The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Small Hole In Dash

There's a small, ~3/8" diameter, hole that was drilled into the dash (not by me). What would be a good (aka, simple and relatively cheap ) way to fill this small hole and still have a nice looking dash after I repaint it. I have almost no experience in body work (some bondo work on a Prosche front end is the extent of it).

Is the hole in a location that it could be plugged with a "blank" and look acceptable? McMaster-Carr has nickel plated finishing plugs in 3/8" - -#9563K42.

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Stuart

Weld it up with a Mig and grind it flat is most effective and cheapest (if you have a welder). You can also braze a plug behind it (clean the flux out really well) and build it up with lead or bondo. Plain bondo in the hole without a backer will pop out easily.

The nickel plated plug or a carriage bolt with a painted head is ok if you don't mind a bit of unoriginality.

I was hoping to get a nice smooth finish; unfortunately, I don't weld. I take it that using some sort of temporary backer and some JB weld to fill a small hole like this isn't going to work any better than bondo would? I like the idea of brazing a plug in behind it and building it up with bondo (probably because that's something that I think is within my skill set as small as my set of skills is). I think that the carriage bolt with a painted head will be my fall back position at this point.

Any other suggestions/comments are greatly appreciated.

Go to Lowes or Home depot. They have chrome, black plastic or white plastic plugs for less than a buck that might suit you, certainly better than a carrage bolt.

You could try some fiberglass body filler and a piece of fiberglass cloth.
Apply the filler to the cloth then stick it to the back side of the dash. After that sets up apply a coat of fiberglass filler to the backside to give it more strength. After that sets up sand down the front side and finish it off with "bondo".

They make some really good epoxy glues. You could glue some metal behind your hole, and put filler over top of it. Remember, you said cheap & relativley simple.

JB-weld should work pretty well too for a small hole. If you leave the JB a bit short of top of the hole and then put bondo over it it should be fine, the dash shouldn't get wet. Bondo only falls out if there is nothing behind it to hold it in place.

Why hide it? You could put in a small carriage bolt to cover the hole, either painted to match the dash or polished stainless steel. ... Sort of like the radio delete plate. You never know whether you might need the hole later on.
In the meantime it would just look mysterious.

Place a fresh flower in it every day...........

Take it to someone who does weld, like a muffler shop or something, and finish it off yourself. Just prep the area before you go so all they have to do is weld it shut and the cost will be minimal if anything,
Scott

Just out of curiosity, exactly where is the hole located in the dash? Mine hade a hole in the cover plate for the heater contol, it had the switch for the base heater in it. I replaced it with the deluxe heater and cotrol panel.

Are you restoring your truck stock or modified/custom? It could be a hole that you might use again. Mounting a traffic finder to use with a sunshield? Any number of "things" might just fill that hole eventually. Be a shame to have it fixed only to drill it out again later.
Cheers!

It's a small hole just above the heater controls, and I am trying to restore the truck as stock as I can. Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll try to remember to let you all know what I end up trying and how well it works.

Back in the early 60's we had a brake light cut off switch used during police chases. nothing like a late night high speed run with no lights. we ignored cross roads if no lights comming. i often wondered what if some one was doing the same as us... but they didn't.

tape a penny behide the hole apply j/b weld cover with masking tape till dry i garentee it will be in there forever and the tape will form it hardly any sanding