I don't get over on this board and post as much as others but I still believe in sharing with my Tundra brother and sisters.
I have never been a real fan of some of the silver dash parts nor any of the aftermarket carbon fiber kits out there casue they were just overlays.
So I been doing some research for months on diffrent things and order up some supplies and finally had a few hours to play with a dash piece this morning. Let me know what you think this should be a good alternative to some of the stuff out there plus I do enjoy doing stuff like this too.
I took my time this morning since I wanted to get some extra pictures.
Since I didn't want to just post a thread with out some teaser pics, so here you go for now. I may get time to finish some other parts this weekend if not it have to wait till I have more time. Enjoy .....
--- Edited Added updated pics and some other information w/mini DIY ---
First off the material in question can be gotten offline from multiple source depending of quality and costs (carbon fiber cloth). Like I said I picked mine up for $35.00 a yard and a yard should be plenty to cover most parts on the Tundra unless you run into a problem. I seen stuff as cheap as $12.00 a yeard and as high as $50.00 a yard. So either ask for samples of what you like or get a referal from someone else. The stuff looks a lot better in person applied than sittign on the table from the pics.
I will say the stuff I got looks the closet to carbon fiber that I have seen without it actually being carbon fiber its a synthetic blended/made item and you can actually feel the fiber patern so it makes it more real. As I have said before it also easy to work with since its just a cloth material that you sticking to existing hardware so it confroms properly to the truck parts without to much work. I used 3M 77 to hold the material to the dash part and it seems to be pretty good for the most part. Be sure to try and get the problem corner first so the glue does not stick to fast or re-apply as needed as you take your time in getting things done. Since the products streatchable it makes it easy to pull and tug around the curved parts but like I said make sure you either do them parts first to get a good grip or re-apply when needed. There have been talk of using contact cement to hold this stuff down too but I wait and see how this works in a few weeks, woste case I pull it off and re-apply it.
Well thats it for the materials I used, so I will get onto some pictures and ideas of the steps I took along the way.
Well fist step pull the dash part from the truck I wont go into details there, so if you got any direct questiosn on that just ask. Lots of connectors and snaps so be carefull.
Products I used to perform my DIY:
Dash as I was removing swicthes on the surgery table.
all were push clips.
Now its onto pulling the silver face rings and black housings. This pictures shows one of the plastic melted retaining clips that I wanted to show one poped off (Left) and one still on (Right). Remove these with a small flat blade screw driver they will just pop off and the other parts snap out with clips.
Clean dash part with all swicthes and trim rings removed. I also at this time used a good alchohol and water souluion to remove light grease and any possible contaminats on the dash parts before applying glue.
After the 2 light coats of 3M 77 material. let it set a maybe 2 minuites before putting the carbon cloth material on.
Start by smothing things out from the center as you go and pull some of the corner down to stick it down now before the glue starts to dry to quick. you will come back and cut and clean up the cutout after you get the main parts done. You can also see how I handled some of the cut outs by putting slits in the materail with a razor blade and folding it, be carefull in some of the corners and know what parts still be exposed after re-assembly <- small tip.
Reassembly of the dash covers and rings....
Completed project on the sugery table allowing it time to dry before re-install
Other completed pictures after install inthe truck...
Okay thats how its all done, now I got to get some free time to do the other pieces but figured not to hold off showing you guys till I finsihed casue that maybe a while and wanted to give you a idea of what I been working on lately for the Tundra.
If there any questions, or just looking for a different angle picture I may already have it just didn't post it up, let me know.
2008 CrewMax Limited 5.7 / Slate Metallic
