Repairing GTS dash fascia

[kaido17]

has anyone on here fully restored gts dashes including gauges, can you get the clock wound back to zero

[HZSandman]

tipping that would be illegal

[Absinth]

Yes I've restored a few and have zero'd the odometers on them. Technically it is illegal to wind back the odometer of a car but on our 30yr old cars nobody really gives a damn, it is perfectly legal to replace your buggered or worn out speedo with a new or fully restored one that has zero on the odometer and notify your transport dept...... but I have never been queried on a zero odometer in any of my old cars when presenting them for rego.

Some HG fascia's I have done


A set of HQ gauges I sold a year or so ago fully restored.

[wbute]

Is it possible to change a woodgrain gts dash back to black or silver?

[Absinth]

Is it possible to change a woodgrain gts dash back to black or silver?

You can rub it back with wet and dry and re-paint it silver, getting it back to a standard black finish that looks factory may be a little harder.

[jbsandman76]

I have had mine fully apart, and restored the gauges. My trip meter was broken, and repairing this was the main motivation. Rolled the odometer back to about 1500km at the same time, to match the timeframe of the resto and motor rebuild.

[Absinth]

I finally got my plastic welder back of a mate after lending it to him months ago and thought I would restore a HJ GTS fascia I have. I went through some Kingswood fascia's to find one that hasn't had the radio cut out butchered that I can use to repair the GTS fascia.

I cut the radio section out today and will fit it into the HJ fascia on the weekend and take pics of the process for those that are interested.


Should look good when it's all welded in, extra holes repaired and re-painted silver.


Stay tuned....

[stickthis]

Very keen to see this mate. If it works ok im interested to see if you could do me a under dash pannel. One to suit air cond. So it doesnt have the foot vents. I need a mint one for my HZ GTS build.

Cheers
Jason

[Absinth]

Well I didn't do anything on the black HJ fascia as after cutting the radio section out of the HZ fascia I noticed the round raised sections at the back of the knob holes have been ground down. Bugger.....

I am after some HJ< HX and HZ Holden or Kingswood dash fascia's that haven't had the radio mount section butchered.... don't care if they are broken elsewhere and don't want to pay much for them as they are to be cut up.... any help appreciated.


Anyway, I did start repairs on a HJ Monaro Fascia I have that is broken, had several holes drilled in it and broken edges.

Broken right through the idiot lights to the clock.



Tied in with wire to hold the the break together and clamped flush.



back section welded together.



Front section welded up.



Tidied up and strong as new.



Demister switch hole filled.


Will try and finish the repairs to this fascia tomorrow and may get it painted.... we'll see how it goes... stay tuned for the rest.

It takes a fair bit of prep work and then time consuming welding and sanding back. Not that hard once you master plastic welding but probably not something you will do yourself is you only want to restore one dash.

I have a quality plastic welder with several attachments and a selection of different welding rods.... the welder plus attachments is $700, welding rods $45 a packet, dremmel tool is $180 and cutting grinding consumables kit was $42. There are cheap plastic welders available on Ebay for around $200, I don't know what they are like but may be Ok for limited work on dash repairs.

[Absinth]

Did a bit more tonight.

A piece was broken out along the top edge.


Much better now.


Filled in the choke hole.


Still got the radio cutout and bottom mounting lug to repair.