My dash pad had five nasty cracks in it. I was talking on the phone to my dad last night about it, and he said he had some flexible bumper patch expoxy. He said to use a dremel and, working in short movements, make the cracks bigger until they were at least 1/8 inch wide, then make a circular indentation at the end of each crack to keep it from spreading.

I did that, then mixed up the epoxy. I gooped it in the cracks with an acid brush, then used a plastic putty knife to spread it all over around the crack. After about 20 minutes, I peeled away the expoxy, leaving just the crack filled. Then I sanded the mound down flush with the dash pad, leavin just enough texture around it that it was barely noticable. After it dried, I sprayed it w/vinyl and leather paint. That brought up the texture, and it doesn't look like it's ever been damaged!

http://www.evercoat.com/products.aspx Then go to Automotive, then Plastic Repair, then Flexible Bumper Patch, 9th item down. Sorry, there isn't a direct link, and I don't know where my dad got it. There's a phone number for them though, they should be able to say where it's sold at.

 

can we see a pic please?

 

TTIUWP! .. where's the smiley when I need it..

 

I will try to have them up friday, sorry about the delay. Gotta wait til payday to get the film developed. The only problem with the stuff is that it can't fix broken speaker grills on the dash. But, I'm just gonna cover them with material, maybe something with a big bowtie in the middle.

 

yea a picture would be great. I have 2 that could benifit from that if it looks nice lol.

 

could you please be more specific with the name of the product you used, the link doesn't seem to go directly to a single product.
thanks!

 

Im gonna be a little skeptical on how it looks, just because......so prove us wrong!

 

If this cam out even decent it is prob worth doing it, sure people are selling dash pads on here for Lets say $50, it costs almost $100 to ship the dam thing, If the price were just 50 I would buy but comon 150 that seems a bit expensive.

Also do you have before pics and after pics to show the improvement?

 

Okay, got the pics back tonight, not as clear as I wish they would have been, but I couldn't turn off the flash on the stupid disposable camera. Here goes:

 

Before:

 

This is about 20 minutes after I gooped on the epoxy. It peeled away, leaving just the stuff in the cracks:

 

And this is after I sanded and repainted the dash pad. The stuff is called Evercoat Plastikworks Flexible Bumper Patch. It also will fill in holes. While I was prepping the dash, I screwed up and actually broke off a half inch chunk in between two other cracks (not shown). Just slopped it in, and it filled it. I did a little happy dance when the paint dried and I couldn't tell it had been repaired.

 

you can actually tell a little bit in the image there is a little bit of a lighter cast to it.. although compared to the before it is awesome

 

Yeah, I noticed that too, in the pic. Can't see it in daylight though. I'm pretty sure that's from where I grabbed the wrong can and sprayed flat black instead of the Vinyl/Leather paint

 

could be.. I have some vynle patch stuff called HH-46. it is used by the trucking industry to repair thier tarps.. same thing. only no shinkage, and will last almost forever... also dries black which is a plus. gona try that on mine.. see if it does a decent job. as i have one that is just horrid..

 

You can buy evercoat at Oreilly's

 

I think you can buy it just about everywhere these days that sells autobody type stuff.. I just have the other stuff by the case since my father is a truck driver.. he has a pretty good supply of it.

 

dont think you'd be able to see it tho unless you were looking for it

 

So do the repair spots match in texture to the rest of the pad??

 

this is actually something i would consider doing... any ideas on how it holds up to 115* weather?

 

DIDO....arizona gets really really hot...so this stuff has to be durable. Question: How did you match the texture part? and couldnt you just paint the entire dash pad to ensure a match. im really interested. because i have time over the summer! Another Q. did any of your cracks go towards the front and around the lip? where you able to fix that?

 

Oh, sorry, left out the texturing part. A few minutes after I put on the first coat of paint, I used a ball of plastic wrap, you know, all crinkled up, and lightly dabbed the paint over the top of the repairs. After that dried completely, I put another coat on top of that. It's not exact, but really, who stares at someone's dash and traces all the lines? It's close enough for me.

I did paint the complete dash, but the flat black is a different color than the vinyl paint, and I only put one more coat of vinyl paint over the top of the flat black before I took the pic cause I had to go pick the g/f up at work. I looked closer at it yesterday, and if I reeeealy concentrate, I can make out a subtle color difference. Another coat of paint should take care of it.

In the second picture, the bottom fork of the crack does, err, did, go around and under the lip. It came out just fine, also. Took a little bit of work, sanding the epoxy to match the curve exactly, but well worth it. As far as having time over the summer, 7plagues, it only took me four hours. Half an hour of prep work, washing, widening the cracks a little. About another half hour of putting the stuff on and waiting for it to dry, and three hours or so of sanding.

As far as standing up to 115* degree weather, the box says "*Resists Solvents and Temperature Extremes" My dad used the stuff for years working in bodywork, and says it will hold up...time will tell, I guess.

 

thanx for the response, did you sand the entire dash pad?

 

No, just the repair and enough of the surrounding area to blend it all together.

 

I just did this this week, I used Permatex plastic epoxy, comes in a double tube like epoxy, I think it's a new line of products... Supposed to be useable on automotive plastics/vinyl.

I didn't use a dremel to widen the cracks, I just filled them in, and this stuff can't be "peeled" away, so I had to sand smooth, which I did a .......****-poor job of....
Nonetheless, after some better sanding with alternating sandpapers, I think I could get it smooth, however, the texturing part is where my beef lies. That didn't work.
A ball of saran wrap (right?) just smeared the paint around, kinda like patting it with your fingers or something, very bad looking.


Any other ideas for texturing, or did I do this wrong? I can provide "after" pictures, but I don't think I took any before, so you could use your imagination for that....
-J

 

same question here, I did what you did with the epoxy and wish i didnt.

 

might thought would be alot like smothing the epoxy out so it is smooth with the dashtop. and then while it is still wet lay the wrap over it to create the texture...

I am not sure though.. I have not done this myself yet.

 

Nah I dont think that permatex is a new line, I've got over 20
mix-it-yourself epoxys and I've got a few of those from a year ago. One thing I got to say is that your dash looks very shiny and glossy which is going to be a pain in the but when its sunny. I refuse to even armorall my dash any more because I was getting blinded. Also if this doesnt work for you, go and just get some thing leather/pleather/whatever and cover it. Its very simple, just fold it over the edges and staple the hell out of it. I was going to do this until I went to the junk yard and found a 100% spotless/ripless/scratchless dash in a Camaro that had just come in and got it for $20.

 

my dash had vinyl covering it, *** knows for how long, but it was peeling at the edges from heat/time, and the edges were glued down (well, used to be...). After removing it, I found out why, the dash was all cracked up....


It was a pain to clean it all off (glue residue), but i'm trying to fix it up as is, if it doesn't work, I did buy some vinyl to redo it, but i'm keeping that as plan B....

 

I had originally planned to cover mine in vinyl and then I started thinking How would I get it in the vent holes and all those areas, I know you can heat them up but how much does it really stretch?
Anyone on here ever do this?

 

Oh ya I forgot about the speaker vents, I just cut an oval hole out where the grills uses to be and was going to tuck it around the speaker. I thought that way I wouldnts have any interference but I dont know what to do about the heater vents. Theres plenty of leather-like materials than are pliable to cover a dash, just look at leather/pleather office chairs.

 

I may try this .

my original dash had cracked so bad that pieces of it was MIA.
I found a mint looking dash pad in the junk yard so I just had to buy it, after 2 weeks in my car it had cracked right down the middle.

I wished someone could make one out of fiberglass with the natural texture of vinyl.

 

Ah dont tell me yours cracks, its scaring me but you may live in harsher conditions than me. I too kept looking for the dash in junk yards and had absolutely no luck, every one had cracks or if there werent any cracks there was a ripped corner. So I finally gave up and was actually going to buy a new one from Classic Industries but they gave me a bunch of crap about having to retool a machine or something and I would have to wait 6 months. I was beginning to do what you guys are doing right now, fill the cracks which were huge and alot, sand then cover in vinyl with cutouts were the speakers are. Well I went to a junk yard looking for some dash screws and ended up finding a Camaro they just got in with a perfect dash. I left with a dash, about a few dozen screws, rear cargo cover, air vents, and some rubber bumpers all for $60 I think.

 

Oh ya I forgot, the air vents on the front corners just pull right out, their just sitting there really. You would still have a problem with the speaker grills. If you got no speakers you can epoxy over the grills, sand and then cover it. If you got speakers I was just going to do a cutout and then buy a grill to cover the 4x6's like the Type R ones.

 

FYI, my permatex epoxy fix cracked yesterday. It was quite hot out, 26*C or so, in a black car, on a black dash....
Anyway, i'm back to thinking about covering it in vinyl, the job done before I got the car probably looked pretty good for a few years, before it started to peel....
He just cut an X where any hole would be, then stuffed the vinyl into the speaker hole for example, and then crammed the grill on top. The grill holds the vinyl in, and makes the grill a tighter fit.
-J

 

How flexible was the epoxy you used? My dash is back in the car and hasn't cracked again so far.

I'm not trying to get anybody irked by causing them to completely ruin their dashpad. I'm just saying that the specific product I used worked for me.










So far, anyway.

 

my epoxy wasn't not terribly flexible after setting... I guess it would be comparable to interior plastics...
I think I may cover mine in vinyl, but i'm still going to give it one more chance with the epoxy, I didn't widen my cracks, and they still bulged outwards after filling them in, so i'll try fixing it completely (I kinda did a hack job...), and if it still cracks, then i'll just super77 some vinyl down....


but yea, care to elaborate on the saran wrap trick? it didn't do squat for me...

 

for the texture there was a post a while back last year or so. a guy made a costum enclosure for a monitor 5" or something like that.

if i remember correctly he used some undercoating spray to get the texture then painted it and it matched the texture of the plastic peices in the car. maybe you want to try that.

jeff
ok here it is he is a mod.... jim you still around? your links don;t work for pics

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...all+dvd+custom

 

excellent idea Jeff, thanks muchly for the input, I was getting disappointed in the feedback...
that would give a round bumpy sort of feel, which would probably match some of the interior plastics, but I don't think the dash... I suppose if I did the whole dash to be that texture, then it would match the rest of the interior and no one would be the wiser...
-J