Auto upholstery shops sell the cardboard that is used for door cards and the like.

I took my old cards and traced, folded, bent and covered with red vinyl bought from the same shop. Matches perfect.

I found a large piece of lightly leather patterned stamped stiff card material at an upholstery shop.  My old cards were pretty shot, so I used light weight cardboard from boxes and cut them while fitting them in the dash, then trimmed and trimmed until they were right.  Then I used those as templates to cut out the leather patterned card material.  Looks very good.  For the shelf, I used black carpet.

Thanks Dan... thats some great info. I think what its gonna come down to is experimenting... but thats the fun part, right!?

Spitz... email is [email protected]

MacEwen...

What's your email address?  ( or email me if you don't want to post it ....address in profile )

 My car is a leter one with the 3 gage cluster on the left.

I made my own cards using sheet plastic - from old signs from a Billy Graham Crusade. I think it was sheet styreen about 1.5mm thick, 600mm high by about 2,000mm long. It is solid plastic, not hollow like Coroplast. It will flex equally in any direction without kinking and will take quite a bit of "horsing" to get into place.

I used the old cards as templates and test-fitted them before wrapping them with upholstery vinyl. Use a glue suitable for plastic and vinyl and wrap the edges by about 1". Don't forget the flap that tucks into the door gasket.

For the parcel shelf, I cut a piece slightly oversize and test fitted it without the dash card. Because I don't have a centre binnacle, the card had to be bent upward over the switch panel. I used heat from an electric paint-stripping gun to make the upward bend over a pipe or dowel, then again to get the level raised part. I trimmed the forward (firewall) edge gradually until it gave enough pressure on the vertical card to keep it snugly in place, as it tucks down behind the shelf panel.

When everything fit well, I clad the pieces in in vinyl and fitted them in. It was quite a struggle to get them in, partly because of the eyeball vents sticking out in the way.

Then the upper rail dash pad, also reclad in vinyl, was reinstalled.

I haven't got around to doing the lower dash rail... too many things to take apart and too little time.

"..something stiffer that can be wetted and shaped then dried into a somewhat permenant card/..."

I think you find that the cards are actually flat (with folded bits at top and outside edge).  The slight curve they adopt when installed is theh result of age and conformance of the somewaht flexible card to the inflexibel metal dash structure.

Cheers, Ian

Thanks guys. I have a wood dash that came with the car. It was a dealer add on here in Canads, as many of you know. I was never a fan of it... I'm old school guess. I still have the old cardboard dash cards too, but they are rough.

I was thinking of just making a light cardboard template and then cutting something stiffer that can be wetted and shaped then dried into a somewhat permenant card... then wrap in a "nice" black vinyl.

Any other ideas?

I actually have a friend who makes cabnets who is working on a new dash. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Rich-

Tray liner is pretty straight forward, l just use black carpet-

The dash cards are something else- Up until a week ago, l had a new one here, could have made you a template-The problem is, the cardboard dash cards have to be worked into place properly-& are very stiff-

BIG AL

Just wondering if anyone has ever tried to make their own Dash cards or dash tray liner before?? I finally have my Mini at my house after 6 years of storage, and the dash is looking rough. Rather than pay the $$ for new ones I figured I'd see if anyone had ideas for how to make my own. I have the standard oval binnacle and air vents (which I will weld over soon). Any tips?? Rich