Some of you may have seen this "A" pillar with the tweeter boss mounted in my car before. The CF I have is cost prohibitive to reproduce.
I have held off modifying my "A" pillar mold, to include the boss, until I work out a solution for a nice OEM looking vinyl finish.
I saw a pair of Morph's speaker pods at G&R that looked like they were covered with vinyl? They looked great. Is this how Morph is selling them or someone else's nice work?
I picked up this very thin sticky back vinyl shelf paper at HD that actually looks great on flat surfaces. Just a little heat and it will couture but it is hard to control with out wrinkling.
I made a crude picture frame to vacuum the HD vinyl over the part. That helped but It looks likeI will have to make a dedicated vacuum table and frame with some heat souse to get the quality I am looking for. I have seen some 3M vinyl that seems very pricey. I am not sure if that is what the dash recover guys are using? A more proper vinyl may help.

After seeing a, complex shape, thermo formed ABS cover at work the other day I am also considering other options. An ABS with a surface finish on one side would make a nice part but with a cheaper nonOEM look.
I have also seen some kind of over lay patterns that can be put on wheels, dash, grills... This was last seen up at Pomona Auto show.
I was thinking some of you, Morph, may have connections or ideas to produce a hi quality low cost part . Your thoughts...

There is a process of thermoforming a formable vinyl over a substrate that has a heat activated adhesive on it
Then edges are wrapped around and adhereed to back side of partner

Seems like a spray product would be a better solution. Have you checked with your local paint shop, or some of the rattle can manufacturers sites for such a product?

Heat activated adhesive sounds good, that way you could control where and when it sticks better. I have not found it In my searches yet. If I do I hope for that close to OEM texture. Best I find is a foux leather vinyl.



It is possible with all the new texture coats they have now. I would think most paints would scratch easy and be hard to keep clean. I think it would also be hard to just spray on this OEM texture.
I am sure if I sprayed it with black tool dip and covered that with a released negative texture it would be very close but then I would have to come up with a negative pattern and the contours would create a problem.
Come to think of it, I think that is how I saw the pattern put down at the car show, I think with a small paint roller with the negative pattern on it

Here is the Home Depot shelf paper next to the OEM part. Different but not bad if it was fully bonded.

I thought there was a felt or valvet type spray paint for dashes and speaker boxs? It's also used on dashes to keep the glare down.

http://www.plasti-kote.co.uk/Product/pcode...9/pccode---3620

http://www.alsacorp.com/products/softtouch/softtouch.htm

I used a good quality vinyl and with the right glue it's reasonably easy to get it to cover quite complicated pieces... It's the glue that makes the difference...

Plasti-kote looks cool, Available in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, New Zealand and Australia.
Not in the USA?
Softtouch looks interesting too. Seems too easy but I am all for that.
I am off to the Auto paint store to see what I find. Thanks.

Rod,
That looks great! I like that shape, for a nice fit on the tweets.
I think your curves are a little less extreme than what I have but that makes me want to give it a try.
Maybe I don't have the best vinyl for this job. What I have only sees to stretch only one way and not very far.
I will search for a more suitable auto vinyl as well as the thinner film.
Thanks for sharing, looks great! Big improvement in the sound?

Just got back from the paint store and all they had was the paint w/o the texture.
I may have to order something off the net.

Great leads and ideas guys, thanks.

Big improvement in the sound? Yes huge - but I have been redesigning the system for the last 4 years!!

Rod, did you stretch the existing vinyl or recover?

Just a heads up, the real problem with autos is UV rays in sunlight. I doubt your shelf paper would have much UV resistance, and UV's especially hard on adhesives that aren't specifically designed for it. Before you go too crazy try putting some on something and leaving it up on the roof of your house for a year, see how it fares. Its a crude test, but we've done that with some modern "miracle" materials, and they didn't fare well.

Recovered straight over the existing vinyl. Once a vinyl has been heated glued and formed you have zero chance of remodelling it. I use an amazing glue which is the key. Also use good quality vinyl without a backing that's too thick.. If you stretch the vinyl you can usually see that it pulls more in one direction without breaking out into wrinkles - work out which way the vinyl needs to be pulled in the job your working on and cut the template to suit. A heat gun is a godsend too - thus will enable it to stretch a bit more and gets rid of wrinkles.

Good point, I dont think I will be using it but I put some out side where it will get a full day of sun ever day.

I tried to heat some vinyl to form to my A pillar but with the cloth backing it is just too much of a stretch.
Thinking I just may not have the skill, I took it down the street to a pro.
He tried with what he called a vary expensive four way stretch. With out a cut and seam, It was still too much for him.
So, I called Just Dashes and asked if they had the material or a source that I could get it from.
" We use a proprietary material that needs to be heated"
proprietary I was hoping he would not say that.
So how much would they charge to cover one A pillar? 80~$90 each.
I am sure they would be flawless but that's about 75 or $80 too much.
I could make them out of CF for that price.
Makes me wonder if I could get the same material that the big auto makers are using for their OEM parts and what their processes are?

Yes he can do these in some quantity, and the vinyl is an option. He had been sending them "raw" to be painted or finished by the end user, but the could be wrapped in vinyl.
This is what the ones he makes look like

PM sent to mark, some "special" 4 way stretch vinyl samples are in the mail and drilled a great big hole in a perfectly good A pillar mold.
The samples coming are not intended for vacuum forming. I just want to see how efficiently it can be applied by hand.
My thinking is this A pillar part would be a very nice addition to the Appearance & Performance 6.5 enclosures for those that want to run component speakers.
It seems something so visible as an A pillar should be as close to OEM look as possible.

I made many 914 part molds in order to reproduce CF parts for myself and possible production for others. Problem is the CF is cost prohibitive to production parts.
With modern re-vinyling dash methods, I don't see much demand for a FG 914 dash, other than the WRX914 dash that is needed for the Suby cluster.
If I can come up with a good cost effective vacuum forming system it would open the door for affordable F/G vinyl covered WRX914 dash, F/G vinyl covered 914 dash and
F/G vinyl covered roll bar pad. I currently have molds for all. I am also seeing a need to make the RH drive dash for the 914 and Suby914 dash conversion.

I found the truck bed spray looks very good and rugged. They can still be sent to mark for vinyl or painted. I have 2 sets of the pre-production "A" pillars ready to ship. Please go to http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...03275&st=60 for details on how to and place a bid.
Proceeds will go to a young lady that need our help.