dicor
New Member
- Feb 19, 2011
- 835
- Boat Info
- 270 DA 1998
- Engines
- 7.4 Merc w/Bravo III Drive
Dash brought back to life with pix
My 98 270DA had an extremely weathered dash. I looked into the wet film process but did not want to part with $350. I found this vinyl film called Vector. It's self adhesive and has a very realistic carbon fiber look and feel, it's 3D. It's not simply a photo it looks real, you can feel the design it has texture, I wasn't expecting much for $40 but I was very happy with this. It can be heated with a heat gun to make it very pliable and it easy to work the corners. The one very nice thing about this is that it's somewhat porous so absolutely no air bubbles. The vinyl was under $40 and the edge sealant pen was $2 and the entire process took 2 hours. I bought the edge sealant pen which does what it say seals the edge. The Guy from Beacon said it was not really necessary but for $2 I figured the extra added insurance was worth it. I cleaned it up the dash with mineral spirit and hit it with some fine Emory cloth. I rounded the edges of the dash plate with a sander, I think it looks better than the orig. sharp edge. I bought the stuff at a graphics supply store in Branchburg, NJ called Beacon Graphics (they ship if you can't find it locally) the part I bought was vect vcf2500 3D carbon fiber wrap. This is the same stuff the tuner motorheads use on their cars to give it a carbon fiber look. It's supposed to be UV protective and has a 5 year warranty however they said that if it's not out in the weather on a horizontal surface it's life is indefinite.
I also called Carling tech. they are the company that make the rocker switches. They will sell replacement rockers that will snap onto the existing switches. These replacement rockers have pictures of the switches function ie... picture of a horn on the horn rocker. This is important because the weathered dash had the switch function printed directly on it.
Before the darts begin to fly, I am not affiliated with Beacon or Vector
My 98 270DA had an extremely weathered dash. I looked into the wet film process but did not want to part with $350. I found this vinyl film called Vector. It's self adhesive and has a very realistic carbon fiber look and feel, it's 3D. It's not simply a photo it looks real, you can feel the design it has texture, I wasn't expecting much for $40 but I was very happy with this. It can be heated with a heat gun to make it very pliable and it easy to work the corners. The one very nice thing about this is that it's somewhat porous so absolutely no air bubbles. The vinyl was under $40 and the edge sealant pen was $2 and the entire process took 2 hours. I bought the edge sealant pen which does what it say seals the edge. The Guy from Beacon said it was not really necessary but for $2 I figured the extra added insurance was worth it. I cleaned it up the dash with mineral spirit and hit it with some fine Emory cloth. I rounded the edges of the dash plate with a sander, I think it looks better than the orig. sharp edge. I bought the stuff at a graphics supply store in Branchburg, NJ called Beacon Graphics (they ship if you can't find it locally) the part I bought was vect vcf2500 3D carbon fiber wrap. This is the same stuff the tuner motorheads use on their cars to give it a carbon fiber look. It's supposed to be UV protective and has a 5 year warranty however they said that if it's not out in the weather on a horizontal surface it's life is indefinite.
I also called Carling tech. they are the company that make the rocker switches. They will sell replacement rockers that will snap onto the existing switches. These replacement rockers have pictures of the switches function ie... picture of a horn on the horn rocker. This is important because the weathered dash had the switch function printed directly on it.
Before the darts begin to fly, I am not affiliated with Beacon or Vector
Last edited:
