Ends of my dash pad were cracked, scored a perfect one in nov. from a friend who pulled it out of a junk yard. I got it for free.

well... I guess dash pads dont like single degree weather, go outside this morning and its all spiderwebbed in the center front to back. Will post a pic tomarrow.

 

It was 12 degrees here last Friday night and mine did the same thing. I was so pissed.
I posted about mine cracking in the body/interior section. About 30 people replied and said the same thing happened to them on the same weekend
Look on Ebay, there's a ton of them on there. I'll be bidding soon too

 

diddo

 

Damn, thats like 5 already

Maybe I should keep mine inside til its nicer out.

 

here is the rest of us....

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=157017

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

 

the one in my red car (84 camaro sc) actually has a dent in it.

i have a photo somewhere showing it. give me a few days to find it.

 

so we need to either find a way to make better dash pads or swap them when it's below 30 degrees

 

That's what I do.

 

I find it strange that I see so many dash pads cracked and broken, except mine. Its funny that my dash pad is the nicest thing on or in my car. My car is 16 years old, but my dash pad looks like it just came from the factory. Not a single crack in it, except for the vents and and where the vents attach to the pad.

 

Then there's a crack in it isn't there? That's like when people describe a car as "mint except for a dent blah blah".. "mint" and "perfect" means there is no "except".

Maybe there's some way to condition the dash pad so it won't do that. Neither of mine are cracked yet and I'd like to keep them that way. Well, they're not cracked except for a crack in the speaker grille.

 

If you take care of them and apply products like formula 2001 and those things they prolly wont crack. I always applied that stuff, In november I swapped pads, the lost my license and it was damn cold so that car sat till now, only had it back for a week and a 1/2, and as you know the northeast (and the rest) are having VERY cold temps, so I havent gotten to protect it yet.

...Oh well. Hopefully the yard will have one still. I could get 'em for like $5 or $10 from my yard I go to. I just wont put it on 'till spring

its amazing, its 32 outside now, and it feels like 50 compared to recent days!

 

I will probably jinx myself, but mine was fine after that horrible temp drop last week. I still have the original 87 dash pad. What I ahve found is that if you use a product that contains water, ie Armor All, the vinyl will absorb it & in extreme weather cinditions, the dash pad will crack. Maybe th absorbes water freezes, I'm not really sure. I can't say for sure with products do and don't use water for elasticity and shine. But I can say Armor All does and this is why they are bad news. I say Black Magic products all the way. I have used it since I got the car in 89 and still have the original pad. The car is my daily driver and sits in the sun from 8-5:30 while I'm at work. The Black Magic conmtains Platicizers (sp) (silicone) that are absorbed by the vinyl. These plasticizer recondition the piece from the inside out. They don't need UV protection because they restore what the sun strips out...the plasticizers. Armor All again uses water and UV guard. Ok so maybe it will keep the dash from fading, but it will still dry out. This is why you have to apply it so much. The sun still drys out the armor all. I ahve about 3 spare bird dash pads in the basement, just in case. I always snag them at the yards. I bring them home...spray on degreaser to strip the old crap the other person used and then condition it up with Black Magic. When RAIFs dash gets dirty I clean it with a mild degreaser and reappy Black Magic. He usually gets a coat every other weekend durning car show weekends.

I'm going to try something. the next night it gets down to frezing, I'm going to leave out some Armor All in a bottle and see if it freezes, same for the Black Magic. That could tell us alot.

 

Good idea . I'd like to know how that turns out.

 

Well my dash is in MINT condition. And I leave my car outside. Although it's been unusually cold lately in hasn't gotten below 21 degrees. So Everything is still intact for now.

 

same problem, but not as bad....
check location tho.....

it was prolly in the 30s

 

well mine was mint with ZERO cracks in it UNTIL NOW. I hate the cold.

 

Jza, I was reffering to the pad itself, not the seperate speaker cover grills. I looked at my dash today and what I thought was a crack just turned out to be a long hair.

 

out of both thirdgens ive had, i have never had a cracked dash (knock on wood) and i use armor all. the car is garage stored in the winter tho. it still gets really cold, its not like its heated or anything.

 

I had to run outside and check mine because you guys are scaring me!! It got down to 7° here.
I hope to get it back in the garage this weekend.

 

LMAO

 

to all you guys with perfect dashes...grr, i resent you all

 

i just checked mine also, no cracks yet

 

Yeah, I was just being a turd. BTW Camaros don't have seperate speaker grilles, unfortunately. They're basically just holes in the pad. Makes me with the pads were interchangable between Camaros and Firebirds.

 

I just got an idea for you all. If it is going to be very cold out, and you have saved your previous cracked dash, why dont you switch it up for the winter? When it becomes nice and warm again, simply put the new shiny uncracked one on, this way your car will still look good for shows and whatnot. It only takes 15 minutes if that to swap out dashes. I know you still won't like to look at the cracks, period, but just an idea.