Gloss finish on dash

I'm going to be working on a custom stereo in a Porsche 944.  Since the original dash is cracked, the owner bought a molded plastic dash that will replace it.  But it is rather flimsy and he wants it to have a gloss finish when done.  So my question is, would you guys recomend adding a couple layers of glass before the body work?  I'm afraid that the glass will effect the fit of all the trim pieces when done.  I had this problem on my door pannels, and I only added one layer of glass (1.5 oz mat).  Or do you guys think a layer for Duraglass will be strong enough?  I may also re-inforce the larger areas underneath with some fiberglass just to be sure.  I figure gluing down some backstrap and then fiberglassing over it will provide enough rigidity.  Please let me know if you guys have any suggestions or tips you have found helpful.  Thanks!

Steven Kephart

Adire Audio

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944, nice one. I've have one sitting around that I haven't got past the door panels (too busy).
For the dash, if the surface is relatively curve free, I tend to lay cloth weave glass instead of mat. One layer, then coat with a glass/bondo mixture for rigidity, then bondo and filler for the final smooth finish. When test fitting, you can always sand portions away to get the fit, but cloth doesn't add much thickness to the original shape.

I know on the door panels, that is what I did. Can you remove the material off the dash board (like vinyl or whatever material it is) first? The fiberglass stuck really well to the door panels after the vinyl was removed.

Get some pics up if you can, I am very interested in seeing how it turns out. I could use some new ideas to help me get working on our 944 again!

Also, make sure you can get the dash in place if the piece is completely solid. If you have to flex the piece to remove it, generally it isn't going to go back easily after it's been 'glassed.


Good Luck!
DXAV

Hey, thanks for the response.  The original dash is actually cracked, so the owner bought a flimsy molded plastic piece shaped like the dash that will be fiberglassed.  I should probably remove the old dash first and check for fit, but they drive that car around. 

They actually have two 944's.  One is a 944S4 with a race prep engine.  I get to do different installs in each one.  They just bought some new front bumpers as the old style is kinda ugly.  They also just re-did the enterior upholstry and gave them new paint jobs.  I am just finishing up a 928 right now.  You can see pics of it and some other fiberglass work I've done/helped on here: https://www.sounddomain.com/memberpage/304268/8

Here's a picture of the pods on the 928 almost finished.  They just have to be color matched:

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Actually, now that I see that pic, I do recongize you from sounddomain. Our 944 was a N/A, but now it is Turbo. Only has about 30K mileage. After the turbo was put in, it hasn't been running that well, unfortunately. We are working on the trunk and door panels right now. Taking the [useless] back seats out for a little weight reduction, offset by the 10s and amps we will install.

Back to the topic, though. I would definitely test fit the new dash cover. But if it fits, glassing it as I mentioned earlier will be easy, and give you great results.

Good Luck,
DXAV