Has anyone just taken there cracked dash and had an interior guy wrap it in leather. Im thinking that if I pay 2 or 3 hundred bucks for a crack free dash and then it cracks in a few years Im back in the same boat. If anyone has done this please post pictures and who did the job as that will probably be the direction I go. It will match the leather interior better anyway.

 

I was wondering the same thing. Having your dash reconditioned is wicked expensive, and mine was perfect until last winter when we had a super cold night and it cracked literally overnight into something resembling the Mississippi river delta.

I had ideas about trying to take one of my old cracked ones and experiment with it. I'm not wild about the truck bedliner method, because I have noticed that the cracks in my dash vary with temperature and I'm sure it would show up in the repair.

 

You should just buy a dash pad cover,it's not easy getting those wrinkle's out around the vents. http://www.1aauto.com/1A/dash-pad-co...DC00055/229675

 

That cover/Pad is marked at $160, I have seen several used crack free dash boards on here go for around $100-120

 

There are some youtube how to videos for how to cover a dash that is cracked with new fabric. It's not that difficult and the vents are not the hard area, its the 90* angle at either end. If the dash is already cracked try wrapping it yourself, just be sure to use actual leather and not that Vinyl posing as leather. The vinyl, when scratched, will show the backing that it is glued to just like a pair of cheap dress shoes.

 

I can do headliners and have done many through the years but leather is very different than the spongy headliner material. It doesn't stretch as well and is more expensive if you mess it up. I have helped hog-ring several seat covers on seats but I can't sew and I think the cover would look better with a sewn seam around the edge much like a seat. It should probably match the seat like the high end ferraris and lambourghinis do. That is where I got the idea from was the Lamborghini Aventador and a high end modern Ferrari I saw on this show. If your seats are black with red stitching and your dash has red stitching also that just puts the car into a higher catagory IMHO. Our dashes crack and there is little we can do about it except have a better dash. I would even take a carbon fiber dash. That dash should last a while since it is stronger than steel. Anyone know how to wrap a dash in carbon fiber?

 

Checkout mudd746's dash rebuild, it's the only one I've ever seen that came out really good.

 

You could make an over mold of the dash in a layer of fiberglass and then put on a layer of carbon fiber. The issue becomes how to mount that as the stock dash has the screw eyelets in them.

 

Ive thought about this even though my dash is in perfect shape. The only problem I see is the defrost vent being to deep to to possibly get leather to shape down in there nicely and with out a lot of slits. As far as the front edge closest to the steering wheel and everything else I figured a double sewn seem would make that look nice. But it would be a lot of work. Hope this all makes since

 

Been working on this myself, Ive got the leather for this.Problem though is taking the old vinyl off w/out tearing the foam.Since the vinyl is bonded & i wont apply the leather on top of the vinyl, but i will get this done.

Anyone get the vinyl off w/out damage to the foam?

 

Im gonna try this with a cracked pad I have here. Im gonna put it over the vynil so it holds the shape better. I was also thinking of fiberglassing one and painting it like some of the other guys have done on here

 

The cracks will show thru the leather & if you fix it & the dash cracks again........!

 

If you went the carbon fiber route you would just use the screws under the front of the dash. You could use velcro or double sided tape around the defrost (windshield) part of it. Carbon fiber would look great on the dash carrier and console also. We need to see some pictures of what some people have done with there dash. Someone needs to make a fiberglass dash with 2 or 3 2 inch gauge pods built in them right above the middle A/C vent like some of those import cars have factory. If you went fiberglass it would open up many possibilities. I could use two of them today.

 

I've wondered if something 'heavy' would work, rather than thin suede, or the velvety soft leather hides they use in such cars as a Cadillac leather seat. The type of heavier grained hide I keep thinking over is a Buffalo tooled unit. I've even thought I should try it initially by copying a Dash Cover. Nitro-Nicky

 

i could not see any way to get it off of the foam, i started to glass my pad, but i tried to take a short cut, and not wrap it in fleece first, turns out that was a bad call, glass did not stick well when it got hot this summer, so i will be starting over, thinking about doing a layer of fleece and then leather, but not sure how well leather will stretch ... and as for the corners, i was thinking about reforming them a little, to get away from the hard corners ... idk though, just a thought

 

If someome made a fiberglass mold it would solve a bunch of problems. I wish I were talented in that area. I would make one with 2, or 3, 2 inch gauges just above the center A/C vent or one on the left side by the pillar post. Mudd746 is a very talented guy. The dash work he was able to accomplishe was awesome and he also had the grills done and they looked factory. Some people are very talented. A fiberglass mold is probably going to be the best way to solve our dash problems. I refuse to invest in a nice dash again simply because it is gaurenteed to crack eventually.

 

Thanks for all the compliments. The dash is still holing up great even in this az heat. I was told by the shop the did my seats that I should have put a layer of thin foam down before the leather. This would allowe if the oem dash was to crack some more you won't see or show through just a little FYI I learned. Hope this helps.

 

Hey Mudd,I see a lot of the pics you had from when you did your dash pad are gone from the thread you did.Maybe you could post them here(if you still have them)to show what you did.Like I said previously,yours is the only one I've seen that was really good.

 

Thought about fiberglass too, but i dont think its flexible enough.It will eventually crack as well.Perhaps that white foam sheet stuff they use in packaging.A few layers til its thick enough or some type of sandable semi rigid foam product.Just gotta get my rear in gear about it!

 

Some of the new aftermarket hoods are made out of (DURAFLEX). It is supposed to be a fiberglass, plastic, rubber type of blend that is very crack resistant. They even pack them different because the corners are much less likely to break and crack. Maybe someone could talk mudd746 into playing with a mold since he is obviously able to complete such a task. The layer of foam in case it does crack solves that part of it if it is being covered. I would be tempted to paint it or cover it in carbon fiber. There is a guy who covered his gauge bezel on here with carbon fiber and it looked great. We need to get him and mudd746 together and then it would be done. There is a industry waiting to be discovered here and launched since this could be done to any car. Just Dashes gets an arm and three legs just to recover a dash back to original and you know eventually it is going to crack again. Just dashes takes your dash and then they vacuum shrink a new layer of dash material to your dash and it cost about what a new dash cost from GM. They do great work but it is still a flawed finished product. I saw a special on Thomas Edisons house in Florida and the Curator of the estate stated that everyone of the original banana filiment light bulbs in the house still works and that not one has ever gone out. These are some of the first light bulbs ever made with a crude vacuum pump and a piece of banana for the filiment (the part that glows) and have worked for over one hundred years. Do you think we might be getting a royal ******** on the bulbs we buy at wal mart. Well I have ended up on my soap box again so I will shut-up and let one of our resident geniuses contemplate making a dash mold so they can fix a poorly engineered part of our beloved cars.

 

That's Great Trivia on the Thomas Edison Light Bulbs!! --Speaking for many of us, thanks for all the research time you spent on this; it's greatly appreciated. I'm PM you. Nitro-Nicky

 

Well, i got the pad stripped.Took just under one hour to peel the vinyl off, just gotta rebuild whats there & find speaker grills.As the OEMs are all foam.Was thinking T/A pieces, since they're pop ins.

 

subscribed, been wondering about this myself

 

Here is my link

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/inte...ulit-dash.html

The foam I was told to use is about 8th inch thick and you glue it to your material your gonna wrap your dash in this will alowe some movement without out being noticible

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/inte...ml#post5692539