painting the dashboard?
#1
#2
Well, taking out the dash is usually a pain in the ***. The only vehicles I've pulled dashes from have been about 10 old skool Mazda B2200s, an 80s Celica, a bunch of 2nd gen RX7s and a couple 240SX's.
Usually the steering wheel needs to be taken off, and you need a steering wheel puller which you can rent at autozone for a few bucks. The battery needs to be disconnected and let the truck sit for about 15 minutes while the airbags discharge, otherwise if you're trying to take the dash out, you could actually deploy the airbags and that's not much fun.
After the wheel is off and the airbags are discharged, just start unscrewing everything basically. It's pretty time consuming, I would day would take atleast an hour to get your dash out if you've never done it before. I can take one out of a B2200 now in about 10 minutes.
As for painting, the dash is a rough texture. You'll want to get preferably a DA sander that they use for bodywork, but a regular orbital sander will work too. You will need to smooth the entire dash and get rid of the texture. After that very time consuming process is done, you can smooth it by hand, and then clean off all the dust, spray some adhesion promoter on it, and use a few coats of high build primer which will help fill in any imperfections. If you're going through this much trouble, you could also fiberglass the dash if you like.
But once it's smooth and primed, hit it with whatever colour you choose, clear coat it, let it dry for about a day and put it back together.
It'll easily take a weekend to do it. It's quite time consuming.
Usually the steering wheel needs to be taken off, and you need a steering wheel puller which you can rent at autozone for a few bucks. The battery needs to be disconnected and let the truck sit for about 15 minutes while the airbags discharge, otherwise if you're trying to take the dash out, you could actually deploy the airbags and that's not much fun.
After the wheel is off and the airbags are discharged, just start unscrewing everything basically. It's pretty time consuming, I would day would take atleast an hour to get your dash out if you've never done it before. I can take one out of a B2200 now in about 10 minutes.
As for painting, the dash is a rough texture. You'll want to get preferably a DA sander that they use for bodywork, but a regular orbital sander will work too. You will need to smooth the entire dash and get rid of the texture. After that very time consuming process is done, you can smooth it by hand, and then clean off all the dust, spray some adhesion promoter on it, and use a few coats of high build primer which will help fill in any imperfections. If you're going through this much trouble, you could also fiberglass the dash if you like.
But once it's smooth and primed, hit it with whatever colour you choose, clear coat it, let it dry for about a day and put it back together.
It'll easily take a weekend to do it. It's quite time consuming.
#5
#12
oh wow, this is very true. i dont know about the dash anymore.
im thinking of just doing everything i can get out.
any one think of someting that may slip my mind, that can be taken out a GEN 3 ranger? i know this is a long shot.
#16
#17
I left mine in too its not hard to cover everything up i took my seats out when i did my whole cab
sadly it does i parked my truck for 3 days with the windows cracked. if you leave them up it smells bad but it goes away
sadly it does i parked my truck for 3 days with the windows cracked. if you leave them up it smells bad but it goes away
#18
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