Offroad-Express

I've had some free time recently so started my interior refurb. The 1980s rapist red colour scheme was getting very dated, and since the cabin is where you spend most of your time, I think it needs to be a nice place to be.

So I spent a couple of days removing the dash and redying the vinyl/plastic.

My dash had never been removed and is over 25 years old. I wanted to do this properly for a long lasting, factory looking finish, so I pulled out the entire dash. I then seperated the dash pad from the plastic housing, removed all the individual panels, glovebox, fusebox door, etc.

Next, washed everything with a scrubbing brush and hot soapy water. Once everything had dried, I roughed it all with a sanding pad and various sandpaper grades. Then I hit it all with wax and grease remover, scrub and rinse again, let it dry, and more wax and grease remover.

Once the items were spotless I laid them flat and applied VHT Vinyl Dye (repco). Several thin coats and 6 hours in the sun to cure. I was skeptical about this product initially, so did some research. It is in fact considered a premium quality product, with great adhesion (so long as prep is A+).

While leaving all the pieces to cure I prepared the firewall to make future electrical installs easier. I removed the blanking plate in the firewall and cut some 1/2" hose pipe, then ran this from the firewall to the console (around where the heater controls are. This will allow me to easily run pipes/wires for gauges later. Also fed through the loom for ARB locker/compressor.

Reinstalling the dash was a bit annoying but I got zero scratches and am very very happy with the outcome. The finish seems very durable due to a lot of prep.

So I reinstalled the kick panels, glovebox latch, etc. Now I just need to take a trip to the wrecker to swap the shifter boot and steering wheel for some dark gray ones.

The door cards are currently off and I am tossing up between dying these too, or making some industrial looking ones out of thin steel.

The vehicle currently has no carpet and the floor has been lined with a spray on rubber. I'm pretty happy with this, can be a bit sticky on hot days but for now is fine. I'm considering getting new moulded vinyl floor from oemsurplus.com, providing shipping is reasonable. $50US for a genuine moulded floor!

I love the bench seat but it makes access to the handbrake impossible. I am looking for a D21 Navara pull type handbrake & cable to replace it... I notice the dash is already pre-drilled to accept one.

The vehicle has no rear seats, I am planning on prepping & hitting the entire rear interior with black epoxy primer, then building wooden compartments for tools/spares/recovery gear etc. The compartments will be raised for 6 feet of sleeping space.

Stay tuned on the interior update...

more pics

Zombie lights
Looks good man! Way better than eyesore red....
Maybe grab a black steering wheel from a skyline, match the black dash nicely.
Did this wagon start out as the A1M spec? (rather than R3M as 99% seem to be)?

Are you going to do with out the heater ??

Bit late now I suppose, but I've got a spare grey dash on my scrap pile if anyone wants it. No vents thou, broke all on both bodys when removing, brittle as

slide wrote:Zombie lights
Looks good man! Way better than eyesore red....
Maybe grab a black steering wheel from a skyline, match the black dash nicely.
Did this wagon start out as the A1M spec? (rather than R3M as 99% seem to be)?

Good call on the r32 wheel... Nah mate she's a R3m I'm pretty sure, as it originally came w carpets and rev counter. No electric windows though....

wax wrote:Are you going to do with out the heater ??

Well I'm gonna just use the floor heater... Good enough for me!

kbjj wrote:Bit late now I suppose, but I've got a spare grey dash on my scrap pile if anyone wants it. No vents thou, broke all on both bodys when removing, brittle as

Thanks for the offer, I'm looking for some misc interior bits in grey... Manual window winders, interior door handles, gearbox boot, front seat belts, those little plastic things that screw onto the doorlocks

lax2wlg wrote:Thanks for the offer, I'm looking for some misc interior bits in grey... Manual window winders, interior door handles, gearbox boot, front seat belts, those little plastic things that screw onto the doorlocks

I'll see what I can find...

Interior coming along well, lined the floor and under seats with 10mm rubber and then got hold of some hardwearing vinyl and a heat gun. Lots of head scratching but happy with the outcome. No more sticky floor and the soundproofing really helps.

Trenchrat is hooking me up with some grey door cards and interior finishing bits, big thumbs up, hoping to head up to Palmy in the next week to grab those.

Sorry about delay, the interior bits I have more of a brown rather than grey. Your welcome to them if you want

kbjj wrote:Sorry about delay, the interior bits I have more of a brown rather than grey. Your welcome to them if you want

No worries, I think I've got it all sorted. The wreckers are going to swap my seatbelts & door seals for some grey ones and trenchrat has the door cards, handles, armrests. Many thanks for the offer though.

floor looks sweet were did you buy the vinyl from?

Cheers... I got it at a place in Lower Hutt: http://www.mulfordplastics.com

how much you reakon the floor cost?

im looking at doing it to my terrano too, looks quite good, and makes more sence for a 4x4.

I paid $25 for all the material! I was in Bunnings yesterday and they had some similar stuff in the garden section

wicked, might have to do it sooner than i though lol.

Nice work. Dash looks sharp.
I tried that VHT and another brand vinyl dye on my 95 terrano steering wheel, but it was a total fail - one brand crazy-cracked when curing, the other worked but was too brittle on the relatively soft wheel foam. Did a lot of careful prep (washing and paint wax/grease remover), but think that sanding off the smooth surface and exposing the matt foam didn't allow good adhesion. Maybe not a compatible plastic, as well as too soft....

A question; how did you do the rocker switch labels? - they're awesome.
Carling switches by the look of them - very common in Marine use, very reliable.

Thanks! Yep they are Carling Contura Switches
otrattw.com - $12US each, tell them joshellisnz@gmail.com sent you, cheap shipping to New Zealand.

I made a panel that fits where the vents used to be, and fitted the switches & ARB wiring loom. Waiting for another switch gang to fill the other slot. Plus added a glow light that is wired directly to the timer, so it goes off when it should. Also added another cabin light next to the rear view mirror, and wired all three cabin lights to one of the switches. Had some dash light feeds left over so put some $8 led running lights in the cabin. Not sure if this is too ricey yet..

The rear box/shelf is recycled bunnings crates, Still need to cut some drop in lids, as it is plenty sturdy as a sleeping platform. There are 4 compartments total to keep and organize a lot of gear/spares. The MDF floor is bolted to the floorplan, then the frame is bolted to the MDF

Theres still plenty of cargo space to the left of the box system, and I have a sneaky idea for a spare tyre mount up just behind the passenger.