WifesCar, I dont blame you one bit for not installing the good dash pad....Im wondering if I will do the same thing...lol For 445 bucks for a freakin new dash pad, not to mention the 140 I spent on the coverlay a month ago I will cry if it cracks in anything less than 10 years...LOL Might be smart to just keep the new one in the back of a closet and install if I ever decide to sell! I did get hasty purchasing a new one, mainly because I have put so much time and work in it in the last month that I just need the payoff of it looking good too. New Carpet, Headliner, sail panels, sunvisors, seats, and then the warped dash... I cant always afford to throw the money around like that, so I went ahead and did it while I could. Who knows what tomorrow may bring...so I went ahead and got it. Any more money though and my wife will probably sell it while Im at work...lol

 

Ha, as my screen name states I bought the car for my wife, so I'm free to repair and improve it as much as I want!

I do think I will carry the good dash and have it covered in leather, I'm sure a good starting point will look better in the finished product.

 

Wish I would have thought of that!...lol Probably wouldnt have worked though. My wife is from Switzerland. They love their European cars as small as they can get them, and do not have a clue about American muscle collector cars. How she wound up with me still flies over my head...lol
Wrapping the dash cap with leather is a great idea. Youre right, a much better foundation to work with!

 

oh i see...your thinking of wrapping your good dash with leather and not the cap. I contemplated getting another cap and wrapping it with leather before installing it. I would like to see someone try that. Bet it would last, and if the leather is put on before installing it over the old dash pad it might make it easier to do oneself

 

I don't believe it will come out right that way, the leather will be wavy like the cover, it would look odd.

 

Maybe it's the brand name of the caps!!I absolutely had no trouble with mine.I did pickup a nice OEM one and replaced the cap(couldn't wait for Classic any longer)The only thing I didn't like about the cap was that it didn't have the speaker grills(TA),But it's a nice fill in till you can replace it.

 

Which brand did you buy?

 

coverlay

 

Perhaps that's one for me to avoid.
Thanks.

 

How are you liking the OEM? The one I purchased is supposed to be a GM reproduction

 

I wouldn't do it, the OE dash can still crack & it will show thru the leather.
2) The dash pad will be way too thick with two layers underneath.Even one layer would be too much, I think.
3).If your gonna do it, start with a cracked dash.Dont ruin a good piece, but remove the old material first. 2¢

 

I am not wrapping a dash and a cap. I want to wrap my extra dash in leather. If I start with a solid base I'm sure it will turn out fine. The one with the cap is cracked bad already. If the cracks will show through as you say why would I pay that much to start with a bad base that's going to look bad from the get go.

 

I bought a stock dash pad not a repo, I don't know what year FireBird it came out of.

 

I did too - installed it yesterday. The key I think is to not get every last turn out of the screw driver when installing it. If you leave a little flexibility in it so it can expand & contract I think you will be better off.

 

Not your quote I was referring to!

If you wrap the good dash the OE material can still crack & it will show thru afterwards. You DONT wrap a cracked dash.You remove the cracked material,then wrap it in leather.Thats what i meant.

 

 

Dang It!!!! Just received the OER dash pad from "The Parts Place" on Ebay, and this is what I opened up. Dash pad was plastic wrapped, then bubble wrapped then placed in its own box which was then placed in a shipping box. By all means it was protected. Until I opened it up and found this....







What a dissapointment. First the dash cap sucks and now this. There has got to be an easier way... Sending it back....

 

The Parts Place seems easy to deal with though. I got a response from them in about an hour with instructions for returning it. They are sending UPS back to my house to pick it up tomorrow. Once received they will mail out a new one. Maybe this is just a "one off" from The Parts Place and OER. We will see....

 

From my experience with both of them I would have to agree. They are both reputable, and you should be taken care of with them.

That dash pad looks bent, was the box bent as well? I get a lot of used computers shipped to me that end up damaged... Most of my damages have come from UPS. But any place will damage your package if they are not careful.

Hopefully the new one arrives in perfect shape!

 

Definitely bent. Let us know when you get the replacement.

 

Thats the weird part...the shipping boxes were in good shape...

 

How disappointing! It can be frustrating to pay good money and have to return something. I'm sure they will make it right but it's the hassle. I had a similar experience with a replacement hinge. Went ahead and spent the $$ to "do it right" and now have to take my door back off and send the part back just to get it corrected. Again, I understand parts can be defective and shipping problems occur but Grrrr!

 

 

Soooo, Just a quick update. "The Parts Place" told me yesterday to have the new OER dash packaged back up and ready to go today as they were sending UPS to my house today with the return labels. UPS never showed up. I was home all day.

 

Always a risk when ordering just about anything on-line from just about anybody. The problem is compounded when the shipping is international.
Makes me rethink my options for such a purchase.
Good luck.

 

New OER dash pad arrived last week. It was a three week ordeal. A week to get the initial order to me, another week to send back the bent one, and a week on top of those two weeks to get a replacement. I must say this one arrived perfect. The Parts Place was easy to deal with, and I recommend them. The OER pad is cheaper from them than anywhere else I have found as well. They were responsive when I sent them emails inquiring about eta's etc.. Good place to buy from. The OER pad is good quality over all, and is a perfect match with nice soft vinyl. It is NOT however a perfect match if you have an 82-84 car though. The dashes back then had a seam that ran the length of the dash, where 85-92 cars did not. This is the only replacement I have found however and looks great in my 83 model.

 

This a dash pad and not an overlay that you're talking about right?

 

dash " mats " always look tacky , like a toupee on a bald guy

 

Right, a dash pad.
I started with a dash cap to try it out. I don't recommend them unless you simply cannot afford the 500 its going to take to get a new pad. They warp as soon as the sun comes up if you install them by their own instruction manual. I did come up with a MUCH better install method but it was hindsight after the first one warped. The cap can be made to look good, but only if you do not install it their way, and by that I mean they give you a tube of cheap silicone to go around the outside edges to allow for expand and contraction with the heat and cold. After installing mine it flexed alright. Bubbled up about 2" right in the middle when the sun hit it, and then laid back down after the sun went down. However, after it laid back down it was no longer straight. It was warped. Not only in the middle, but also where the speaker grills are. One was bubbled out, and the other concaved.

A MUCH better alternative if using a dash cap, would be to first prep the surface of the original dash by removing all of the original cracked vinyl and then use spray foam all over the top of the exposed original foam. Have a pre-cut sheet of very thin luan ply wood ready to put on top of the wet foam, THEN apply more spray foam on top of that and THEN apply the dash cap. Should be sturdy as hell and not warp after that. Spray foam sticks to ANYTHING and will NOT let go.
I said screw it and went ahead and forked over the $445 for an OER pad from The Parts Place on ebay.

 

Just throwing this out there, I ordered the repro dash pad from Hawks and it was awesome! Looked just like the original. I was originally set on finding a good original but after speaking with Bruce at Hawks he assured me that I would be happy with the repro and also made a very good point that buying an original you're still getting a 20+ year old dash pad that could crack at any time, where the repro is still fairly new and might have a little more life in it than an original. It's the OER brand, if anyone is interested. Smile every time I get in my car and don't see those Grand Canyon sized cracks in my dash.

 

OER is the same one I purchased from The Parts Place on eBay for 399.00 plus 46 in shipping. What kind of price does Hawks offer? They are nice it seems. I haven't installed mine yet.

 

I think it's $389 without shipping. Like I said, I love mine, hope it lasts. If it does last, well worth the money. Have had mine for about a year now, still looks great, my car sits in a garage and is mainly a weekend warrior though, not a daily.

 

What's the going rate for an OEM dash pad that's in "excellent" condition anyway?

 

Sometimes too much, I've seen them sell for over $300 on ebay.

 

Post some pics when you get it installed please! I've been thinking about buying one for a while; I've just never seen a good picture of one installed...

 

gotta do something about mine too, undecided as to which way to go.

 

How is the graining on the repop - identical?

 

Grain is perfect on the OER. Looks original in every way.

 

Will do. Right now it's been in the shop for a while getting the rear end rebuilt, subframe connectors put in, subframe welded where it cracked under steering box and gas tank dropped so a new fuel level sender can be installed. It's been there for 3 weeks now, but I will get some pics of the dash pad when she gets out of the hair dresser and day spa... Lol

 

Hey, DonW, I'd love to get your feedback on the replacement dash pad on ebay. I too was considering the Amazon one, but with cheaper shipping, I would buy the one on Ebay. Let us know how it turned out and how it compared to the stock dash. Thanks!

 

It's the way to go in my opinion. Looks like an exact replica to your original. Nice and soft and correct grain. It doesn't disappoint. It even comes with the side defrost vents already installed.

 

Thanks for the update. My car is a 92 so this will work great. I'm not impressed with the covers at all so I appreciate your feedback.