Thread: First Time Fab - 2003 Ford Explorer - Please help! - A lot of pictures...

Originally Posted by houdini

Or if you want to get really crazy.
http://www.alsacorp.com/products/fan...y_prodinfo.htm

thermoform sheeting for your dash, like you originally had.

That would definately be a good way to restore it to factory looks, good find.. I think they sell the same stuff on E-Bay...

Well I know I haven't posted in a couple of days, but after about a 100 hours of sanding I finally put on the first coat of primer. I mean I have already sanded most of it off because of some cracks and scratches but here is the picture before that. Its coming along and I just can't wait until its finished. Building the computer is fun while fabbing SUCKS!

that looks NICE. what did you use for primer?

I used car spray paint primer. I will take pictures of all the cans and post them ASAP.

Here is basically the finished product. I originally bought the black automobile trim paint, but read another post where someone used it and wasn't happy. He recommend buying rustomleom fine texture plastic black spray paint. It definitely looks good, my only problem with it is that it doesn't really match the trim of the car. Its slightly off and I have like OCD when it comes to that. I was thinking about maybe putting a light coat of that Trim spray paint over this one. What do people think of that? Can it work? Will it work? Will I mess up my current paint? Anyway here is basically the finished product. I must say I not one to pat myself on the back, but for my first fabrication job it turned out a lot better then I expected. This literally took a hundred hours of sanding. My next issue is going to be how I mount the screen. I left the screws in the back so I didn't have to epoxy it, but on a test run the screen seems to slip down the slightest bit causing some of the white outline to show. I guess I am going to just have to epoxy it even though I didn't want to. Oh well you win some and you lose some.





Feel free to write and tell me what you think... Any discoloration is from the flash. It actually looks a lot better in person. I will see if I can get some shots in the sunlight tomorrow.

that looks GREAT i need to get some of that car spray paint primer. i also need to figure a way out to move the buttons on my lilliput. hoping to tackle this job 2day.

Looking really good!! I will have your chassis shipped out to you this week to put behind that awesome looking dash center. I would recommended hot glue for the screen. It will hold the screen and touch panel in place, seal off the dust that could get in between the panels, and is not quite as permanent as epoxy. If the screen ever needs to be replaced you can cut the hot glue and remove the screen, epoxy would be another story

i'd check the hot glue you plan to use just to make sure it'll hold up to the temperatures your car can sometimes reach. I think for the most part it works fine if you use the high-temp glue.

i just had a bad experience when i made the mistake of letting circuit city install something. they used hot glue, and wouldn't you know it, it melted one day and left my install in a somewhat saggy and non-functional state.

Lookin good

Looks like it still needs some sanding tho

Well, esachs I took your advice. After plugging the monitor in and booting it up I realized that the bottom bezel was too high and basically cutting off the "start" button and the bottom half of the RR buttons on the bottom. I then got ****ed and took a dremel to the whole bottom part. I sanded off all the black texture paint and am basically reworking it, so its a lot less thick on the bottom and I am also working on getting the left and the right sides of the bezel to me more uniform. I will post pictures shortly the primer is currently drying.

esahcs where did you think more sanding was needed?