Part 2

10. Get out your fiberglass mat and precut your strips. You don't want to have to cut any more strips once you start playing with the resin. It gets very sticky.

11. Mix up your resin. Red bull is optional, may be replaced by your favorite beer or coffee if you are doing this at 8 in the morning like I was.

12. It's hard to tell in the pic, but lay down a coat of resin.

13. Start laying down your fiberglass mat once piece at a time. Take your resin and brush it onto the fiberglass. Make sure to soak the mat completely.

14. Keep building it up layer by layer and making sure to soak each layer with resin.

Let it thouroughly dry. I let mine dry all day and overnight.


Next we will sand, put one more coat of fiberglass on, sand, primer, paint and install the switches. Stay tuned.

 

15. Here is some sanding after the first few coats of fiberglass.

16. Apply some body filler, aka Bondo, to smooth out the surface. Repeat this step until everthing is smooth and blended. You may want to put a final coat of glaze on there to fill any pinholes.

17. Apply some primer and paint to your desired color. Since we were installing some switches for the air suspension, we measured out the holes and drilled them.

18. Here is the finished pic of the center bezel installed.

 

Hey Steve did u finish this yet.

 

Yep finished it a while back. I just updated this post with the final steps.

 

Keep us posted...

 

Hey Steve, tight work as always..!

 

What brand and color did you use to match the factory silver color? Also, how has the paint held up under normal wear?

 

What brand and color did you use to match the factory silver color? Also, how has the paint held up under normal wear?

That was the hardest part. Not finding a matching color, but actually finding a paint that would stick. I tried 2 other brands before the final can. The other 2 would not dry even after a day, so I had to take some laquer thinner and scrape off the paint. I will have to see if I still have the can. I do remember it was a metallic. There are also a couple coats of clear coat on it. Paint has held up fine so far.

 

That looks sweeeeeeet!!!!!!!!!!

 

That is sweet man!!! Billet Technology is making me a custom one that will go over/in the pocket area next to the shifter. Will have engraves and all on it.

 

Steve are your switches momentary? Or do you have to flip them on and off?

 

So Steve, what do you have wired to all of those switches?

 

They were my air bag switches, but since I have a Avic double din headunit, I had to install a switchbox and get a Nav bezel. All that hardwork for only 6 months of use.

 

Great write up and glad to see the boss moddn'

 

wow! THat looks soooooo smooth, I may have to try my hand at fiberglassing soon! And also a double din opening?

 

Awesome job and fantastic write up! Thanks for sharing! Your a lot braver than me.... I wouldn't want to try something like that!

 

Very nice Steve... looks just like OEM !!! :fing02:

 

Would the dakota monitor fit in this new area you created?

Just curious.

Have you thought about using rocker switches for looks?

Good job by the way.

Oh yeah, someone asked if they were momentary switches.

I would assume yes since just like hyrdraulics you have to lift/drop the suspension on demand. You can't just turn it on and expect it to stop on it's own without some kind of control.

 

that is clean, man. awesome job!

 

jealous i am!

 

Looks sweet, nice job.

 

I am Jonesing so bad to get my Magnum from the Dealer. Stupid re-calls! Stuff like this is making me drool with all the little ideas I have come up with.

VERY nice job!

JB

 

that a clean looking console man.....wicked job