you could try sanding it all down to about 1/4 of and inch and glueing high density closed cell polyethylene foam on top of it.  Shape the foam so that it looks stock. then glue new vinyl onto of the foam. 

 

link to polyethylene foam

http://www.yourautotrim.com/1thevaclcefo.html?ref=lexity&_vs=google&_vm=productsearch&gclid=Cj0KEQjwl_6oBRDHxNGz6ueJufMBEiQAvm_k_sd6bI4UD0vEVjUNYznpt3OhoABLwZOkFoFDDYJQYm0aAgXA8P8HAQ

+1 vote for full dash cover

I live in Gresham Ore. I have a dash free for U-Haul.

fly.phred@frontier.com

 Phred

Search for a better dash, that's what I would be doing

Yup, a better dash would be a better starting point, after looking a lot more closely at mine, there is so much material missing that I fear it would next to impossible to actually repair, there are lots and lots of small pieces of the vinyl missing, cracked and broken that I would have to virtually cover the entire thing with the bumper repair stuff and then try to return it back to original form. I'm also not real sure that it wouldn't completely disintegrate when I took it out. Thanks.

Mike

Taking a stab at this right now and I think it might be worse off than when I started! Autobody isn't my thing I guess. Filling the cracks will be the easy part, getting it smooth and in the shape you want so that black paint doesn't show where you've done work is the hard part.

I vote full dash cover. Honestly my 1/2 dash really wasn't bad at all.

I am okay with the half cap on my car though I wish the PO had smoothed the glue out a bit before putting the cap on as I can see every line of glue that was used in the form of a slight visible indentation or protrusion, not sure which.

Edited April 9, 20159 yr by Mikes Z car

^^^^ I did that when I capped my '75 dash back in the 80's.  After a month in the Texas sun, you could see every line of glue.

Must be different makers of caps, mine is thick enough you could use concrete to glue it on and there wouldn't be a line or bump.

I believe you can do it just take your time and treat it like body work, daunting yes, but give it a shot. I think I may have some photos of mine before and after on this website if not shot me and email an I'll show you my dash how it came out.

The thing with resurfacing the dash yourself is going to be the tradeoff of factory texture and color. I jumped into my project last week without too much thought and it still turned out fairly well.

My best advice is (since you'll be doing a lot of sanding), mix your body filler components and fiberglass resin components together in a ratio to get a pancake batter consistency. It'll partially self level and sand down faster than bondo itself, while taking longer to set up.

I'll post a photo off my phone that shows a little bit how the texture turned out. I used an SEM texture spray can and semi gloss black trim paint. I'd recommend two cans of texture and a full can of spray paint. Then consider doing the same to your centre console or at the least, your glovebox door.

I decided to put on a full dash cap and I'm going to source another dash in better shape than mine, restore that dash and then replace mine with the cap. Thanks for all the replies.

Mike