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Hey everyone,
was going through some of my interior parts most can be saved.
I am having a little trouble putting this out to the curb. Do I have any chance on saving it? If so what can I do if so
Surprisingly the top dash pad is not that costly compared to all the other parts, so it may not be worth it. On the other hand if you flip it over and make a solid repair to the backing, Al Knoch sells the the cover with the front stitched seam for about $30?
There are other methods for repairs, plastic weld the crack and Texture match the finish coat is an option you can explore.
Fixing is possible....if you are **** enough to bother. (I would be!) My philosophy has always been: If it doesn't cost much to attempt a fix, what do you have to lose? If you fail, you have only lost a little bit of time and effort; you end up scrapping the part...but you have learned something about how to fix that item and will will or will not work.
If you can salvage it, you save a LOT of money and give yourself lots of pats on the back.
1. The first thing to do is clean the part well (detergent, water, more water, dry). Try to get as little water into the interior as possible. Maybe tape off the cracked-thru areas.
2. Support the underside of completely-thru cracks. Fiberglass and/or epoxy with a strengthening substrate.
3. Fill the breaks/cracks with polyester body filler. You can mask along the edges of the area being filled to keep excess filler off of good surface. When filler is setting up, use a tool to put in some similar surface graining, or impress a similar surface into the skin of the filler to transfer grain appearance.
4. Shoot the part with matching color vinyl dye with other interior parts. If the rest of the interior needs it, shoot them all. NEW INTERIOR!!
Not hard...and you might gain some new skills/knowledge.
I think you can keep the shop vac... but the dash is toast. You've got it out, might as well put a new one back in. If you're at all like me, the imperfections would drive me nuts... especially if they're right under your nose (literally). A halo trim piece or a seat backer or something you wouldn't see EVERYTIME you took her out for a spin, something like that might avoid replacement.
20?+ years ago, my '72 had same dash, not cracked as badly, bought another one, noted the surface was rather stiff......bought some vinyl color spray, sorry I forget the source, and put on two coats, been on the car here in FLORIDA for some 20 years now.... So if anyone has an old dash, it well worth looking around for a vinyl 'restore' spray and save it.....
Yes, it's toast--almost literally. You could attempt some repairs but I bet those cracks (big and small) will just extend further as you work. Worse still even if you get it even reasonably repaired it will take almost no pressure for another place to crack/split. Once vinyl is in that condition it is truly impossible to restore any amount of its original flexibility. It's the plasticizers that give vinyl flexibility. The plasticizers are replaced from within the material as they are lost from the surface. Once the surface is dry like that the interior is even worse! That's why it's so important to treat vinyl on a regular basis with something like 303 Aerospace Protectant as it prevents loss of the plasticizing agents. The more it's exposed to sun the more frequently you need to use. Armor All isn't terrible (except NEVER on leather!) but the high amount of silicon makes it feel "greasy" and attract dust. 303 on the other hand is used in a TINY amount and seems to disappear shortly after application.
Can it be saved?
