Write-Up: BD Trims and Sherwood Dash Kit Installation

I am doing this MOD very soon. I love the way it looks on our cars....

Who needs to buy a new car? Buy this kit and your Riv is transformed! Hats off to Jack the R!

Btw, I like that you left off the armrest pieces. And I agree about the gloss. Maybe spraying the kit with a satin clear coat before installing would be the ticket?

AA wrote:

Who needs to buy a new car? Buy this kit and your Riv is transformed! Hats off to Jack the R!

I agree, the only thing new cars have that I want is more air bags.

AA wrote:

Btw, I like that you left off the armrest pieces. And I agree about the gloss. Maybe spraying the kit with a satin clear coat before installing would be the ticket?

Now why didn't I think of that? Well honestly the gloss looked real good until I put the dash in - then it was too much. Some things you can only learn from experience.

The satin clear coat is a good idea, if it will stick. Maybe one day I'll experiment on my blemished pieces and see. I could still do it. I'd have to pull everything again, but I wouldn't need to do all the masking I did the first time.

I think it would stick. You want to test it though, because it could react with the trim pieces. I once shaped, sanded, and polished a piece of acrylic. Then I sprayed a clear coat over it. Looked great until 4 hours later when the piece graveled into thousands of little cracks. It stayed intact, but looked like I beat on it with a hammer!

Looks good!
You should take a couple of pictures like I did and post them so we can compare?

I do like the way yours flows better onto the door without the armrest pieces, in this picture.

Looks Good!

I tell you what, these cars have got really great lines to them. GM cheaped out in a few areas, but the potential is there. All we've got to do is go through, identify the corners GM cut, square them up, and the Riv becomes a seriously nice car. When I joined RegalGS.org, there wasn't a good idea of how to customize the Riv. But in the last year, it's started to come together.

I remember when no one was doing dash kits. Then somebody posted a pic of a badly done one - people were saying "that's too much wood" and no one liked it. Then somebody posted a small, blurry pic of a glossy black kit and everyone loved it. Now we're to the point where, at least with the ebony zebra wood and black carbon fiber, you can get a near factory look. If I were to do it again, I'd go for real wood and a slightly less glossy finish, for absolute perfection.

Next week I'm going to see about getting the leather sections of the steering wheel dyed black, to match the shifter. It might look even better if the column and the whole wheel were black. I'll look at it awhile before judging. I've been thinking about having sections of the seats dyed black - the bottoms have lines that would work, but I'm not sure about the backs. What else could be done - black/dk gray floor mats and seat belts? I don't know, but I'm going to look at it all. The Riv has a unique and beautiful interior, as far as the lines go. The dash overhang that flows into the door is to die for. I don't know of another car that has it. If we can figure out how to break up the monotone of the stock interior, it will take it to a new level of luxury.

I'm also thinking hard about the exterior. The left chop in my sig has really been growing on me. I know everyone likes the black one better, but there are a butt load of guys going to the all-black well. It would be embarassing to roll up next to a Civic or Gran Prix with the same treatment.

One of the things I really like about the left car is, it solves what I feel is the biggest problem with our exterior styling. Our cars look great if you get up close and scope out the details, but from a distance they turn into an aero-blob Taurus like shape. People don't know to look closer.

The two-tone paint immediately tells people there is something different going on here, and they'd better look twice. Then they'll get up close and get hit by the Riv's fine sculpting. I think the two-tone interior/exterior treatment will take the Riv from looking like a $30-40,000 car, to looking like a $50-60,000 car.

I'm not quite sold on it yet - what's lacking is a way to handle the paint on the front of the car. I don't like the idea of having the tones split around the bottom of the grille. I.E., black bumper, silver hood. When I can figure that one out, it's going to be time to start saving for paint.


Ridin-Rivi - When you do yours, keep in mind that we have a couple panels which are unusually challenging. If you mess up, you will deeply regret trying this mod.

The insets in the door - the compound curves on those pieces are wicked as hell. I thought I had the driver's piece aligned perfect, but I still got it wrong. If I had to do it again, I'd use rubber bands or tape to press it into place along it's full length, and then start applying the piece from the vent area.

The passenger side dash piece - this thing is so big, it is easy to get bubbles trapped underneath it, and then it looks like shit.. I would start the application from the door side, tacking down the bottom edge, and then extremely slowly and carefully apply the rest of the piece from bottom to top, being hyper-careful to fully apply every miilimeter of material and not introduce air bubbles.

I might even riddle the dash with vent holes before installing that piece. If you do get bubbles like I did, drilling vent holes from the back is risky business. Drill into your overlay and, again - ruined dash. If you do find yourself needing to try that technique though, use a dremel instead of a drill. You'll need the fine control.

I'm not trying to scare you off, but I'm not going to lie - I had a couple moments, especially with that passenger side dash piece, where I thought I'd ruined my interior. It's an awful feeling!

AA - if you ever decide to do this mod, I'll send you a piece to experiment on. Actually, BD Trims will send you a material sample, now that I think of it.

I don't know if paint will stick to it or not. The outer coating is epoxy, and it has an oily feel to it.

99Rivman - I took a passenger side pic, but I didn't bother putting them together. I need to get a polish, clean off all the fingerprints and smudges that go with the install process, and take better pics.

I LOVE the piece that flows into the door.

It was good to begin with, but it is pure nastiness with the color accent. I tell you what else is great, which isn't quite as obvious in this pic as it is in real life -



- is the contrast between the downward kick of the door inset, and the upward kick of the console around the shifter. It is sweet!

One other thing I'm digging - on the side of the dash, when the door is opened, the little black area that gives that gives the black inset depth. It's a small thing, but often it's the small accents that count. The counterpart on the door is also kickin'.

wood grain kit or aluminum dash kit to match the silver and black paint https://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj211/mr19982tone/

do a custom piano black dash kit thats what im doing

Link

Somewhat more practical solution.

is that a black dash kit?

It's a BD Trims Ebony Zebra Wood kit, with the edges of the dash pieces painted with black SEM. I think it was Landau Black that I used. IMO it's important to paint the pieces of the dash that will be visible, otherwise you end up with a bunch of unsightly areas where the dash kit doesn't cover the dash.

If you're thinking of buying this kit, read through the thread in my link first. You may want to try a different manufacturer.

is there a GM part number for a dash kit for a riviera????????? any help appreciated

98riviera98 wrote:

is there a GM part number for a dash kit for a riviera????????? any help appreciated

No, the only dash trim that GM would list would be for the small pieces around the radio and the shifter, and they probably don't make that anymore.

I don't think the wood trim was ever sold as seperate pieces. You'd have to buy the whole center console trim and dash that they're attached to. The yard I contacted wanted $150 for the center console used, and who knows how used it was? Or if it was the right color.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO........ lol......

I got my kit on eBay several years ago. Pieces fit fine, but I learned to line them up really good before you stick them on!

Jack... I didn't see in my read, but did you remove the OEM wood trim around the strereo/hvac? I did and the aftermarket piece I got fit fantastically!

BTW. Your install looks great, what a PITA it must have been to wait on all of it.

I do recommend this mod to every Riv owner. It's well worth the trouble!

New problem - the epoxy layer on one of my pieces is peeling off!





I'll contact BD Trims about this and see what they say, if anything. They didn't respond to the last mail I sent.

Anyway I cleaned all the dust off and took some good pics -







I discovered that the surface scratches pretty easily when I was trying to clean bug poop off the center console. I didn't scratch it so bad as to be noticeable unless you have your nose on top of it, but any damage is a bad thing.

Natesriv - I didn't remove the wood. The instructions don't say to, and the peices wouldn't have fit any better. Painting looks good though.

that does look very nice i envy you

Don't envy me yet, it may be peeling apart by summer.

Kack the R;
I was thinking about the DB Trims myself same as yours- black with gray int. It looks great. but after reviewing this thread and the problems you have had (especially the new delamination) I think I am going to stay far away from DB Trims.

Has anyone had problems with the other manufacturer's kits as far as scratching, delamination, etc...?

Jack, maybe mix up some clear 5-minute epoxy resin and use a tooth pick to apply some to the peeling layer. That should fix the problem, imo.

ewolfe0050 - Have you got the medium gray interior? Can you get a shot with your door open? I've thought of going black but I'm not sure how well the med gray will work with it. More than likely I'll keep it stock looking on the outside, but who knows.

There are other manufacturers, but really it's still a crap shoot. Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances. I'd suggest the real wood kits, but that wood's got to be so thin - I'd be terrified of cracking it. Absolutely terrified.

AA - Maybe, I think superglue would work too. Luckily that spot doesn't stick out since it's under the lip of the dash, so it's not really critical how it looks as long as the peeling is stopped.

Careful with superglue on transparent plastics. It likes to fog sometimes.

Yeah, that's a worry. I don't think it's getting worse, so I'll give BD Trims a week or two to come up with a response.

I'm thinking of ordering a flat-aluminum kit from BD Trims. It should go good with my dark jade interior. Any opinions?