Cracked Dash Board

[Naaman]

So after not driving the car for quite a while and getting back into it recently, I'm being reminded of all the little things that were on my to-do list all that time ago.

I've been looking at dash repair options online and have come up with a few options.

Has anyone ever fixed a crack in their dash? I don't want to spend $500 on a new one, and I'm a little leery about buying a used one (could be just as bad as mine). What I would hope to do is repair it so that the crack is patched up. I don't mind there being a seam from the repair, I just don't want the broken look of the dash. I'll post pics this week so people can see what I mean. But basically, the dash is very brittle.

I have read that soaking the plastic in water for a while will restore its flexibility and make it like new. I don't mind trying that, once I pull the dash pad off, but I also want to patch it up in the meantime.

My thinking is that I want to take it out of the car and use some kind of adhesive or plastic welding technique to repair it from underneath, and then reinstall it.

I have seen some dash repair kits online, as well as some plastic welding and some superglue/baking soda type fixes.

Just wondering if anyone has tried any of these, or if there is a better idea that I'm not thinking of.

[Whamhammer]

I am keeping my eye on this forum as well.

I bought a plastic welder and am going to either use it this summer, or I am going to get my buddy to get me some "45 minute glue" that we used to use in my old dealerships bodyshop to adhere quarter panelse to bodies,so we could weld them in place better, to fix my dash pads crack, and then reinforce the rest from the bottom.

I am curious is someone has fixed one of these before though.

[raynor139]

There are several threads on various boards about fixing these. Im on my phone at work so cant effectively search for them but google should give some stuff. If it's just a single long crack you can use something like plastic weld if it's really bad like in multiple pieces most of them use a strong adhesive to put it all back together and then reinforce using various plastics or metals. Usually they look pretty rough so alot people have them recovered in vinyl.