hmmm so far, i'm pretty impressed.... don't screw it up

 

What are you going to do about the headliner and carpet? Looks nice so far!! Im impressed, I don't have the guts to, well, uh, gut my 4runner that much, lol.

 

I'm not sure yet but I may reupholster the seats with cloth or leather/swede. I had originally wanted to put in some celica seats for the front and just reupholster the rear seats. I'll get the headliner professionally done. The carpet I'm gonna try dying black or dark gray. If that doesnt work I'll get it professionally done too.

 

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Great JOB! it really takes guts to do what you're doing!

I've been thinking about doing my headliner with perforated vynil, kind'a like the vintage style headliners.

 

Here are some better shots of the dash board and some of the console. I test fitted the vinyl on the dashboard part...well it is part of the dash board so I basically dry assembled the parts back together. Here is the console shot.



I took off all the parts of the console, insides, ashtray, and cup holder. For now I'll roll without the rear cupholder since mine fell apart long ago. Anyway here is the main dashboard. The money shots? Not really yet.



Thats it for now. Its cold out side and seems like the paint cured pretty well. I'm gonna let it set for a while before I reinstall it into the car. I'm gonna clean up some of the wiring thats behind the dash and a few other things while its out right now.

 

Putting the dash back IN will be more fun than taking it out...ask me how I know.

 

oooooooh oooooooh ooooooh how do you know Brian!!??

 

that dash looks pretty good. but is that a flat paint or not it almost looks like it in some of the pics?

 

Have you even put yours back in yet. I still see barren truck on your thread of your build up.

 

The dash is flat black.

 

I took my 3rd gen dash out at one time.

The 1st gen dash in the 85 won't be going back.

The 1st gen dash in the 87 might get swapped out to black since the 87 gray dash is cracked...just have to see...right now...as long as it runs and gets me back and forth to work...it'll stay as is...I got more junk to do to the 85 than I count count.

 

Woah, you're brave for doing that. I hope it turns out! Looks good so far!

I wanted black leather in my truck so bad when I ordered it, but it wasn't an option. I didn't like the tan leather so I settled on gray cloth.

 

what are you going to do about the door panels? i figure that since you already took the whole dash off might as well take a couple of door panels off to (and paint them of course). that just me though.

 

I'm gonna get to them later. I just thought to do the dash right now since I had the bezel pieces off being repainted to charcoal gray already. I had to take the door panels off before. I won't be able to do it within the next month. I can only get the dash back in and get the truck running again.

 

What type of paint are you using and which parts are you using it on? I was thinking about doing this but didn't want it to scrape off easily.

 

I'm using vinyl / fabric paint for the vinyl areas. The plastic is being preped with prepsol and then primered with duplicolor autobody primer. Then two layers of flat black universal black autobody paint is sprayed after a light sanding of the primer coat. I'm considering adding a layer of high temperature exhaust paint onto the dash in hopes of it withstanding the houston heat. Still debating about that right now. It won't withstand direct scratches with metal or solid objects and I won't know about the daily wear and tear yet. This is bascially a shot in the dark for me. I should have asked more import racers how they get theirs done but it won't be too much of a hassel to take everything out if I have to again. Thats if I have to. Now that the paint has cured, my friend and I have tried to scratch it directly and it hasn't scratched yet.

 

That's a pretty gutsy mod. You must REALLY have not liked that interior.

 

Didn't have much of a choice at the time I was getting the truck. Not a huge fan of an oak colored interior. Black is more sporty like.

 

Ah yes the dashboard is complete. I had a little time after my final today to work some more. I cleaned up the interior a bit. Here are some shots again of the barren interior before I install the dashboard.





On ward to the next post. These pictures were also before I ziptied my wiring back together.

 

Here are a few shots of the dash outside and after it was installed. Some of the pictures don't make it look black but its pretty nice. The way it should look when it come out the factory? No offense to anyone thats a fan of the oak interior. Anyway here yall go.







The gauge cluster was painted charcoal gray along with a few other pieces that go on the dash. But now in the sunlight it looks too dark and mistaken for black. I think I might have to shoot some pieces with gunmetal gray and see how that turns out. Otherwise the dash looks pretty good. It was a breeze getting it in too...much easier than removing it...