J10 Dash Pad Restoration

[THERMOQUAD]

I recently did a restoration on a 1977 J10 Dash Pad that was petrified , cracked on the surface and the speaker grill had crumbled leaving a giant hole in the middle of it, sound familiar to anyone ? The overall structure of it was sound and the foam wasn't rotted , so I sanded and smoothed any lumps down , fiberglassed it with 8 to 9 layers of 9 0z. fiberglass cloth and polyester resin, sanded that down mostly smooth, spread 1/16" to 1/8" of Bondo body filler over the fiberglass and sanded that smooth, shot it with a good coat of 2K Epoxy Primer (T-Rex Gray), scuff sanded the primer and shot it with 3 heavy coats (3 cans) of Iron Armor truck bed liner.
It really turned out nice and the finish on it is a very low luster new vinyl texture look. It appears to have a shine to it in the final pics, but that is mainly from the intense flash on my camera. Sorry, but I had to really crop the pics down to get them to
load and it won't let me attach more than five pics per post.

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[THERMOQUAD]

More Pics !!!

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[SJTD]

Looks really good. How's it fit? Seems like it would be quite a bit thicker than it was.

[THERMOQUAD]

Fit is not a problem , the 9oz. cloth is very thin and that is why I put down so many layers of it, but it contours around curves and corners very well.
I spread up to 1/8" of body filler on it , but sanded most of it down to 1/32" to 1/16. In the end it may have increased the thickness by 1/8" to 3/16"
max, but you really can't tell and it looks great and fits perfect on the steel dash. After I got all the fiberglass laid I bolted the pad to the dash while it was still soft and pliable so that it would cure to the perfect shape and fit of the dash. I also hand painted the JEEP AMC logo emblem as the old paint was very faded. I had to do it with a magnifying glass and a very tiny paint brush as that emblem is stupid small and I am a perfectionist. LOL

[THERMOQUAD]

More Pics to show that it really didn't bulk it up in the end. The first one is after I sanded the Bondo down and the second one is right after I shot it with bedliner.

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[gilbedw]

Very good looking. I need to do the same thing to mine. A couple of questions.

1 Does it still go under the windshield gasket.

2 How did you address the area around the defroster vents. One of mine is missing a piece?

3 Both right and left ends of the pad have metal plates with studs to bolt it to the metal dash.
Both of mine have become unbonded. Do you or anyone else know what kind of adhesive would reattach them.

[THERMOQUAD]

gilbedw,
Thanks for the feed back and in answer to your questions

1 Yes it still goes under the windshield gasket by about 1/2" or so and it is as stiff as a board with the fiberglass job, so no chance of it warping up like the old vinyl would.

2 I actually cut out the old vinyl strips between the vent and the windshield because they were so warped and twisted out of shape, then glassed in some strips of 18 gauge sheet metal that I cut to shape. I cut them a little over size and glued them in place on the bottom side with Weldwood Gel contact cement and then glassed over them until it came up level with the top side of the pad. Attaching pics below

3 Yep, one of my metal end plates was pulled loose and I glued it back together with the Weldwood Gel contact cement, seems to be holding well so far. Weldwood contact cement is great stuff and I like the gel formula the most.
As you can see I take lots of pics of everything I do and also if you notice the hand writen date on the bottom of the dash pad in yellow ink or paint is 10-24-77.

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[gilbedw]

Thermoquad
Thanks for the answers and additional pictures. I have a spare metal dash. I will set it up and use it to do the work. I hope mine will look as good as yours

[rocklaurence]

That looks great! I did a dash a few years back but w/o the glass and bondo. I used a flexible 3M filler [expensive]. Doing it your way also opens up a lot of custom opportunities--like gauge pops, new speaker holes. Really cool that the bedliner texture work so well

[THERMOQUAD]

gilbedw,
Take your time with it and before each step wash it down with a good degreaser so that each process sticks like it should. After you fiberglass it it will look like a freak show and you will be asking yourself " What Have I done ? ", but use a 4 1/2" dual actin/ orbital sander w/ 100 or 120 grit velcro stick pad to knock down all the rough stuff and carefully smooth the contours. If you leave any air pockets in the fiberglass you will bust them open when you sand and it will leave pits of various sizes and shapes. I had a few and I just chopped up some fiberglass and mixed it with resin, filled them in and sanded them down smooth. HAVE FUN !!!

[THERMOQUAD]

rocklaurence,
Thanks for the input, you are right, someone with a little imagination could really go nuts and build a totally rad custom dash.
The bedliner turned out better than I even hoped it would, but you have to spray it thick and wet to get the finish that I did, Otherwise it comes out grainy like 60 grit sand paper. The good thing is that the Iron Armor bedliner sprays on very thick and resists runs and sags even on vertical surfaces and at $7.99 a can at Harbor Freight it doesn't kill the pocket book. On a side note I shot the bedliner on at about 60 to 65 degrees in my shop and then let it sit for about two weeks before I even touched it because that Iron Armor cures out real slow when it is that thick. It might cure out faster at warmer temps.