24 replies to this topic

[ULS33]

My missus just redone the interior in her mirage recently. During which i got dragged along to Spotlight to decide which fabric to get. I saw some carbon fibe sorta "cross-hatch" with a 3D look and feel. Has a thin rubber backing. If you still want that spongey dash feel. Pop down to Clarke rubber and grab a roll of thin foam. Also at spotlight is a good range of glues for upoholstry.

[ENGINR]

I attempted to suede wrap my dash with some material and glue from Spotlight. I made a total botch of the job and it looked like shit. Ended up taking it to a professional upholsterer and he did a fantastic job of suede wrapping the dash and end plates of the support frame.

IMO it was worth the $$$ spent to have a quailty outcome from the exercise!

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Edited by ENGINR, 27 June 2013 - 10:37 PM.

[Liberoz]

some things are just way better paying the extra and getting a pro to do it that dash is awesome quality Enginr

[kessen]

Sorry for a mild thread revival but ENGINR, how does the suede hold up to the sun and being left outside on a hellishly hot day? Has it faded yet?

 

What were the specifics of the material too?

[ENGINR]

It's a bit hard to use my car as a benchmark for how the suede will behave in a daily, as it spends most of its time under a car cover in the garage.

 

That said - the first suede wrap job he did, there was a quality problem with the glue he was using and on a hot day when it was parked outside a workshop for most of the day in the sun, the glue let go and the suede started lifting.  The suede itself didn't fade or go funny.

 

He redid the wrap job (and used a glue without quality problems!) and sofar the suede is holding up well.  I've had a couple of really hot days at the track where the car has sat in the sun for about an hour at a time and have had no further problems.  I do leave the windows down so the heat won't build up in the interior like a furnace! but I guess that's something that can't really be done in a daily that's parked and left for long periods at a time.

 

Drawing from my automotive engineering experience - it is usually hard to get a material like suede to withstand the UV exposure it will see when in a highly visible area like the dash panel or doortrim uppers without fading very quickly.  This is why in most OEM cars that use suede, it's usually placed in low areas of the interior out of direct sunlight so it will survive the life of the car.

 

I knew all this when I opted to have my dash suede wrapped as I figured it wouldn't see the usual exposure to UV that a daily driver would.

Edited by ENGINR, 13 December 2013 - 10:50 PM.