I have finally got my dash pad repaired with bondo. Now the million dollar question is what type of paint is prefered? And how would I be able to keep it in good condition after I paint it? I only repaired a hole and one tear with bondo the rest is still in vinyl. Thanks Dusty

how did you get the dash texture into the bondo...if you did?
I saw some paint at AZ that does a texture effect. Kinda rippled effect. It was just the other day and it caught my interest for a few moments.
Might be worth looking into.
Apart from that I can be of no further help I'm afraid.

Shoot, i was going to bondo glass my whole dash and then just make it smooth, but now...i am just going to glass the busted spots and cover the dash with vinyl.

I have 3 big f'n cracks.. I'm curious to how it would look smooth..

If i was to texture it, do you guys think pressing sandpaper against the surface lightly would be close to looking right.
I doubt it but just about anything is better then its current state...

you'd have to get the bondo or glass pretty close to finish in order for that to work I'd think.
Match the current texture to the grade of paper and it's worth a shot.
I'd think a fairly course grade would look better. Although it might make a reverse pattern from what it is now.
Keep us updated with progress folks...and maybe some pics.

Spray on bed liner.

Or, make a mold of the dash texture, then apply that to wet bondo. We do that for cement "bricks" all the time. Looks great too.

astrosurfer, to answer your sig: Only idiots keep all their eggs in one basket.

I would love to see pictures if anyone can find a way to make this work! I have a crack in mine and they are hard to find used in good shape!!!!

i got one iv been tryin to sell lol. and its perfect

Will it fit my 89 Firebird and do you ship to Canada! lol

yeah, its firebird/trans-am 82-92 dash pad. and uh....lol idk. iv never shipped anything before, so i wouldnt know exactly how to... and i have pics of it on the thread i started for it.

I think if you try and texture the bondo it would pull loose from edges. I sanded mine smooth (bondo) thats why if I texture paint it how can I protect the vinyl?

Ok guys I think I found a way to get it real close. Bondo the cracks or holes. Finish out the bondo and area around it SMOOTH. Then I sprayed vinyl paint over it, while the paint is wet take a sponge with coarseness you prefer and press it on the smooth surface., makes it semi. Then I painted over the semi smooth area while painting entire pad. The bondo part is barely noticeable.

got some pics of the end result for us then?.

Interested to see how it came out.
I have a small area I would like to repair but was thinking of getting a new dash pad on ebay or the likes.

I will take some pictures but , can you tell me how to post them?

personally I use imageshack for hosting my pics. There are others like photobucket.
http://imageshack.us/ is the bookmark I have.
just click the browse button and find the file in your computer and click start upload. Copy the appropriate link.
The one I use is usually the last. I paste the text into my address bar at the top. Click the image when it loads and you should be taken to a page with only the pic and nothing else.
COPY THE ADDRESS IN YOUR ADDRESS BAR.
This is the direct link to the image for use in the next step.
click the insert image button at the top of the message window. CTRL+V, or right click and paste. Click OK.
You should see your image in the message window.

good luck.

Here are some pictures. I hope it comes out.

looks like a nice repair.
IMO it sticks out like a sore thumb though.
More so on top with the 2 circular patches.
did you spray the whole dash or just the repaired areas?
The main thing is personal happiness though.

My dash had a few small cracks on both ends near doors and was faded in center. I used a dremel cutting wheel to cut cracks out and make wide enough for filler. Also drilled hole at ends of crack to prevent further cracking. I used Evercoat 2 part plastic epoxy as it is pretty flexible when dried. I don't know if bondo is a a good idea since it will absorb moisture unless sealed. I filled in cracks with epoxy and sanded down with 240 grit. Next I used undercoating spray for texture. It matches stock look pretty well. Only trick is to make sure you spray can out on paper first to get good pattern. SEM textured paint does not work since its texture is very fine like silica sand. I then sprayed entire dash with SEM Landau Black paint which is almost an exact match to stock interior black.

Overall my dash turned out very well. I can tell repair spots by how light reflects off. Only really visible in direct light from a shop light or something. Having a consistent spray texture from undercoating can seems to be key. Here are some before and after pics.

After pictures.

@blackdog
Nice repair. that's practically invisible.
I have same damage on passenger side.
I have epoxy too...been using it on my front valance spoiler bit on bottom of my bumper.
I'll be doing this to mine.
most of the prices on ebay do not match what I'd like to pay...LOL
I will use same parts as you did and hopefully do as good a job as you have.

Thanks astrosurfer. I found some previous posts on here where plastic exopy was decided to be best filler choice. Epoxy I used is for repairing bumpers so yours should work good. Luckily I didn't have any major cracks across entire board that seem so common. I know what you mean about used dash prices. Sometimes I'll see decent ones on craigslist but even those are cracked. I figure $60 on materials is worth it. New reproduction pads are selling for $400

Take some pics and let us know how it turns out.

I recently tried this on an old Blazer dash pad. It had a lot of HUGE honkin' cracks in it. I V'd out the cracks and filled them with bondo (3M polyester glaze), then sanded smooth. Coated the whole thing with spray-on bedliner from Advance. It turned out really nice considering the work involved (not much). Had the cracks been smaller and I spent a little more time on it, it would have been hard to tell that a repair was made.

You can also wrap it in a material (such as suade or alcantara), or flock it. Look up flocking on line.
Obviously, none of those would match the rest of the console, but you wouldn't have to deal with evening out the surface...

Thats really nice dude, The corners going off mine, but i dont know if i want to try and produce a corner, or try and get a JY dash pad and paint it....

Thoughts?