DIY Dashboard Rebuild?

Anyone know about rebuilding dashboards? I've got one that's cracking badly: it's vinyl over some sort of expandable foam, bonded onto a metal frame. A company in Nevada or Cali. can rebuild for ~$500, a lot of money for a daily driver with 200k on the clock. Used ones that aren't cracked will surely crack soon and anyways are hard to find.

Is this something I can do myself and, if so, what's the process? From a web search it looks like a form is built, then you use vacuum. Can it be done without vacuum? Is there a really thin vinyl I could bond over the existing stuff?

Not my dash, but a typical example of the problem:

if theres a way of fixing it DIY without removal I am all ears, my E30's dash looks like the pic

What kind of car? There are hard plastic molded overlays for most cars that have that problem. Check eBay and you might find the exact overlay you need that looks just like a stock dash and costs $50-$150.

What about trying to make one out of fiberglass? Not sure of the steps or procedures, however.

JC Whitney rug and spray glue......

Most dashes and panels are made from a thin sheet of electron beamed plastic. the sheet is cut to size put in a mold and heated. The sheet then expands to fill the mold leaving a skin on the outside and foam core in the middle.

Thankfully i no longer travel the world fixing e-beams.

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Junkyard_Dog wrote: What kind of car? There are hard plastic molded overlays for most cars that have that problem. Check eBay and you might find the exact overlay you need that looks just like a stock dash and costs $50-$150.

The car in the pic is a 79-93 Saab 900.

There are overlays available for it, and when installed correctly, they look great.

On E30s, they have overlays that look OK. You can also do the DIY route, remove it, and cover it with some sort of material. There was a DIY on some site awhile back where the guy did a suede dash for not much money. Didn't look too difficult either.

Apexcarver wrote: if theres a way of fixing it DIY without removal I am all ears, my E30's dash looks like the pic

If you can find a new dash, it's not that hard to replace it. I did mine in a day, with help from this site: complete dash swap instructions, with pics

MiatarPowar wrote:

Junkyard_Dog wrote: What kind of car? There are hard plastic molded overlays for most cars that have that problem. Check eBay and you might find the exact overlay you need that looks just like a stock dash and costs $50-$150.

The car in the pic is a 79-93 Saab 900. There are overlays available for it, and when installed correctly, they look great.

Yes, it's for a 900. I've heard that the dash cap looks bad because it covers just the top, so you get a seam along the front face. Do you have pics of yours?

carpet glue + vinyl from the fabric store + a lot of cursing and tugging + swear words asian sailors have not heard = probably cheap DIY solution yielding reasonable results.

thats my best guess

wrap in fiberglass, bondo, sand, and paint.

In reply to andrave:

"wrap in fiberglass, bondo, sand, and paint. "

That was my thought. Buy a POS one at the junkyard, wet layup some fiberglass cloth, bondo & finish sand then either paint it or wrap it with some nice fabric. Then you can swap it out. That way you are not working in the car, you don't stink up the interior of the car and get spray glue and dust everywhere and you can disassemble and assemble the dash the same day.

how about.. Bondo, sand, and flock?

Fabric (fleece in this case) and 3M spray adhesive. I did this with the parts out of the car. The stretch in the fleece made it a lot easier to fit the curves and crevices.

The cadavalier dashes are well known for this kind of disintegration. The problem is when you leave the vehicle in the sun with the windows up. The dash gets so hot that the thermal expansion causes stress cracks. I can see the cracks grow after coming out of work on a sunny day. I've tried using plastic epoxy hold mine together so it wouldn't rattle, but eventually the thermal expansion/contraction causes either the joint or a new spot to crack.

Keith wrote: Fabric (fleece in this case) and 3M spray adhesive. I did this with the parts out of the car. The stretch in the fleece made it a lot easier to fit the curves and crevices.

Damn, Keith, that whip is pimpin' y0!

"Pimp" is a word that seems to get used quite a bit around the car for some reason. I'm not sure why.

Well it looks just like the dash on my Nissan truck. I can buy a cover off fleabay for about $130. I'm just not sure it would look good after a while.

Yikes! $180? http://www.thesaabsite.com/900old/c900bodyinternal.htm

Anythng at the Pick-n-Pull or do they all do that?

Dan

ive got dash caps in both my 924's, and they look fairly decent given the stock dash has a split line that the caps line up with very well. they will buckle and distort after time though.

the only effective way to repair a dash, is to remove it completely, and strip down all the vents and trim pieces. the cracks will have curled up edges, so they need to be trimmed, the under foam cut out (cut a "v" channel in all the cracks to make sure the edges are level again) than fill with expanding foam and sand down again. once everything is sanded smooth and leveled out perfectly to the contour of the dash, recover with the fabric of your choice. im working on one now, i was able to strip off all of the existing vinyl (peeled it like a potato)

instead of fabric, im thinking about having it flocked with a thin layer of fiberglass and spraying on a couple of coats of rubberized paint like they use on tool handles...

procainestart wrote:

MiatarPowar wrote: The car in the pic is a 79-93 Saab 900. There are overlays available for it, and when installed correctly, they look great.

Yes, it's for a 900. I've heard that the dash cap looks bad because it covers just the top, so you get a seam along the front face. Do you have pics of yours?

Not mine, but one of my local good friends did it on one of his 900s. Here are his pics:

http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x155/foreversincebreakfast/Saab%20dash/

I've been in the car and I think it looks great.

Link is 404. Got another?

SASAB has them for $85: http://www.sasab.com/ABS-Plastic-Dash-Cover-i896.aspx

@914Driver -- yeah, almost all of them do it. When I find a good one at the pull-a-part I sell it because folks are willing to pay good money for them. When I installed a perfect dash in my '86, it began to crack almost immediately. For the effort, it's pretty depressing to see it begin and there's nothing you can do to stop it (I already use sunshades religiously).

MiatarPowar wrote:

procainestart wrote:

MiatarPowar wrote: The car in the pic is a 79-93 Saab 900. There are overlays available for it, and when installed correctly, they look great.

Yes, it's for a 900. I've heard that the dash cap looks bad because it covers just the top, so you get a seam along the front face. Do you have pics of yours?

Not mine, but one of my local good friends did it on one of his 900s. Here are his pics: http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x155/foreversincebreakfast/Saab%20dash/ I've been in the car and I think it looks great.

procainestart wrote: Link is 404. Got another? SASAB has them for $85: http://www.sasab.com/ABS-Plastic-Dash-Cover-i896.aspx

Go here:

http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x155/foreversincebreakfast/

And click on 'Saab Dash' on the left. I'm really not sure why that link won't work. I guess Photobucket has changed their direct-linking rules. Blah.

Duct tape. Available in various colors.