Good result but I dont think it will last very long. The hardness of the Bondo is too different from the hardness of the rest of the dash which will cause cracks very soon after restoration. You need a filler with a compareable hardness. I take PU foam to fill the cracks and then a layer of Sugru, then sanding and painting.

Nice job!... I'm an auto interior trimmer, so my next step would be to wrap it in new vinyl, using contrast stitching around the gauges.

@123hohohot

Жыл бұрын

Is there some specific durable vinyl you would suggest?

Wow man, nice job! Makes me feel confident that I can repair my 280zx dashboards. Thanks for the video and inspiration!

That came out fantastic I didnt expect bondo to work well with this application because of its hardness but I'm pleasantly surprised. Grade A sir .

This trick has possibly saved me quite a bit 😁 thanks heaps for the video, I’m almost finished doing this with an Australian 1979 Holden Gemini, so far it’s looking great ☺️

Awesome job! This will help with my 84 camaro project!

Great job. I did very similar job to 65 mustang. I covered it with vinyl afterwards. It lasted about ten or fifteen years.

doing the dash is kind of a right if passage for Z-car owners. It almost sets the standard for your where your project will go. I did mine with my dad in 1997. He did his with HIS dad around 82. Lot of fun

Awesome job, the result is very impressive. I'm French and unfortunately we don't have these products here

Nice job, I never heard of padded dashboard filler. Now I can give it a try. Thanks for the video enjoyed it.

I had a vinyle welding business in fl. Around 1980- 82 Datsun dealers were my best customers. They all crack in the same place.

Thank you for this tutorial! It's the best video I've found and has made me feel better about trying to do the repair myself! thanks!!

@StewartMotoring

4 жыл бұрын

Glad it helped

When I restored the dash cover on a 240z I stabilised the foam core with epoxy resin after iAd gouged out the damage. The epoxy soaked into the foam core and made it much stronger and more stabile to repair. The gouges were filled with filler with fibres in it.. the surfacing was done with semi flexible bumper filler. I used a textured spray paint to give a uniform finish. Customer was very happy with results,maybe 90% of new looking. Not bad as was pretty much unusable as it was. Had considered getting it covered in upholstery vinyl?

I have to thank you. I have a 77 280z and my dash is in the same condition as yours was if not worse. I was looking around for another dash but now I will try this method. Great video.

@daemickey

5 жыл бұрын

Denatiean Henton. Mr Henton you can get a full dash cap for about 80 bucks brand new, less work better look. They have em on ebay

Looks great…how is it holding up? Also how do you clean and or protect from the sun damage? Thanks

I do think you should sand the top down again with course paper and then lay down a full layer of glass. At the moment your base is very weak and will just keep cracking as the foam shrinks

@parmjitsingh2329

6 жыл бұрын

Nathan chalecki thanks for your knowledge

@jimjones8428

5 жыл бұрын

Nathan After 35 years, the foam has done all the shrinking it's going to do.

At the end of each crack in any type of plastic repair - ALWAYS drill a hole two to three times larger than the crack (the size of the hole will typically depend on the material your are 'trying' to repair - the operative word being ",,,trying..."). This helps eliminate stress riser cracking later on. I learned this my 'first job in life' as a dental technician. Repair a crack in a plastic denture without drilling a hole at the end of the crack - and BINGO - snap it in two with little effort. With the hole drilled - 'good as new'. This dash repair has excellent blending out - but could have been improved by a hole at the end of each crack - always 'better to be safe than sorry' type 'insurance'. CHEERS from AUSTRALIA.

Looking good. Coming together nicely.

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jeff

good job!!!,,,ill be doing a 70 ford ltd soon,,its pretty flat ,,easy ,, thanks for showing what too do here !!

to all hater comments. keep negativity to self if u dont like it dont see it. its a great project guys all these haters and negative feedback its because they cant do 1/4 of what u guys accomplished so they have to talk smack. looks really good iam doing the same to mine hopefully i can do it as good as yours. thanks great tutorial

@robbyddurham1624

4 жыл бұрын

I like negative feedback or critical thinking in the comments. It gives me another idea or view of how I might do it.

Looks good. I went slightly different, expanding polyurethane foam , then flexible bumper filler, primer, then finished it off with spray truck bed liner. The truck bed liner i held at a distance to give a nice texture, then after it cured for a couple weeks i wet sanded it with 1500 grit to give it a nice smooth feel. It looks very stock.

@FranksShitBoxCollection

6 жыл бұрын

bg75flh How are you like the bed liner? Bed liner was the first thing I thought of for this job but I see people going with other methods.

@Ojibwe1979

5 жыл бұрын

Yup did the same thing to my G37 and it just cracked again. Re-doing it striping it down and putting new foam. Will rap my in faux leather...

This guy make plastic caps that go's over the dash that won't crack it just pops over the stock dash. But I'm glad you are going to show a diffrent way to do it.

@spauldingclassics

4 жыл бұрын

Who makes plastic dash covers?

@mikecrawford5331

3 ай бұрын

Plastic dash covers look like plastic dash covers

Great job alot better than other videos I've seen.

Gud work bro. you make me so confident as well. give us more ideas about repairing

Great job. Please don't to the haters. People that have no experience doing this should not comment. Its always I saw this on You tube and he did this or that. As long as you are happy with it that's all that matters.

Loved the "Fade to black" at 3:20. :)

Auto like! Awesome work on the dash! Looks incredible💪👍👌

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Good job, don't think it will crack for a long time as the cracks only appear on the curvature and streach areas, these have already been filled in and blended properly by yourself thanks for making the video

Great work! Looks amazing compared to what it was! Taking notes for a project coming up. Thanks man!

@StewartMotoring

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks. Never expected this vid to become some popular. I would have spent more time editing haha

@troysgarage

3 жыл бұрын

@@StewartMotoring Haha, I get it. My most popular video was one that I almost never even posted! You just never know. I'm a fan bro, subbed and "rang the bell"! Keep it up!

keep up the good work man

I thought he was ganna life hack this with ramen noodles 🤣😂

@walterarmijo5668

3 жыл бұрын

@@jrayv i have an old dash too dude, i have the same problem as you.. I made a silly, this is a great vid and it helps out alot good luck ✌

Great video mate, well done really enjoyed it, out of interest how’s it lasted, realised you flicked too, keep up the great work

Good job ! Looks 100 times better!

That is a killer job!

Awesome work man! Do you know if it is possible to spray wrinkle finnish on something like this or does that only work on metal surface?

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

Yep you can spray it with a wrinkle finish

Well done man!

Came out great!!

Great job man

I also repaired my middle console like this, but I asked myself if fiberglass filler really is the right material since its flexibility is very different from the remaining original material which means that if the dash / console is bent it could crack between the filler and the old material. So far my repair looks good, but I ask myself if anybody of you has long term experience with using fiberglass filler for that purpose.

Nice job getting ready to do mine also!

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

gOOd luck

That turned out awesome!!!!

Wow what a difference, nice job man

satisfying to watch!

How is it holding up I think I might try this myself

You can also wrap it in carbon I suppose fiber for super durability. But it's a bit of work and will change the original look.

Looks great!

Great job men

Damn, you widened the shit out of those cracks bro. Got a little carried away with it.

Plastic x from upol is nice for finishing and comes in a good size tin

I have a 1996 Chevy pickup. My Dash especially right there next to the windshield where the vent grates are there are three screws that attach the dash up there and they have cracked and broken is there any way to put in or hide in that area some type of seller or something little still at the defrost work but doesn't look like a giant oval hole? What do you get on completely refurbishing a dash like this if I was to send it to you?

How well has this held up? any cracks formed?

good work man

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks

Damn you are the dash man👍

I got to tackle mine eventually...Mines not that bad I got about 3 cracks to deal with and rust on the dash frame. Not going to be touching it for some time probably. Been waiting to see how you did yours. Great vid and thanks for posting.

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

Glad I could document it for you. Rust on the dash frame... normally that would surprise me but its a datsun...so no...

Wow, considering how bad it started, the outcome was great.

Great job!

I would have done fiberglass filler on the other side to make it stronger but good work um raptor bedliner spray can to paint the dashboard to give it a texture look

GREAT job!!!

Nice job mate.

Big thumbs-up achieved at 11:46.

Looks great

Nice! I did something very similar. Wish I would have watched this first

Looks really good not like the last guy I seen using caulking and house paint

@byrdsdoityourselfgarage7330

2 жыл бұрын

And coat hangers! Lol

Did the same to my S130 dash last winter, and doing my Z31's. So far it holds up great and I used the same prosses besides the dash filler (I used bondo gold and short strand fiberglass filler). Once the Z31 is done, then I'm gonna flock both of them.

@jarretpaul

6 жыл бұрын

Were your speaker holes OK? Mine are busted up and I'm not sure what to do with them.

@1dickycat

6 жыл бұрын

jarretpaul Mine turned to powder when touched.. But I just filled them in and smoothed it out. I tend to not like my speakers reflecting off the hard windshield. They tend to be overly "bright". I prefer them down in the kick panel myself.

What about using a can of spray foam to fill in the cracks? Then just level it off with a razor blade. Fill in whatever is left with body filler. Then you wouldn't need the fiberglass, and maybe less body filler.

Please make a video when you flock it or is there on already out?

Awesome job man.

@StewartMotoring

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Nice job!!

Holy shit , that looks mint. Cause,RACECAR!

Does look good!

excellent job

Pretty amazing. Wonder if that wrinkle paint would have been better?

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

Most people do use a wrinkle paint from I think Eastwood as a finishing paint. I have seen them turn out really good. But in my case, I am going to flock the dash when the car is ready to drive.

Great video how it holding up by the way

Nice work!!! Came up great!

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks BBC (:

Good work amigó

What is the putty for Lexus RX350 year 2008? Please

Problem is the other parts of the dash are old and weathered and will crack too.....

Do you touch the vin when you do the process. Im trying to figure how to approach my dash in terms of restoration without removing the vin. Any suggestions?

@StewartMotoring

5 жыл бұрын

I taped up my vin so I didn't destroy it. I would probably recommend against cutting the spot welds on it to take it off.

what did you use to cover it first???

Good work

great job

Why bondo as second filler? can you just use the same fiber glass bondo again if there were any valleys? both are sandable so why two different compounds?

@StewartMotoring

Жыл бұрын

Fiberglass bondo is very very hard and then very hard to sand. It also tends to have a lot of pin holes from air being trapped and won’t leave a very smooth surface due ti fiberglass hairs. So to make a nicer finished product along with being quicker, you rough in the fiberglass, and cover with body filler (second bondo). You can try to do it all with just fiberglass bondo, but I think you’ll learn quickly why you don’t only use it.

Why didn't you fix the crack? Add more bando and lalala...?

Mine had just two cracks, but was really ugly. wish I'd seen this video when I had it. Also, I wondered if the dash is a suitable candidate for carbon fiber ? Any professionals out there wanna' hazard a guess ? Just askin'.

Nice work

Educational that shows cracks can be repaired

Great video bro I'm going to do the same to my 280z hopefully it goes well 😅

looks like a lot of work but the result was great!

Thinking of tackling this on my 78 280z. How is it holding up? Any new cracks/expansion/contraction issues?

@StewartMotoring

2 жыл бұрын

I ended up using a dash cap, so not entirely sure how it’s holding up. I had 1 crack come back, but I already had the dash cap and then I flocked the cap. Honestly I’d recommend going with a cap, they fit really nice

@Behine.DeChilis

2 жыл бұрын

@@StewartMotoring good info! Would you mind sharing the vendor of the cap? Full cap or half cap? Thanks for the great videos btw.

@StewartMotoring

2 жыл бұрын

Hmmm I can’t remember the vendor sorry, several years ago now. But it was a full cap. Used to be around 150 bucks

I've got a dash that's only slightly better. Just curious, about how many hours of sanding did this take?

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

I probably spent around 5 hours of sanding. Im slow...

Hmmm, turned out nice.

What sander did you use?

Fiberglass and bondo, that's a lot of work, and you did an excellent job. However, for most people... some of the other methods look almost as good with barely any effort. It seems like, if you are going to go through this much effort, you might as well make a mold and form a new dash out of a modern foam (more flexible and better elasticity) and you won't have to worry about more cracking down the line.

@Spiritof_76

9 ай бұрын

Might as well make a mold and form a new dash... like that's not a lot of work and difficult.

How about used foam..-like the isolation type, -and scraped off the excessive amount when expanded??..

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

I mentioned that some people do this. I just think the way I did it, is a bit stronger

Nice video. My 1975 cheyene is actually worse than that.. so that's going to be fun

@StewartMotoring

6 жыл бұрын

Goooooooood luck

@atranfanatic

6 жыл бұрын

Don't feel bad, besides my 280zx cars, my '72 Chevy 4x4 3/4 ton's dash is pretty bad as well. lol Best of luck to both of us.

What putty you use?

nice job.

I would use welding rods for polyurethane and a soldering iron, or alternatively flexible bumber/ plastic repair adhesive as it flexes a lot more than fibre glass, fibre glass is actually not that flexible.

I recommend using black ! body filler. If something cracks later on , e g on the edges, you immediately Look at a whitish colour…. otherwise back not that easylii visible

Im going to cover mine with astroturf and call it good.

@imsgoalie1

4 жыл бұрын

Be careful with that stuff, lots of ankle and knee injuries. But good luck.