Ever wanted a T-Rex dashboard companion on a swivel? My friend did, and she got it! My friend has kids, and they left a T-Rex toy in her SUV. She tossed it up on the dashboard one day to remind herself to bring it in. After several days of Rex sitting on the dash and sliding about she decided she wanted him to stay! This is where I come in...

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials:
One(1) Plastic T-Rex toy
One(1) Sealed bearing
pebbles and twigs from the yard
Scrap wood and dowel
Hot glue
Mod Podge
Titebond II
Green spray paint

Tools:
Scroll saw or jigsaw
Hot glue gun
Paint brush
Power drill or Dremel

Step 2: Cutting and Drilling the Wood.

I took my scrap wood and put Rex on it and traced a basic shape around his feet and tail to use for my top piece, just a simple square for my base. Cut out scrap wood into a base piece and top piece. Then cut a section of the dowel roughly the same thickness as the sealed bearing. its okay if the dowel is not a snug fit. Drill a hole in the base piece the same size as the dowel and push the dowel into the base piece. I used the titebond to keep the dowel in place. Drill a hole in the top piece the size of the outside diameter of the bearing. I didn't have a large enough drill bit so I used my largest drill bit to start and made the hole bigger with my Dremel.

Step 3: Hot Glue.

Place bearing around the dowel and center it as best you can. Then fill the area in between the wall of the bearing and dowel with hot glue and allow it to cool and dry completely. Then place the top piece over the bearing and hot glue it in place. Use as much glue as you want. I used a fair amount to make sure everything was solid and not going to come apart.

Step 4: Spray Away!

Spray paint the whole thing green. Or brown. Or both. Or whatever color you want. I did green. I cant be held responsible for ugly T-rex bases if you choose other colors.

Step 5: More, Different Glue.

So at this point I placed rex roughly where he was going to sit on the swivel and used Mod Podge to glue him down to the wood. I also used mod Podge to glue on all the pebbles and twigs. once it was all dry I went back and glued rex down again just to make double sure he wouldn't come off. Once he was dry, I shook the whole thing around to see if any of the "landscape" needed to be re-glued and some did. I re-glued and let it dry. construction in now complete. now to attach him to the dash!! I honestly didn't take any pictures of this part til it was already done...

Step 6: Attach to Dashboard!

This part was really simple. I used double sided tape. Now my friend and her kids have Rex to keep them company when out and about!

I made some video to give you an idea of what T-Rex does!