How To Repair Damaged Dashboard

When restoring older cars, it is often too expensive to replace a cracked dashboard. And, that is bold a new dash board is bachelor. In cases where new parts are likewise expensive, too difficult to find, or impossible to find, you lot volition need to restore what is already there. The padded dashboard on this 1971 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser is a good example.

Footstep 1

As y'all can see, this dashboard has a pigsty that needs to be repaired. Most old cars and some new cars have dashboards made from vinyl over urethane foam. Over time in the sun, the vinyl gets brittle and the dash board gets cracks. Many newer dashboard don't have any cream at all. Instead, they are made from injection molded TPO or ABS. But, these dashboards can also become croaky or get holes from exposure to the sun.

Step 2

Use fourscore grit or 180 dust sandpaper to bevel into the damage. Make sure that you sand out whatsoever stale-out and crusty cream, too.

Pace 3

Melt some of the polyurethane welding rod into the void that was created when you sanded out the crusty, dried out foam. The urethane rod is very flexible and closely simulates the urethane cream. Plow the temperature all of the way up and the melted rod come out bubbly. Some of the bubbles remain encapsulated within the polyurethane and simulates the foam even more. Overfill the pigsty slighly. Y'all will be sanding it down and it is meliorate to overfill slightly than having to discover out that you need to melt more polyurethane rod into the hole after you have sanded it. Of import NOTE:If you have i of the newer dashboards that don't accept any foam, yous may skip this stride.

Step four

This is what it looks like after filling the hole.

Footstep 5

Utilize eighty dust sandpaper to sand the urethane level with the surrounding area. The urethane is very stretchy and rubberband so, if you use actually curt strokes when you sand, it may just stretch back and forth rather than getting ground away. A good manner to forbid the dorsum-and-along stretching is to put your pollex on superlative of the sandpaper over the area that you need to sand. Then, pull the sandpaper while maintaining downward pressure level with your thumb over the urethane.

Stride 6

This is what the damaged area looks similar subsequently the urethane welding rod was sanded downward.

Step 7

Mix some Padded Dash Filler with the cream hardener according to the instructions. Utilise a spreader to apply the Padded Dash Filler to the damaged area.

Stride 8

Allow fourth dimension for the Padded Dash Filler to cure. Sand it polish starting with 180 grit sandpaper and then 320 grit sand newspaper.

Step 9

This is how it looks after sanding smooth the Padded Dash Filler.

Step ten

Spray on Flextex VT. You may want to spray the texture coating on something else first. You will get different size texture depending on your spray gun settings and how much you reduce (dilute) the Flextex with lacquer thinner.

Step 11

Sometimes, the Flextex may get little "nibs" on it that can easily be knocked off by lightly scuffing the surface with a scuff pad.

Footstep 12

This is what it looks like. Of course, Flextex is black. If your dashboard is blackness, you are finished. If non, y'all are going to need to put a coat of paint over the peak of the Flextex.