Part #8 -- Final Work

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Looking good Hugh?  Almost done now......  (And I'm almost done with the dash section....   Sweeettt !!! )

Go ahead and clean out the inside of the car, vacuum it out, and get rid of all the tools left behind.  Make sure you turn on the car's heater blower motor on high with the selector to the defroster mode so this will blow out any dust or fiberglass particles.  Wouldn't it suck if you didn't do this, and you were driving around, then decided to turn on your defroster and all this stuff came blowing out at you?  Not only would you have a dirty dash, but it may be a hazard when your driving.  Now you need  to wipe down your dash to get rid of all the dust, finger prints, and possibly fiberglass particles.  When I clean my dash for the first time I used some dish detergent with warm water and a soft clean towel.  Dry everything off with another clean lint free towel.

You will want to install the final voice box cover at this point, I used clear silicone sealant to glue mine on, making sure to wipe any extra silicone off the dash if it squeezes out.

Time for touch up's now, but of coarse since you took your time installing everything this should be a fast thing to do right?  Well last time I checked everyone isn't perfect so I'm sure that there are a few spots that could use a little touch up.  Ya' know that place where the screw driver accidentally hit the dash, or the place where the dash got nicked when you installed the gauges and Plexiglas cover.  To do this I used gloss black model paint and a small model paint brush, a little paint goes a long way.  If you have an off colored dash and model paint just doesn't seem to match, get a can of the paint you used for the final coat of your dash and spray some paint into the lid of the can.  Let the paint set for a few minutes in the lid so some of it can evaporate and thicken up the paint.  Now you have the exact same paint to do your touch ups and it will match perfectly.  Take your time and do the touch ups  right, it will pay off in the end.  

After your done with all the little dings and scratches go ahead and paint the heads of any mounting screws black, so they blend in and are not noticeable.   You will also want to paint the TV support if you made one. 

The name of the game here would be to detail clean everything on the inside of the car so when you go to show off your handy work  for the first time it will be perfect.

After driving around your car for a while you will probably notice that dust loves to collect on your dash.  Everyday you may have to wipe your dust magnet off.  I use Windex window cleaner and a soft towel  (that I keep in the car) to wipe it off occasionally.  A possible cure to this problem would be to use fabric softener sheets to lightly wipe the dash down.  Lets think of your dash as  your home TV, stick your arm in front of  the picture tube when it's on, you will feel static electricity on your arm hairs.  Now turn off your TV, the static still there, not to mention (unless your a clean freak) the picture tube is covered with a layer of dust.  Every time you wipe down your fiberglass dash in the car, you are generating static electricity, which attracts dust.  If you wipe it with a fabric softener sheet, it gets rid of most static electricity.  Thus, a lot less dust on your dash.   I haven't tried this, but we do it at my work with huge pieces of plastic, and they seem to say pretty dust free.  Just a thought.

Congratulations, you have just finished your dash......

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