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One of the things I noticed about Dodges is the bezel’s may lack on radio din options but one thing Dodge interiors do have is LOTS OF SPACE FOR OPTIONS! The bezels are cheap so if you don’t want to tear your bezel out while you do this then buy a spare, like 50 bucks or so off eBay or junkyard.
So I decided for an iPad dash for a few different reasons, one of which is for viewing the wideband gauges via Auto meter Bluetooth.
Pulling the bezel is easy. Once I got mine out I assessed the rear of the dash first because that’s where the meat and taters are. The edge of the hole I cut was 3/16” from the vents on both sides and that measurement was done from the rear. Yes there are clips there, if you want the iPad dash then they gotta go even for a mini iPad.
My top to bottom measurements was from the FRONT. Started my first cut line 3/16” above where the dash bezel has a large 2” lip.
Found the center of my hole and from CENTER at the bottom cut line of my hole I measured 6” up and made a mark on the top of the dash with a sharpie. Then I went to the corners of my bottom cut line and made a mark at 5 13/16” up.
I put the bezel to the side at this point. Got my Coors lightbox and cut a side out and made all the same measurements and then drew a nice line from the top 5 13/16” marks to the center at the 6” top point. Cut that template out and mocked it up on the front of the bezel. I tried my hardest to make my template follow the upper contour lines. The iPad kits are rigid and square and flat and you cannot bend them or the iPad won’t slide in so you gotta make both parties happy right?
Once I got my upper contour line right I cut the template out of my iPad kit first. If you get an iPad kit you will realize that you have to shave off most of the top edge which is fine. I then marked the template on the dash face.
At this point, I cut the hole on the dash with a cut off wheel, if I had a band saw I would have preferred that honestly. I cut my dash 1/8” smaller than the iPad mount so I could sand the dash edges and mount edges till it fit. You don’t want the fit too tight pretty much as tight as a feeler gauge, a little grab but not stiff or else your filler will crack eventually.
I then used super glue to “tack” the mount in place, key part here was making sure the corners were flush with the dash.
The other contours or gap will get filled with epoxy. I then taped the cut lines from the front and filled the rear cut lines with epoxy and let it sit overnight. Pulled the tap off and sanded off any excess.
Now for the filler I used 80 grit sand paper to scuff the edges of the mount so the filler would hook up good. Taped off everything but the area I was working. When you use filler only mix what you can use in 1 minute or less because it started to harden rapidly.
Got it on there and that night I sanded it down keeping a keen eye on matching my contours.
Then I taped off the vents, looking back I should have cut them out in the beginning which is simply cutting out dabs of glue on the back of the dash. Pretty basic stuff.
I used a high build primer so I could make the dash like glass when I shot my clear eventually. I laid down about 4 high build coats and then wet sanded the snot out of the dash.
I chose a grey so it will look good and match my interior somewhat.
I hydro dip on the side of my full-time employment so I plan on dipping the dash but if I wasn’t going to do that I could wet sand the base coat and shoot my clear and then cut and buff and be done at this point.
Here are the products I used aside from 1000 grit paper to wet sand the primer and the primer and paint.
The mount was from Fifield Fabrications and it’s their mini-sdu mount. Soundman makes great quality mounts too and has loads of info on their site whereas Fifield doesn’t in comparison
Hope this helps anyone trying to decide if they want to go this route. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d put it at a 3 just because of all the measuring that is surely needed. Not that hard if your patient and have good attention to detail.
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Originally Posted by NOVAK
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