When you decide to get a dash kit, you have to clearly identify what you’re trying to accomplish.  People buy dash kits for different reasons, but they generally fall into 2 categories: 1) to add a new style to a standard factory dash, or 2) restoring an older, perhaps damaged, dashboard to it’s former appearance.   Regardless of which reason, there are also some basic things you need to know about dash kits and the variety of material finishes from which you can choose.

Restyling Your Car’s Interior with a Dash Kit

You want your car to stand out.  You want to enjoy the feeling of giving your car your own unique style and personality.  When you bought your new or used car and you were probably stuck with limited options for the style of your vehicle’s interior.  There is no doubt that some manufacturer’s do a really poor job of giving the dashboard a proper styling.  It’s really unbelievable how plain an boring some dashboards are set up.  Nobody like to look at a wall of black plastic.

By now you probably already know that a dash kit is by far the most effective, low-cost, and easy to install car accessory to transform your car’s interior.  You can read all about how to install a dash kit and look at some of the before and after shots in some of my other posts to get an idea.

But how to pick the right one?  You have several different major choices in the material finish first.  Each will give it’s own unique look and feel:

• Wood Grain Dash Kit - generally gives your car’s interior a warm, luxurious feeling
• Metallic Dash Kit – give’s a classy, finished look
• Carbon Fiber Dash Kit – gives a sporty or rugged look
• Solid Color Dash Kit – gives a very sporty, race car-like look

Once you narrow down the type of look you want to achieve, you can then decide which color is best suited to your car’s interior.  The most common interior color is beige which goes well with almost anything.  To achieve a very nice warm, luxurious interior look choose a burlwood with a little red in it – like English Burlwood.  You may have a grey/black interior which goes well with the marblewood finish.

With the metallic kits like brushed aluminum and chrome, you do not have to be so concerned about getting the right color match.  With carbon fiber you need to consider whether it will compliment or only add to the darkness of the dash.  If you already have a mostly black dash, you do not want to add more black to it.  In this case it may be better to go with a silver carbon fiber or even one of the colored  carbon fibers like red, blue, yellow, or green to compliment the exterior of your vehicle.  What you’re looking for is contrast.  Contrast is what creates interest.  Too much of the same thing is boring.  In fact, there may be some instances where you may want to leave a piece or two out of the dash kit installation to give a little more contrast.  The engineers who design these dash kits usually keep in mind the aesthetics of the dashboard, but your personal preference may be to have less of a wall of the same material and more variety.

The most risky dash kit to do is a solid color finish.  The rewards can be amazing when it works.  But you have to start with the right expectations.  It is usually best to try to match the exterior color of your car.  But don’t get hung up on it being an exact match.  Rarely will anyone notice a slight shade or color difference between the interior and exterior of your car.  They will notice that it does tie in with the exterior color and the results are really eye-popping when it works.

Restoring a Dashboard with a Dash Kit

There are a few different reasons for restoring an older dashboard to new life – fixing a car up for resale, making customizations to an older car, or trying to cover up a scratched or partially damaged dash.  The first thing to know is that these dash kit are not intended as replacement pieces.  They stick over top of your existing dash.  So if you have a minor crack or scratch it should be no problem.  If you have a huge chunk taken out or some other problem that would prevent you from getting good adhesion from the dash kit, then you may need to do some repair work first.

A dash kit is a no-brainer when you’re trying to sell a car that has a drab, boring interior.  Nothing will add so much value to your car’s emotional appeal than a dash kit.  It will give the driver a totally different feel for the car when they’re sitting behind the wheel.  You will be able to get a better price for your car and you’ll be able to sell it faster.  The investment you make with a dash kit will more than pay for itself.

In the future I will be creating an online tool that will help you choose the right color for your dash.  It will let you configure the existing look of your interior, and then allow you to try out different dash kit finishes to see the effect it gives.  Look for that coming soon!