Dash crack repair

palladin said:

Who has successfully repaired a dash crack? And I don't mean by putting on a dash cap

Click to expand...

I saw a post on another forum (as I recall), where I guy used Great Stuff foam, filled cracks, sanded down, worked hard, used the SEM products, and had a great result. Looked like a lot of work, but great result. I'll see if I can find the post and link. (Is it ok to link to another site?)

JGW

Check out this guy:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23919&highlight=dash+repair

and this one:

http://www.zdriver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29891

The black car in ATL has a crack in the dash. Needless to say, lowers his asking price. Has Auto air that he has had worked on. Eng and auto tranny rebuilt...why? And the PO apparently recovered the seats...but not back to original. Should go down and see it Sat, wx permitting, i.e. sunny and no chance of rain

What part of Atlanta?

Hybridz has a really nice link, they mostly talk about the classiczcar site though.

http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/57194-cheap-dash-repair-alternative/

Skittle and Greg. I've seen that one. There is a guy in Chattanooga who has done it but I've lost touch, I'd like to see how it turned out.

Steve: the car is somewhere around Hartsfield. You in ATL?

Jaket: How about a link to the products...apparently stay away from walmart. What about some pics of yours. I tried to inject silicon into my blue one a few years back. I was going to top it with that vinyl repair stuff for seats you mix up and heat. Either the crack got bigger or the silicon shrunk. I put a cap on it, but couple years later when I removed the cap, it pulled away a lot of the top coat.

I guess one question that needs answered is why they crack to begin with. Heat plays a big part. I assume they dry out. I used armorall on my first one and in 6 years never had an issue. Used it on the blue one too but about 18-20 years later the crack arrived.

I have

Blue, how difficult? It looks good from here. Any details.

Here is the dash I may have to contend with. It is FUBAR.

78zcar_blue said:

I have

Click to expand...

Care to share some details? A write up would be awesome. Looks like you did a really nice job...

Its about working with materials. Some well rounded bodymen would be able to repair the dash. PPG has a flexible interior paint we used at work, pretty nice too. A coworker is making a mold for a custom dash for his chevelle. He's going with fiberglass.

You are correct, the dash must be removed. There is a whole list of repairs to be made when the dash is out. In this case dealing with auto AC. In tour opinion, would those 5 cracks pose a problem...and maybe more importantly, can we expect other cracks in other places? You finished up with SEM trim black...do they have other colors? Where might we procur said products?

BTW, Your pictures are too small to see and would not pull up.

palladin said:

Steve: the car is somewhere around Hartsfield. You in ATL?

Click to expand...

I live north of Atlanta, about an hour and a half away from the airport.

palladin said:

I guess one question that needs answered is why they crack to begin with. Heat plays a big part. I assume they dry out. I used armorall on my first one and in 6 years never had an issue. Used it on the blue one too but about 18-20 years later the crack arrived.

Click to expand...

I would guess oxidation would cause the plastic to lose the elasticity it needs to withstand the expansion and contraction associated with the thermal cycles the cars experience. It's not so much drying out but chemically changing.

I'm only an hour and a half from Hartsfield and I live in Chattanooga.

I'm in atlanta too, and I found a guy in north atlanta that sold me a perfect dash out of a 79, said it was a nissan replacement made later and with a better material and shouldnt crack. He had a targa band in perfect condition and seemed to know a lot. I just believed him, kinda just wanted to get the dash and run

I saw your dash palladin that is more FUBAR then what I've done, accept the way I was shown was keeping the dash on and taping paper over the surfices like in the vid in the link.

palladin said:

I'm only an hour and a half from Hartsfield and I live in Chattanooga.

Click to expand...

I'm counting commute traffic, too. That's usually when I have to go there. LOL

Jaket, I've removed the dash too many times. It is really no big deal. You do need to people to put it back in.

Steve, it is looking like Sunday if at all. You and Heroe are welcome to come down. There was a little restaurant out of a closed garage not far from the airport we went last time. Of course it also had outdoor sitting,,,which might be a bit chllly.