U can vinyl wrap or leather wrap or fabric wrap depending on your method. Select products makes a great adhesive that is temp sensitive and they also make one thats pressure sensitive. However you prefer to wrap. Either e=way stretch it how you want and apply heat or pressure. Its pricey but well worth it great company and awesome products (from experience)

 

I took a couple pics of the one for my crew. Looks like leather. I can email the pics I took if anybody wants.

 

Send those my way dude. I want to see, just to get future ideas for my truck. Aaron-71@hotmail.com. Thanks bro!

 

I have had great luck mixing a small batch of epoxy resin and injecting it into the foam surrounding the crack using a 14 gauge medical syringe. I go about 1/2 inch deep and about 1/2 inch away from the edges of the cracks with the needle. Once the epoxy has hardened you have a solid surface to work with (you can now sand it or file it down carefully). Now you mix more epoxy with microfibers, microballons or any other compatible filler to thicken the epoxy (tiny bits of fiberglass cloth cut as fine as you can cut it up with a scissor works excellent) and you fill and smooth the crack. I have had good luck blending color to match the color of the vinyl top. JoAnn fabrics or hobby stores sell great little tubes of vinyl repair glue. What you do is tint this repair glue with color you buy in little bottles for model building that they also sell at most hobby stores. You need to test the amount of color you put into the glue to match the color to your existing dash cap, which is probably uniquely weathered by the sun and elements. This repair looks very good from a foot away, you really don't notice it unless you know it is there. New caps cost 100 bucks or more plus at least 50 bucks shipping because they are so large and fragile and besides that they don't look right to me. This way is cheap and it works well, it does take a lot of time but it is fun and satisfying to see the result of your effort. This repair is an original idea of mine, I've never seen anyone else do it this way. Did it first on an old 911 Porsche I had that had a very pricey replacement dash. I'm a nurse, so thats where the syringe idea came from. I realized you couldn't shape foam because it was too unstable of a material, but once hardened by epoxy, it was easy to fix the cracks in it.

 

I just pulled a perfect dash pad from a parts cab. It's tan, NO cracks, and its for sale! I can post pics if anyone is interested.

 

Thanks for the info! I'll be trying this tomorrow night for sure. If the repair works out well, I'll just pull the old pad off and paint it.

 

What about 'capping' the dashpad in a thin fiberglass shell? I am looking at buying a fiberglass/bondo kit for filling in some of the smaller dents and dings in the body, and also looking for ideas for my moderately cracked dashpad.

 

How much you want for it? Pics would be nice.

 

Send them my way. I'll be doing interior soon! R.Blomgren@yahoo.com

 

Back to the boards & my email after being gone for the weekend - I'll send the pics out now. If either one of you wants to post hem up feel free.

 

Where are you located and what color do you want?
I know a parts yard around me has a perfect dash pad but it is blue. Not sure what color you are going for.
I just put a nice black one into mine.

If you are not too far maybe we could work it out on shipping or something.

 

I would be interested in a blue dash pad! Where are you located?

 

I am in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
But I mean, I got mine pretty cheep last time. I got all the interior pieces that I needed for 40 but the guy owed me one.
But he still works with me.

Might be worth the shipping or gas depends where you are.

I am going up there tomorrow to get some parts for mine and then my Iroc as well.
Will look into the price if you are not too far.

 

Going back to the original point of this thread... I picked up 2 yards of black marine vinyl for $18 and a heat gun today. I'll have my camera and should be abvle to post pics in the morning. All said and done I should only be into it for $25

 

Duty called at work last night so I didn't get to finish, but I made good progress:

You can see the big crack that's made me nuts here. Epoxy in an 18g syringe and some sanding took care of that

The key seems to be to do one profile at a time. Contact cement is NOT forgiving.

A heat gun, some stretching & some patience and we may have something here!


Should have finished and installed pics tomorrow!