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Dash Kit Buying Guide

As with any place in which you spend significant amounts of time each day, the interior of your car should look appealing. Whether you're commuting to work or driving around for leisure, the passenger compartment is a place where you're liable to spend several hours each week, and the panels of your dashboard, glove compartment, steering wheel and doors should look sleek and clean. With a new dash kit, any car new or old can be transformed into something totally unique and eye-catching.

If you're curious about what a dash kit could do for your vehicle, visualize the components and consider the benefits. Once you're serious about upgrading your dash, decide on a style and then decide whether to install the panels yourself or have them professionally applied.

The Components of a Dash Kit

The parts of an interior that are covered by our kits include everything that surrounds the stereo, clutch and glove box, as well as parts of the steering wheel and door. When applied to these areas, dash kits provide visual appeal and comfort within an automobile's passenger compartment. The effect that these kits can have on each area are as follows:

• Cluster/stereo. For anyone who sits in the front seat of an automobile, no part of the interior draws more attention than the stereo. When color or patterning is added to this area, it brings character to this most frequently viewed area.
• Center console. The panel that surrounds the clutch is another area that the eyes frequently shift to when stepping into a car. With dash kit pieces placed over the panel that surrounds the clutch, this significant part of the passenger compartment is rendered less drab and more colorful.
• Glove box/vent. The front and surroundings of the glove box and vent are second only to the stereo in terms of attention that is given to parts within the passenger area. A car can look a lot more visually appealing with the placement of dash kit pieces on this prominent area.
• Steering wheel. Whenever you're the one driving, the steering wheel is right in front of you the entire time you're in the car. A dash kit piece in the center panels of the steering wheel can turn this mundane feature into something much more visually pleasing.
• Door panels. The inner-door panels might not be the most noticeable part of a passenger compartment, but the application of color can bring them in line with your overall interior scheme. With dash kits, the doors form a bigger part of the style and overall appeal of your car.

Some kits cover more areas than others, but it's really up to the customer. Whether you want a kit that will cover numerous features or just the panels that surround your stereo and clutch, custom dash kits can add visual appeal to your car or truck.

The Benefits of Dash Kits

A new dash kit can bring numerous benefits for drivers and passengers in a vehicle. For starters, they can make a car look newer, hipper and more visually appealing. Panels can also hide flaws, adding value to a car when you place it back on the market. Perhaps the most convenient thing about dash kits is that they're easy to replace if they ever get damaged or you have a change in taste.

The benefits can be summarized as follows:

• Improved appearance. With the addition of a custom dash kit to your car's interior, the passenger compartment takes on a whole new look and feel. Not only do the dashboard and doors look better, but everything also feels cozier and more entertaining. With colorful or specially customized dash kit panels, your passenger compartment could ultimately have a very unique look among automobiles.
• Panel protection. Dash kits also add a protective layer to the panels in your car, which makes the passenger compartment more durable over the course of your time with the vehicle. If dust accumulates or drinks get spilled, all you need to do is wipe off the panels and they're good as new.
• Hide flaws. If scratches or nicks are present on any of the panels in your car's interior, they can easily be covered up permanently with the application of dash kits. No longer do you have to worry about a minor dashboard nick lowering the resale value of your car, because no one will know that anything happened.
• Easy to change. The application of a dash kit is one of the most risk-free alterations that you can make to an automobile. If you end up disliking the color or pattern of a particular kit, you can change it for another one. If a panel gets scraped or worn, you can have it replaced with something identical or different.
• Resale value. An upgraded look can improve the resale value of your car. If the dash kits makes your car look unique on the inside, it will make the car stand out to potential buyers. By adding color and shininess to the interior, the kit could also make your car look like it was built more recently.

If you keep the same automobile for many years, the installation of a new dash kit every few years could keep the interior fresh and revitalized. Even if you stick to one look or design, updated dash kits make cars stand out from the rest, regardless of whether you opt for bright or neutral colors.

The Pros and Cons of DIY and Professional Installs

When it comes to the application of your kit, you basically have two options: hire a professional to perform the installation, or do the job yourself. For anyone new to this, it might seem most sensible to simply hire a pro, but there are both advantages and disadvantages to going that route. While you can certainly get reliable, guaranteed work from a pro installer, there are plenty of benefits that come with doing the task yourself.

The following pros and cons of both options are among the things to consider as you decide whether to hire a pro or take things into your own hands.

Professional Installation: Pros

• Skilled application. When you have dash kits applied by professionals, the job is being done by expert hands who've applied these panels on hundreds of vehicles. Therefore, you're likeliest to get a near perfect application of panels when you leave the job to a professional.
• Guarantees. Professional applications are usually done with guarantees of perfection, whereby any defects in the application will be rectified free of charge.
• Warranties. Most installers back their products and installations with warranties, where any damage that occurs within a specified timeframe will be covered by replacement kits and reinstallations.

Professional Installation: Cons

• Overpricing. When you have a dash kit installed by a professional, there's a chance that they might overcharge you. Therefore, you need to compare the prices of installers in your area to ensure that the pricing you are receiving is reasonable.
• Warranty stipulations. Not all warranties are fair or protective. In fact, some warranties have so many exceptions that they hardly give you any coverage at all. Beware of any warranties that don't extend coverage to vaguely worded categories like "damage caused by external factors."

DIY Installation: Pros

• Flexibility. DIY installation gives you the ability to pick and choose the kits you want and install them the way you want without the pressure of outside influence or the opinions of experts, who sometimes try to push their own vision onto the cars they service.
• Save money. By foregoing the services of a professional installer and doing the work yourself, the savings can be significant. After all, it can be hard to tell whether you're being overcharged by an installer. When you do it yourself, you don't have to worry about bum deals.
• New skill. Once you've mastered the art of applying your dash kit, you've gained a new skill that can be of great use in the future. If you end up owning half a dozen automobiles over the next few decades, you'll have the convenience of being able to save money and enjoy greater flexibility with the kits you install.

DIY Installation: Cons

• Costly mistakes. When you tackle an installation for the first time, there's bound to be a learning curve. If you do make a mistake, you might have to go through the difficult process of removing a panel that has already adhered and re-apply it to the spot in question. At worst, you might end up making mistakes that could end up costing you additional money.
• Lack of warranty. With self-installations, there's no warranty on the labor. Therefore, if an application proves faulty, there's no place to turn for a free replacement installation and you're stuck buying a new kit and starting the process over from scratch.

How to Pick the Best Color for Your Vehicle

When you go about selecting a dash kit for your car or truck, one of the most important things to consider is color, because this will determine whether the panels stand out or blend in with the interior. Therefore, the thing to ask yourself is whether you want panels that stand out or look neutral within the surroundings.

Basically, the options you have when it comes to color can be broken down into four categories:

• Match the inside. One of the most suitable choices in dash kit color is that which matches the pre-existing interior. If the seats, carpets and dashboard are all gray or black, a matching kit would be the most neutral and agreeable of choices.
• Match the outside. An alternate way to provide continuity is to match not the interior of the vehicle, but the outer paint job. For instance, you might have a black interior and a bright red exterior, in which case a red dash kit would carry through on the car's outer theme.
• Complement the interior. You could also opt for a patterned look that reflects some interior theme within the passenger compartment. If the inner paneling is of a forest tone, for instance, a way to complement that could be a dash kit that displays fake wood or forest green prints.
• Contrast the inside. An upgraded dash can serve as the visual focal point of the passenger compartment when you choose colors that contrast with the interior. For example, if the car has a dark blue interior, a bright orange kit would provide the ultimate contrast, as would any other bright color such as lime, red or light purple.

Color choices are all a matter of subjective preference, but it's always best to know about the effects that color can have in your interior, regardless of whether you like things on the brighter or more neutral side.

Care and Cleaning of Dash Kits

A precision-cut, high-quality dash kit can last for as long as you own a vehicle, and sometimes even a lot longer. Throughout that time, the condition of the panels will partially depend on how well you take care of them. As the main attraction of your passenger compartment, dash kits should be handled as follows:

• Treat with care. These kits are made to last a long time, but they should still be treated with care. Therefore, refrain from allowing junk, candy wrappers or food bags to pile up on or near the panels. Avoid placing drinks that could easily spill near the panels. In addition, refrain from sliding your fingers across the panels in all but the rarest cases, as fingerprint oils are never a good thing when it comes to the shine of surfaces.
• Wash with towels. Dash panels should be dusted periodically and cleaned as needed for optimal shine and durability. A dry towel will do, unless you're dealing with a spill or stain. If you must use a cleaner, check to see whether it's suitable for the material (epoxy resin, Polyurethane, etc.) of the kit panels.

With proper care, the dash kit in your car, van or truck could end up looking just as fresh as the day you had them installed in your vehicle when the time comes to sell it.

For high-quality dash kits in a range of colors and styles, look no further than Rvinyl. As a long-time provider of affordable kits, tints and graphics, our removable DIY products are backed by a three-year warranty.

With more than 100,000 positive reviews on eBay, people like the dash kits we offer. Browse through our inventory above and decide which kind of kit best suits your vehicle.