I did some searches, and haven't seen anyone suggest this yet...

I had replaced my dash pad last fall with one from e-Bay (pulled from a bone-yard or something). As you can guess, after this winter, I checked out my car and found a new crack in the dash pad. It's only a hairline crack back from the center between the defroster vents to the windshield. My question is this: Has anyone tried using the spray-on truck bed liner stuff to "recover" the dash pad? Isn't that stuff supposed to be somewhat flexible, and also would still have black color with some texture. Maybe I'm cracked, any thoughts?

 

I say try it out!

What have you got to lose?

And let us know how it works.

 

Any progress to report? I too am in the dash pad repair department right now and need some suggestions on how to go about doing this. The bedliner stuff sounds like a feasible idea. I thought about just buying some vinyl and using spray adhesive to recover it, but I'm worried about the corners. I know they will be the hardest part AND they are not only the first thing to be seen of the pad when getting in, but also the most likely place for it to get damaged first from a knee or what have you. Now I know why GM heat/vacuum formed these pads in the first place.

 

I tell you what, I am going to love this forum. I have a Jeep and am looking into rhynolining various whatnots. I even thought about slapping some on the Camaro dash that has cracked. I thought I might be thinking a little too "offroad-ish" to try that in the camaro but I think I just got talked into it. Like you guys say, what can it hurt. If it looks like crap, pull it out and find one in a junkyard.

My wife thinks its a stupid idea in the Jeep and I'm sure she'll think the same about this since she drives this more than I do. Oh well, she can't do anything about it if she doesn't know until after the fact

 

What kind of freakyness are you into that you hit your knee on the edge of the dashboard????

Always easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission!

Back on topic, I think both of these are viable ideas. If done right the vinyl recovering will probably look the best...but that rhino lining idea has me intrigued.

(yes, I too have a crashed dash and am wondering what to do about it)

 

I'm not quite sure how it happens, but every once in a while, if I'm not paying attention, I hit my knee on the corner of the pad when I'm getting in... Anyhow, I believe I'm about to break down and try the truck bedliner idea. I got to thinking about trying to cover it with vinyl using spray adhesive and I can't figure out how I'd get it around and down into the defroster vents without it looking like ***. If you stretch it over them then cut it down the center there isn't enough material to pull it through and overlap the back.

 

Okay, so initial testing looks promising for the truck bedliner coating. Tonight I bought a can of Duplicolor truck bed coating and did a one coat test patch on the back of the pad. It turned out really good actually. The final texture when it dries kinda looks like a cross between leather grain and a crackle finish and it moves with the foam without cracking or flaking if you press on it. My biggest concern now will be if I do decide to use it, can I keep the application looking consistant across the entire pad?

Still exploring alternatives though... What the hell is stretch vinyl, where can I get it, and how much does it actually stretch i.e. far enough that there will be enough to wrap under my defroster vents? Anybody use this stuff before? Of course, the other option is making a fully sewn-to-contour vinyl cover for it.

Later,
Harry