Ebay Baddies!

A few weeks ago I won an ebay auction for a padded dash as the one I have doesn't suit the vents I have. Anyway after two weeks of emailing and no reply I threatened to open a case and he instantly replied claiming that the Item had been lost in the post and that he had a few in better condition and would send a new one out the next day. I asked If he had sent it two days later, the 14th April I think and he said he had. Any way Today I revived the same damaged dash shown on the photos from the auction. So had what had once been found? No! On the delivery note It said that the Item was sent on the 14th April. I would name and shame but not I'm sure its the right thing to go.

Any way I'm stuck with it now and don't expect to receive a second one in better condition. These things in good or near perfect condition with no cracks are like the proverbial brown stuff from rocking horses so I have a plan to repair. This is an expensive plan but I will have a Pimp dash.

I'm thought this needs covering in vinyl and some one on bay is selling sheets of carbon fibre effect vinyl wrap, so after watching a video on how to wrap I thought that the shapes in the dash may be too complicated, so then I thought What about real CF? I found a supplier that had videos on their web page for skinning. This is where you apply a single layer of CF cloth over an existing part. Perfect!

So this is my plan, put I think I'm going to develop this further. Once U have coated my dash I plan to make GRP mould from this from which I could possibly make another CF dash from scratch. Problem with CF is the cost of the resin, To skin the dash it will cost £70-80 in materials plus time on the job. To make a full CF dash using the mould I think it would be about £100-120. This also got me thinking that if this is successful, maybe I could make my own bumpers, headlight ring and spoiler moulds?

I thought that It may be a bit much CF and not look right with the lime green paint so do I go back to the original paint colour the same as most the other Euro lookers for the sake of the dash? I guess we will just have to see.