My Dash is Hard Plastic!?!?!

[mrtew]

Somehow my VX has had me fooled for three and a half years. I always thought the top of the dashboard was that puffy, self skinning, slush molded foam vinyl stuff that you see in nice cars, which is particularly bizarre since I have worked on designing car interiors almost the whole time I've had it (thank God I'm on exteriors now). Now that I realized that it's hard, (I hope I'm not shattering everyone else's illusions also) I want to do something with it... have it leather wrapped, covered in carbon fiber, sanded and painted body color or gloss black, whatever... just something other than fake animal grained hard plastic. Maybe even do the same thing with the a-pillars and the doors. Has anyone done something cool with the dash? I don't remember ever seeing anything except the dash-insert panel being modified.

[WormGod]

Hahahahaha.... welcome to the waking world Mrtew. Trust me, as large as our windshield is, be glad that it ISNT a soft, padded material. With all the sunlight and UV that comes through that monster windshield, that material would be cracked within a year, heh.

[Raque Thomas]

Originally posted by mrtew
Somehow my VX has had me fooled for three and a half years. I always thought the top of the dashboard was that puffy, self skinning, slush molded foam vinyl stuff that you see in nice cars, which is particularly bizarre since I have worked on designing car interiors almost the whole time I've had it (thank God I'm on exteriors now). Now that I realized that it's hard, (I hope I'm not shattering everyone else's illusions also) I want to do something with it... have it leather wrapped, covered in carbon fiber, sanded and painted body color or gloss black, whatever... just something other than fake animal grained hard plastic. Maybe even do the same thing with the a-pillars and the doors. Has anyone done something cool with the dash? I don't remember ever seeing anything except the dash-insert panel being modified.

I have been considering this as well. Rickster painted his "leather grained" door panels, and they appear smooth, so it could be done to the dash as well - check out his gallery. The VX dash is in dire need of something to make it different like the rest of the car.

[Rooster]

Actually some fairly thin black leather would be maliable and fairly easy to install...

[Maugan_VX]

Ok, if it looks good and has fooled you this long....

...why the heck do you want to replace it? Once again I don't understand why people want to throw money out the window.

Its not busted or faded is it? Mine just collects dust :P
(and rattles annoyingly, but I've got a BFH to fix that)

[mrtew]

Originally posted by Maugan_VX
Ok, if it looks good and has fooled you this long....
...why the heck do you want to replace it?

Well, I guess I never thought it looked that good... not really bad or anything but at least I thought it was a nice dash as far as quality etc... but now that I know it's just fake I want to do something to make it look cooler. Hopefully not something that will cost a lot of money or anything... that's not my point, but although I agree that the stock design of the VX is beautiful, I don't think that really extends to the dash 'pad', which is not a pad at all.