Black_Widdow

iTrader: (1)

It got down to about 12 degrees here in south GA last night. I went outside this afternoom to my car and noticed my perfect original dash was cracked like crazy! Has anybody else here have that happen? Where are some other the cheaper places to find a replacement, other than Ebay or the junkyard? GM charges way too much for them

Hulk0202

What did you use to clean it? Your best bet is a junkyard. I got a mint black pad at a yard for $25.

Black_Widdow

iTrader: (1)

Usually I didn't clean it, just wipe it off with a dry rag. About twice a year I would put Armor All on it, but not recently. Errrr.....

Hulk0202

Now I don't bnecessarily know this to be true, but I herad that If you use products like armoral, you must continue to use the regularly. I've heard a few people say that they had their dash crack in heat or cold after using a treatment and stopping, or using it very sporadicly. As I said, this is only what I've heard. Sorry about the loss bro.

BIGJsTA

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=156944

85SportCoupeto89RS

I use armorall on all my int pices. I treat my dash twice a month and when ever i'm not driving my SC I have a windshield sunviser or whatever its called. No uv lights to mess with and dry out the dash. Man this has been a bad week for dashes 4 people so far.

dsaint1347

Arrrgggg, mine just cracked this morning. This was my second dash board. No more dash boards for me, I am going to just get a dash board cover with my initials on it.

Thundering Z03

Yep, I've heard of it, mine cracked last week.

IROCZZ3

I know how you feel man. I moved here to Valdosta last year and my perfect original dash decided to crack. It was pretty cold last year too, although not as cold as what we're experiencing now. I'm hesistant about buying a used dash pad because there's no telling when it will crack. I'm not sure how much the dealer will charge but try looking at places like Year One and The Paddock. I have a Paddock catalog and they want $300 dollars for a new one!

I like the idea of just using a dash mat instead.

CaysE

Mine cracked when bringing it inside to actually treat it with armorall. i installed the one from my parts car, which has been treated regularly since i got it. Hopefully I have some luck with it... it is CRAZY cold up here in north Jersey.

Sitting Bull

I kinda hate to laugh at all you folks whining in the Lower 48 about "cold"--but I'll do it anyway

The night before last it was -22 Farenheit here in Cowtown. But almost every winter we will see -40 Farenheit for a week or two.

Try starting your thirdgen in THAT!!!

86NiteRider

iTrader: (10)

It's funny to me too "Sitting Bull" when the Ga. people think where they are at is cold. Try minus .03 before the wind chill factor and the blowing lake Michigan effect snow comes in. A 3rd gen sitting outside or even in a non heated garage often takes some prodding to start.

Anyway up north here you better treat your dash regularly in both winter and summer with some type of protectorant. It is the extreme temps that cause a problem when the vinyl pad becomes "dry". These mint pads are starting to be far and few. I am going to buy an extra and store it for years down the road because I know they will be scarse. You might want to also. Same with the hatch pull down assembly.

IROCZZ3

LOL, damn northerners.

okfoz

Since I work with Plastics regularly, I have an idea about what might have happened...

Vinyl has a tendancy to slowly leatch its oils and chemicals and this is why they seem to get brittle as they age, and thus the reason why a new car smells the way it does. When you mix this with UV sunlight and heat, and other chemicals there is an acceleration of the "half-life" properties of vinyl. The elastomers eventually are unable to keep the vinly in cohesion. When the vinyl gets cold it shrinks, and WHAM it cracks because all of the elasticity is gone.

SINCE most products like Armoral are simply surface applications and mostly silicone, I am pretty sure they would not "harm" your plastics. Unless they have some other chemical that happens to react with the plastic or rubber... If there is a reaction it might take several years before it was noticable and the damage might have been done long ago. Chemicals like gasoline, alcohol, benzene, acetone, carbon tetrachloride, laquer thiners, Amonia, Bleach and window cleaning sprays can have a harmful effect on the plastics.

My bet is most of damage to our generation dash pads is caused from the "Windex" that has been sprayed on the inside of our windshield for years... I have not used windex on the inside of my windshield or windows for at least 10 years on any of my cars now and I do not have any problems. I am now using a "microfiber cloth" and simply wipe the glass off in the inside to get anything off...

hope that helps

John

Black_Widdow

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, and it's funny to me when you northeners complain about it being hot Try 102 degrees with 100 percent humidity. This makes the heat index above 120 sometimes Then multiply that by 1.5 and you get the temperature inside a car.

About the Windex getting on the dash thing, I only use automotive window cleaner and I wipe the windshield with old newspaper. I also protect the dash from any overspray anyway.

There's quite a few dashes on Ebay right now going pretty cheap, maybe I'll go ahead and bid on one of those

okfoz

something to consider, unless you have owned your car since new, you do not know what the previous owner used, OR if they had it "professionally" cleaned, when they did use something that ruined the dash...

You ever seen window tint turn purple? its cause from Amonia, in Windex... same thing...

same goes for rear view mirrors that get nasty looking on the edges, its caused by the silver coroding, from Chemicals like Windex...

John

Sitting Bull

OK--get a load of this!!!

Here in Cowtown, on the northern plains near the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, it was -21 Celsius last night. Today it is +12 Celsius.

For those in the Lower 48, it translates this way: Last night it was -6 Farenheit, but today it is +54 Farenheit!

That is a temperature change of 60* Farenheit in maybe 8 hours!!!

What do you think THAT will do to your dashboard???

johnyIROC

Yeah I live in Ontario. We get some pretty wacky climate changes... it's around -15 right now.

My interior pieces never crack because I oil them regularly. Most of the stuff Okfoz said was correct (except for the windex thing ) The oil in the plastic dries up over time... and it becomes brittle. The solution is to oil your plastic pieces... you can use engine oil for gods sake... just use something.

firebird13

Hey if you get a jc whitneys book they have this dash stuff..lol witch i should buy mine has a perfect strait crack down the mid..but anyways they have a stuff you buy it for you color and you like feel the crack i dont know if it works but its a option. if you try it let me know so i can pick some up! Hope i helped

jcsws6

I was showing off my car to a buddy the other day. Pointed out how perfect my interior was and then he ask me about the 3 cracks in the middle of the dash

nixhex311

i had one small crack on my dash and my idiot friend touched it and it cracked like a inch and a half more!

johnyIROC

The only way to fix a cracked dash is to completely recover it.... good luck with that. You can't simply fill it with some shiat because the surface is textured.

Thirdgen86TA

I haven't driven my car in a couple days and I am scared to go look. I know a few days ago my dash was mint.

stiers

iTrader: (1)

Mine cracked today too, cold A$$ Iowa weather. I haven't driven the car in 4 days since it snowed so I have no idea when it happened exactly. But I have one on the pass. side that goes all the way across and a spider web one on the drivers side that starts at the speaker hole and breaks off into 4 parts. I HATE THIS!!!

Thirdgen86TA

I peeked through my window with a flashlight in the dark and I didn't see any cracks. I don't think I will touch my car for a few more days.

okfoz

Are you sure about that Johny???

You are correct, it DOES dry up on its own, but when WINDEX has Amonia, it ACCELERATES the process, it helps ro remove the oils that were in the Vinyl that made it "elastic".

John

johnyIROC

I agree that it won't help anything... but it is certainly not the root cause of the problem.

okfoz

I am not trying to flame

I am just saying jsut that, it does not help, and it does contribute to the problem... If you had 2 people that lived together, and they used the same garage, worked at the same place, their cars were both washed onthe same days, everything was identical except one used windex, or some other window cleaner that had some sort of chemical that was designed to remove oils, like Amonia.

I would bet good money that the guy that used it would find his dash damaged about 3 times sooner than the guy that did not...


The funny thing is, there was a junkyard that I used to frequent that had a dashpad that was good shape except on the driver side corner was broken... the car looked as if it had been there for several years, that was all that was left... just a shell and some misc dash & intereior pieces, There was no cracks in it, and it had been rained on, Sunlight 300 days out of the year, Frozen by Indiana Weather, and it was not cracked... Last time I went there it was still there, that was a few years ago now...

It was in Spiceland IN, at Pierce Salvage... they must have had at least 30 third gens there last time I visited...

John

johnyIROC

I agree... but I think the difference windex would make would be more like a matter of 3 days.. not 3 times as fast. If you oil it regularly, the windex will not be a problem.

TimRS

I had my automatic covered and in the garage and it still happened. Temperature Friday morning was 39 degrees inside the garage and 8 degrees outside.

okfoz

Granted, I work with Acrylic (Plexiglas) Every day and it does differ from vinyl some, but the properties are the very similar. I know from experience that we have a piece of actual "Plexiglas" thats about 50 or more years old, it still has the original "Plexiglas" paper on it. Once we remove the paper from a small section it still looked like new.

When we have done tests, the plastic will start to show deteriation within a year or less in some cases, even though we only did one application of a chemical. If you combind two chemicals there is also a chance of a reaction between the two chemicals that could double or even tripple the effect. For example Amonia (like in Windex) and Silicone (like in Armoral) might have an adverse reaction I never tried the two together.

Even the fumes from gasoline can destroy some plastics within a few months, and that's after a very short exposure of only a few minuetes. I have spoken to people that had their airplane re-painted, and the painter didn't open the aircraft to let the fumes out of the cockpit after painting and it would destroy all of the acrylic windows and some of the other plastics on the interior just after two days. This happens all of the time, you can blame many things, but the accelerated effects of using some chemicals near or on Plastics greatly decreases the life of them. Window cleaning sprays is one of the FAA's big no-no's for using on plastics... that sais something to me.

You can read all about it on http://av-info.faa.gov/dst/43-13/Ch_03-03.doc ( 2nd to the last page on top ) they do not spell out "Amonia", although amonia seems to be the chemical of choice in "Windex" and many other "Window cleaning sprays"

John

johnyIROC

Dude, I agree 100% that windex can't be a good thing for your dash... I said if you oil it regularly, it won't be a problem. We had an old truck that never had the windows cleaned from the inside as I recall. The dash cracked over time just like any other dash. Windex is NOT the root problem... it certainly won't help.. and may in fact be a contributing factor, but it is definitely not the root problem. You seem to be looking for a silver bullet... when it's just a matter of natural deterioration.

When you oil your dash, you MUST use oil though.. not armour all or other silicon interior dressings.


BTW, how's that T-shirt comin along?

yankeecarman

iTrader: (9)

Those micro-fibre cloths do a much better job than Windex anyway. Didnt believe it till I started using it. No film like Windex unless you use the Windex several times with clean cloths. Micro-fibre one pass and its clean and no danger.

TAsRBAD

It got down to -3 degrees here in Indiana the other day and mine cracked right down the center in a perfect line

okfoz

Its coming...

John

OutLaw305

I live in michigan. And yeah, its cold. Im 17 and my camaro is my only car. I wanna cry every time I have to get in it in the morning and start it in the coooooooold of my DRIVEWAY !! arg. Today i took it to the carwash ( stupid michigan salt ) and got it looking all nice. Took it home and armoraled everything i could. I have only one little crack on my driverside corner of the dash, not noticable. Thanks to you guys i found it at an early stage and my 'maro was saved from extream crackage. So now i feel a little better about it sitting in the driveway... not much though

johnyIROC

FLYNLOW92rs

iTrader: (53)

Amen to that.......

85SportCoupeto89RS

I love warm weather the hotter the better for me I feel like being mean perfect perfect perfect lol. Until we get into the original cracked windshiled I still havent gotten around to replacing

Thirdgen86TA

Does the dash only crack when the car is being used? It has been really really cold here and my dash is still in good condition. I was thinking maybe cause I am not driving my car right now?(trans is messed up)

OutLaw305

Do yourself a favor and do Not push on your dash. Just take something that will moisturize the dash and let it soak in good. The only reason my dash cracked we because i touched the side and it was brittle because of the cold. I put the armoral to it and now its fine.

okfoz

The repetitive heating up and cooling off every day from driving around could possibly irritate it more it to cause a crack...

these are all theories mind you...

John

1986redbird

say hello to my new "friend", and no, I doesn't just happen when your using your car. mine was perfect when I went into work yesterday and when I cam out 12 hours later here is what I found.

ZipTriX

Don't think that has anything to do with it. Mine's been sitting for months, and my dash is cracked.

okfoz

NEW THEORY:

ON every 82-92 Firebird & Camaro Dash Pad, GM installed a special Auto destruct system to cause all of our dashes to split down the middle . Fortunately for some of us not all of our "Auto destructors" have completed their mission, or they might be broken ... Its just a matter of time tho ...

John

Thirdgen86TA

Is there anything I can do to prevent it? LIke put a blanket over it or take it off and keep it inside? The only part I am afraid of is if I take it off it will crack as I am doing it

okfoz

personally I am not sure... Apparently the real cold weather time of year is when the spits happen... I do not hear about it too much in the summer time, and this seems to be a worse year than most. I would assume that if you did remove it and store it inside it would probably help the longevity of it. I think some other things would be to find something that would actually re-juvinate the vinyl, more than just make it shine.

I would like to do some research on it... But I have little time to do so.

John

redcamaro83

my 83 has a diff styled dash from my 90 the 83 has squared edges not smooth and rounded like most models i have seen it may not be original. but has never craked from cold just me hitting the corner with my knee and those are the only ones.maybe thats it. but the original dash in my 90 was spider heaven with cracks.

johnyIROC

OIL.