Repairing My Dash

[HermanM]

Thanks to yoshi_w and all of his posts about his own dash, I have been inspired to take on this challenge and do one on my own too.

I am still in the process of doing the whole "restoration" for these dashes as a practice for my own personal dash in my 260z. My goal was to be able to get this doing in a good and timely manor and on a budget that will have a lasting dash for the years to come.

Day 1:

Got everything I need!!!

Day 2:

The dash has been sanded down with a drill and 80 grit sanding pad along with hand sanding.

I have also tested the spray foam on a makeshift crack I made out of 2 pieces of cardboard that was glued together to test how far the foam would expand before I put it into the dash.

Turns out the foam could be great. After 12 hours of curing (only 8 required) the foam is still squishy, like the original padding, and is easy to sand down.

This being done, I cleaned up the dash a bit more and have sprayed the foam inside and I will be waiting at least 8 hours for a full cure then sanding the excess down and filling in all the voids left in each crack.

Day 3:

Applied epoxy to the minor cracks and to fill in the missing areas within the spray foam. Sanding down will have to wait for 24 hours and by that time, I will have my new vinyl patches in to cover the parts of the dash were it was missing before I bondo to level out the who dash and repaint it.

More to be posted soon....

[conedodger]

Way to go Herman!

[HermanM]

Way to go Herman!

Thank you very much!!! Looking forward to putting some bondo on tonight to level things out

[Mikes Z car]

Herman,

Thanks for the pictures. I have always wanted to try fixing my dash but am leery of messing it up. I have a fairly early VIN and an appreciation for originality. It has a half cap on it and I can see the outline of the zig zag marks from the glue used to attach it. The sun must have melted it a bit.

You will put the vinyl patches over the bondo areas?

[HermanM]

Herman,

Thanks for the pictures. I have always wanted to try fixing my dash but am leery of messing it up. I have a fairly early VIN and an appreciation for originality. It has a half cap on it and I can see the outline of the zig zag marks from the glue used to attach it. The sun must have melted it a bit.

You will put the vinyl patches over the bondo areas?

Yeah, that's my idea ideally. I have the patches arriving tonight or tomorrow to see how they turn out. I'm also debating to try a dash just with the flex steal or bed liner without the patches to see how it fares

[HermanM]

Day 4:

3 coats of bondo and countless hours of sanding later and I think it's ready for paint... Tomorrow

Coat 1

Coat 2

Coat 3

[Zedyone_kenobi]

I would like to try this one day, but the question is, how long will it last before the repaired portion becomes annoyingly visible.

[HermanM]

I would like to try this one day, but the question is, how long will it last before the repaired portion becomes annoyingly visible.

That is the question I have with it too. I'm assuming quite some time though. From all the forums I've read from, people have a few years of last from their updates with no change

[EuroDat]

Hi Herman, Great job you doing restoring the dash. The step for step photos show how much work it is to get a good result.

Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Im thinking of doing this job now winter is almost here. I still have a full cap on my dash and not sure what the condition of my dash is.

My concerns are:

- It has a cap so its probably bad or worse than yours.

- How brittle are the "good" sections. If you push hard on it with your thumb, will it crack and form a crater?

- and the same concerns as Zedyone although mine is always in a garage so the aging process will be slower.

Keep posting the results. I dont think any other job beats a dash restoration for time and money spent to "Bling factor" results.

Chas

[HermanM]

Day 5:

After sanding down the previous coat of Flex Seal (figured out that I needed to practice rattle can spray BEFORE I apply it, ) and applying a second coat. I LOVE the results. It doesn't look like a spot on replacement, but the texture is great and it should stand up to the test of time and heat within my Z.

I noticed that the first coat made some of the brittle areas more structurally sound and able to last longer without having to be replaced. I also noticed that the areas that I used Bondo and epoxy, to fill in and cover, took the coats of Flex Seal great and added texture to the dash great without having to add on any replacement patches of vinyl/leather before spraying it.

All in all, I am very happy with the results especially with the cost of the repairs. It was a repair on a very small budget (just to see if I could do it) and combine that with the tons of hours of sanding, it was worth every dollar and hour. I can't wait to do it all over again with some different products and perfect my technique.

[hr369]

Im not a big fan of bondo. I've had it fail many times in the past and thats on hard stable metal surfaces.

Putting it over a foam surface just doesn't seem like it will last a long time. Plus, if you live in a high humidity area how would it hold up with that pourous surface beneath soaking up moisture? I'm more a fan of fiberglass and then bondo over the top. Yea i know its a sob sanding but maybe a compromise would be tiger hair bondo?

[HermanM]

Im not a big fan of bondo. I've had it fail many times in the past and thats on hard stable metal surfaces.

Putting it over a foam surface just doesn't seem like it will last a long time. Plus, if you live in a high humidity area how would it hold up with that pourous surface beneath soaking up moisture? I'm more a fan of fiberglass and then bondo over the top. Yea i know its a sob sanding but maybe a compromise would be tiger hair bondo?

I actually got bondo specifically for fiberglass and vinyl material. So I'm hoping (here in sacramento with low humidity) that it will last a LONG time. This was just my trial dash and not the actual one from my Z