. I pushed on the faceplate of that stereo and it is an 8 track. Maybe it is worth some money!

 

Dude, that dash looks awesome...

Hey, what's an 8track?

 

Hey Jambroson, I have the same 8track in my truck! I thought it was an aftermarket install. Now I think it may a special order item. What are the chances that we would have the same stereo?
\I still need to determine if the tape deck works.
\Good luck on your truck.
\Ray

 

i used to use 8 tracks to level my coffe table. heck one store i worked for still had a case of em brand new in the wrapper's