Thread: 1997 Fiat Brava SX 1.4 12v

More on this project:

after using the carputer as you can see above I've come to the conclusion it's not the best position for the monitor to be in....

So, back to the drawingboard... I've seen lots of people sacrificing their air vents to put the monitor in the dash, but I don't want to loose those vents so i thought this up:



And started fabricating it:

First I got an other piece of dashboard at the breakers and cut it up so i could start the framing. Here's the crude framework with, on the left side, some ducktape to show how the screen will fit in it when finished. I've put in a dummy/mockup of the screen i'll be using.


I taped everything up to make it ready for the foam part


Filled it up with foam, a bit to much but who cares


After the foam set I started cutting it down to get the crude shapes i wanted


And... here it is ready for fiberglassing I'll try to do it the same way I did it for the first install





So still to do:
- fiberglassing
- Bondo and sanding
- paint
- finding a new position for the rearwindow heating button, the emergency lights button and the foglight button

I'm also looking into making an insert to put in the storage compartment in my centerconsole where i can locate a DVD-player and a cardreader...

So... Yesterday I started the first part of the fiberglass bit...

So, just as i did last time I used an old stocking, cut it open and stretched it around the dash. To make sure it stays put I've glued it onto the backside of the dash with some hot-glue, which is easily removable, well on the surface i'm using it is...

So here's how it looks at the moment:



And a picture of the backside for I dunno if you're interested.


Next up is putting the resin on it, that'll be the job for this weekend, hope it works out

So still to do:
- fiberglass resin
- Bondo and sanding
- paint
- finding a new position for the rearwindow heating button, the emergency lights button and the foglight button

Hi all!

Well I didn't have the opportunity to put resin on the dash because of the cold weather over here in the Netherlands. The resin I'm using can only be used above 5C and luckily in the days after Christmas we had a few days above that, even 10C so I applied the resin. Below is the result:






Yesterday I had a little free time so i started sanding. This is what it looks like now. The left side is a little further along but it already gives an idea on how it's gonna look when finished





But now I'm facing a choice... shall i apply another layer of resin to fill in the holes and "low" parts or shall i continue with glass-fiber bondo?

Can anyone say what would be better?

Hi all,

for starters Best Wishes for 2010!

Because of the cold weather here in the Netherlands I was unable to start the resin phase earlier. The resin I'm using needs +5C minimum. Luckily in the days after Christmas we had a few days of +10C so I quickly applied the resin

This is what it looked like afterwards:




In the last few days I started sanding, I've gotten a bit further on the left side of my days piece but now you can already get the general idea.




The next problem to tackle is; how to fill in the small holes/gaps and low areas.... I mean shall I apply some more resin in those areas or start using glass-fiber bondo?

What do you guys think? :-s

Regards, Wire!

i would personally use bondo type filler because fiberglassing small areas is quite a challenge. I cant wait to see the end result!

Hey,

Another update, I sanded some more yesterday. Because the resin layer is a bit thin I decided to apply another layer. It's a bit too flexible for me now and is sanded trough it in a few places Afterward I will go and use the bondo to make it smooth...




The curves of the dash are still OK and I think the new lines are quite nice.

A quick closeup.


Now I still need to find a location to apply the new resin layer... I really don't want to do this in the house, this stuff will get you high for a week!

I'm very impressed with the redesign! Keep up the good work- loving the picture of each step of progress too.

Hi all,

I applied the extra resin layer last saturday and did a little bit of sanding....

Here's a pic of it's current state, sorry for the low qual, i only had time for a pic with my moblie this morning :-s

Hi all!

I've got quitte a big update this time, last Monday i finished up the sanding of the new resin layer, it really did the trick...





The holes for the heater dials still need a lot of work...


I still need to cleanup the corners of the hole for the display itself




And of course the air vents need some cleaning up aswell...




Yesterday I took out my Dremel tool and started the cleaning up process I took these pictures after wards... I printed out a Centrafuse screenshot and taped it to the dummy display and stuck it into the dash, just to see how it'll look







So... What do you think?

So still to do:
- Bondo and more sanding
- paint
- finding a new position for the rearwindow heating button, the emergency lights button and the foglight button

System status:
Carputer [#####]
Dashboard with display v1 [#####]
Dashboard with display v2 [##---]
Centerconsole [#----]
Relocation of some dash buttons [-----]