My dash restoration and questions

[Hypertek]

Alright guys, my z when i got it, had a dash cap glued on it. And my gauges didn't work, so do diagnose them and replace them, i obviously had to rip the cap off due to the caps blocking the gauge holes.

 

I honestly think a glued cap did more damage to the dash than the actual cracks in the first place.. as the glue used rips off parts of the dash when removed.

 

 

Items I used so far is Great Stuff foam to fill in the cracks, than some SEM multi-plastic repair, some primer, and some rocker panel guard spray (body shop didn't have texture paint, but he thought this would be just as good). And a can of SEM trim black. The bodyshop let me rent the mix gun with a deposit for the sem multi plastic (otherwise that tool is over $100 alone!).

 

I ran out of the SEM multi-plastic repair (that stuff is expensive), so i bought some bondo epoxy bumper repair just to fill any little spots i missed.

BTW a DA Sander is a good investment for this job. Luckily most of the 260/280 dash is pretty straight, so the only part that really needed to be done by hand was around the gauges. I bought a 6" HF sander just for this with 80 grit and 120grit paper. I used mostly the 80grit.

 

 

This was after the primer and rocker panel guard.. Now the rocker panel guard did leave a nice rubberized finish, but not the exact texture I want.

 

I did notice that there are still some blemishes..  I just placed an order on amazon for the SEM texture black paint as that is what everyone commonly uses with good results. I do have a few pinholes that I now see, and a few areas that still need a little more sanding/filler. 

I did start sanding a little bit to knock out some of the blemishes.. 

 

I was wondering, for you guys that have done it, Just how perfect does the surface have to be in order to look near perfect? Will the SEM texture black hide alot of the blemishes in the surface?  I mean i can put a little more effort into trying to get it as best I can, since id prefer this to be a one time job to last me a few years.