Aluminum is a fantastic material, but it's pretty reflective. My new aluminum dash is damn near blinding in the sun. I had thought flocking was pretty expensive, but this company: http://www.flockit.com/index.php/ seems to be pretty reasonably priced.
Anybody have experience with this group or another setup? Pics?
Irish flocked the dash on his RX car. You can probably dig back through the 60 some pages of his thread and find it. It looked pretty cool.
I always wonder how hard it is to clean.
Found it! http://classicmotorsports.com/forum/grm/flock-accomplished/44531/page1/
I've seen a flocked dash in person and it looks surprisingly good. Dooo eeeet!
wae
HalfDork
3/22/15 9:23 a.m.
I used the DonJer flocking kit on the dash of my RallyCross Neon. One kit had enough for the dash with a ton left over, so it's actually pretty cheap, considering. Once I had the dash out of the car, it was a pretty simple matter of cleaning the plastic really well, applying the adhesive, and puffing out the fibers. It took a couple hours in an evening to get the job done (not including re-installing the dash after it dried), so I'd rate it as a 3 beer job.
It has held up well to two RallyCross seasons so far, and it still looks great. I haven't tried cleaning it because it's a RallyCross car, but so far I don't have any complaints. There were a couple areas that I didn't clean thoroughly enough or that I didn't put the adhesive on thick enough, but overall it is totally worth it.
Right now the dash looks like this
Not that this is completely relevant to your post but my production line used to be next to the flocking line at Faurecia (we built the interiors for the X5/X6) Man that stuff goes EVERYWHERE
Be sure to do it someplace you probably won't have to clean up/care about.
I asked this a while back and there was a thread about it. I think it might class up the dash in the commute attack car. I'd love to learn more, hit me up if you end up going through it and want some help.
DaveEstey wrote:
Right now the dash looks like this
Is this a job for Plasti Dip?
Wow, never knew about this, but flocking is exactly what I need for a non-auto application right now (jewelry box for daughter).
For dash purposes, how thick does it go on? I'm wondering for the Saab dash if I could do some vynil repair of the cracks, then cover with the flocking and have it look OK.
Also, why can I not stop laughing to myself? My wife is right, I am still 14.
So, as mentioned I did mine three years ago. Three rallycross seasons and the car mostly sitting outside and it's held up well. Really none of the material has come off at all, and it's still soft to the touch like when new.
That said, it is quite dusty right now. I've vacuumed it a few times with a brush attachment and that seems to work pretty well, but the gray color disguises the dirt pretty well anyhow.
Now, my dash crack repairs are starting to come apart though - this car takes a beating so that's no surprise. Still, you don't see them unless you look pretty closely.
Here's some pics I took a few minutes ago for you.
FYI, for dash cracks use Bondic prior to flocking and they'll never re-appear
dinger wrote:
JohnRW1621 wrote:
Is this a job for Plasti Dip?
Yup.
I was just thinking that. It doesn't reflect much, it's cheap and super-easy to fix or remove later if you want.
Here's how the brushed aluminum MS3 case looked after I plasti-dipped it...I don't want any shiny boxes in my car's interior to catch thieves' attention:
I much prefer the look of flocking
drummerfromdefleopard wrote:
GameboyRMH wrote:
I don't want any shiny boxes in my car's interior to catch Scruts' attention:
QFTT
No need, the car's 80s-tastic styling and post-apocalyptic paint condition keeps all women at bay
Flocking could be a solution to the inside of my van if I remove the plastic interior panels. Hazmat suit on, close the doors, and flock the E36 M3 out of that van.