Now that the gauges are here I can move forward with the rest of the fabrication. I got a 2″ hole saw from Home Depot and carefully drilled out the holes for the gauges. Then came the last 2 holes. One for the hazard switch and one for the electric fan manual override. My first goof. I made the hazard switch hole too big. So I hope that I can fix that with some bondo.
Once I got everything cut and sanded with 80 grit. It was time to start the prep work for the center console. So the plan is to put thin layer of bondo on it so in can create a super clean and smooth finish so I can paint it in a nice gloss black. The bondo will fill in the wood grain as well as smooth out all the imperfections. This will take hours of sanding and priming to make perfect. Here it is after the bondo.
Once the bondo dried I attacked with sand paper and Dremel to restore the cutouts. Great thing here is the mistake I made on the hazard switch hole was rectified by a generous amount of bondo. Then it was time for the high build filler primer.
After this dried I grabbed some 100 grit sandpaper and started to smooth it out. If you don’t know the process here it’s pretty simple. The bondo is pink. The primer grey. So I sand down the higher areas until it gets down to the pink while the lower areas will remain grey. So visually you can see where the high areas are which will be pink and you can and to blend the surface with the low areas which will be grey.
I’m very pleased with things so far. The plan is to sand, primer, sand then primer again. If I need to a little more bondo can be added to any areas but the idea is to use the high build primer to fill in those areas the need over the process while smoothing out the surface. One this process is done then I will smooth it with some 200 grit and I’ll look to paint it it’s final black, sand it and then a few clear coats.
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