alternative if you can't afford new dash pad

[justonemorething]

since i'm not able to afford a replacement dash pad i decided to experiment with repairing my own dash. my goal was to remove the speaker and create a smoother looking appearance. i thought i would share the results in case anyone else wanted to take a shot at their own repair. not for the oe restore, but my car is a combination of 2 cars of different years so it fits it perfectly. the total cost was about 70 bucks. it's spray foam, bondo, different sand papers, primer, and krylon hammered paint. give it a shot if you want to save some money and have something unique. the paint is still fresh and glossy in the pics but the shine does settle down after drying.

[Chryco Psycho]

Cool 

[solarguy]

The pics look a lot better than I thought they would when I was reading the text.  I'd be worried about long term durability and the bondo cracking but as of now, It looks pretty good. 

[anlauto]

That must have been a lot of sanding, are you sure the bondo will stick to the vinyl ?

[justonemorething]

it was tons of sanding. i'm not really sure about anything these days. this was a total experiment. i figured since we use it for body work and it holds up pretty good over time that it should hold up well for this. time will tell. i did scuff the vinyl up before applying it so it had a better bite. it's been in varying temps and moved several times around town to people that wanted to see it. no problems so far and it's actually been about a month since i finished.

['Cuda Hunter]

That's a really great job! 

When are you putting it on the car?

[justonemorething]

thanks for the complement. i'm not sure when the install will start. i have so much going on and i tend to jump around on a million different projects i have. might be this summer or even a couple years. who knows

[GoodysGotaCuda]

I like the idea of losing the center speaker. I think if I drop the money on JustDashes to do mine, I'm going to ask if they can omit the center speaker and just close it up.

[70chall440]

I would think it should be ok for awhile at least. The originals end up bad due to heating and contracting from heat, I would like that the bondo should be ok, but would also wonder if it will crack with vibration and perhaps heat. I think you could exactly the same think with fiber glass; might be lighter in the end.

Great initiative 

[GreenFish]

wow, looks good.  If nothing else it stats the conversation of what can we use to repair a dash. With the prices of our dash boards being so high and the caps look like crap (I hate my dash cap) what are our alternatives? I wonder what other material would be out there that may be more flexible or a better product to use.

thanks for sharing. great idea

[70chall440]

I looked into this previously pretty hard. If you can figure out how to smooth out the surface of the old pad and stabilize it; there is a thin leather like material that the custom car guys use to wrap dashes, door panels and consoles. Once on, it looks like leather and it glues down well. It stretches so you can really get it to fit the contours of the pad. Because it is thin, the surface has to be smooth and flawless to a degree. I have a spare pad that I swore I was going to try this with but haven't got to it yet (paid my $800 for a pad). I just could not decide on how to make the pad smooth. Personally, I don't think the bondo will stick over the long haul; fiberglass is a bit to sloppy although I think you could use the chopped glass resin stuff.

[justonemorething]

thanks for all the feedback everyone. for those saying they don't think the bondo will hold up, what is your opionion on time frame? i ask because this is really the first time i have done anything major with bondo. do you think i'm looking at years or just months. it's very possible it will be many many months before this ever gets installed. maybe even a year or more. if it holds up i will update the post with a new picture and let everyone know. if i can get years out of it then i'll be happy with that. in the mean time i will save and save so i can pickup a real pad.

[70chall440]

its going to be relative to how the car is stored, how much direct sun light it is exposed to, how much vibration it will have to endure. If you are going to be driving the car a lot or hard (or both), my guess is that you will see cracks pretty quickly. Of course I could be completely wrong but bondo isn't a structural component (despite what many car builders in the 70's and 80's thought). It bonds well to itself, jut not well to much else unless it is porous.

I would say months at best, but I hope I am wrong. 

[HP_Cuda]

 

Maybe longer if you baby it and store it very well.

[70chall440]

Check this out, I think this would work well on a dash pad if you could get it smooth and flat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swoBhuvsu_k