How many of you without a dash pad? Now With Pics

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TrailBeast

TrailBeast

AKA Mopars4us on Youtube
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And what do you plan to do as an alternative?
Are there any alternatives?

Now with pics of my plans on the second page.
 
I have been meaning to pose the same question for some time. I keep forgetting to. A little concerned about the safety of not having one on a street car, but I really like the look of the dash without the pad. I have some deletions on my dash face and its all painted out. I think I'll be keeping it this way. My only real concern is how it will visually come together where it meets the bottom of the window and pillar trim. I think the rubber seal will cover the gap between the dash and window frame/firewall area. If anyone has some pics of a finished dash with no pad and the window/pillar trim installed, I'd like to see them. Particularly of a '67-'69 Dart.
 
I have done 2 dash pad caps from hardens with excellent results,my dart[71] looks like brand new still after 6 yrs,done it myself,prepping it correctly is the key,dont know if hardens is still in business or not but their product was really a quality piece,at the time the caps were 55 bucs each and a repop pad was like 300+...I couldnt see not running some kind of pad or leaving it bare even tho I considered it but just didnt look right to me without it,but I did see a guy in Ks one time that removed the pad and built/overlaid a dash with alum[welded] which he polished that looked pretty cool but it wasnt just throwed together it was crafted..
 
LIME TWIST DART said:
I have been meaning to pose the same question for some time. I keep forgetting to. A little concerned about the safety of not having one on a street car, but I really like the look of the dash without the pad. I have some deletions on my dash face and its all painted out. I think I'll be keeping it this way. My only real concern is how it will visually come together where it meets the bottom of the window and pillar trim. I think the rubber seal will cover the gap between the dash and window frame/firewall area. If anyone has some pics of a finished dash with no pad and the window/pillar trim installed, I'd like to see them. Particularly of a '67-'69 Dart.
Click to expand...

I'm working on it, but I am also making some pretty major changes that I will post pics of when the time comes.
I was a bit concerened about the safety of it also, but it's not like they are very safe anyway.
The dash will still collapse if it get hit hard.



MobileCustoms said:
I am welding the holes up on my '67 and going with all steel, satin black finish.
Click to expand...

Mine had one but it was totally trashed (foam too) so I have been running without it for two years and got used to it and like it.
My dash is also satin black with some non stock additions. (white faced guages)
I think what I will end up doing is leave the cutouts for collapsability and cover it with carbon fiber with what is called J trim to attach it.


rbdart said:
I have done 2 dash pad caps from hardens with excellent results,my dart[71] looks like brand new still after 6 yrs,done it myself,prepping it correctly is the key,dont know if hardens is still in business or not but their product was really a quality piece,at the time the caps were 55 bucs each and a repop pad was like 300+...I couldnt see not running some kind of pad or leaving it bare even tho I considered it but just didnt look right to me without it,but I did see a guy in Ks one time that removed the pad and built/overlaid a dash with alum[welded] which he polished that looked pretty cool but it wasnt just throwed together it was crafted..
Click to expand...

I just don't see myself putting one back in it, but thanks for the info just in case.
 
On my 67, it only had small holes for each bolt so it is easy to weld up with no concerns of altering it's crash integrity properties. I too have the original pad but it is cracked up bad.

Dashpad 1-7.jpg
 
Bottom line is it's your car,do it the way that suits you and what you like,many ways to do things,thats how new things come to be,but keep us posted on how you did yours...
 
My dash pad is gone too. I just assumed there was a company making replacements.
 
MobileCustoms said:
On my 67, it only had small holes for each bolt so it is easy to weld up with no concerns of altering it's crash integrity properties. I too have the original pad but it is cracked up bad.
Click to expand...

You're lucky, as the 73 has great big squares cut in it on top at the front for collapsing if impacted.



rbdart said:
Bottom line is it's your car,do it the way that suits you and what you like,many ways to do things,thats how new things come to be,but keep us posted on how you did yours...
Click to expand...

Yep, that's me.
My wife asked if I was going to restore my car when I got it, and I told her that it's not a particularly valuable year so industrial functional would be the direction.
I don't post everything I do mostly due to the "That won't work" crowd but I figured I would bring this up due to the amount of no dash pad cars out there.
Wait till you see the guage pod I fabbed for the tach, A/F and fuel guage. :-D
It's somewhat beyond what most do for guages.



FJ5 said:
My dash pad is gone too. I just assumed there was a company making replacements.
Click to expand...

I think there are, but man they are costly and I like it a lot better without it.
Mine was there, but even the foam was almost gone.
I considered using that foam insulation spray to rebuild the basic structure and then do soft foam and cover it with black vynl but the longer it was off the better I liked it.
 
I know it's not apparent in the picture but someone sewed a dash pad cover and stretched it over the original cracked padding. It was already on the car when I bought it and I didn't notice it for a long time.

Dashpad 1-11.jpg
 
1967 'cuda said:
I know it's not apparent in the picture but someone sewed a dash pad cover and stretched it over the original cracked padding. It was already on the car when I bought it and I didn't notice it for a long time.
Click to expand...

I thought about that, but my foam was just way too gone.
 
TrailBeast said:
I thought about that, but my foam was just way too gone.
Click to expand...

I've got a '66 Impala that had a really bad dash pad too. It had chunks missing out of it as well as all the cracks. We built it up with foam insulation wherever it had gaps and ground it down wherever it had warped up. Then we took thin poster board and taped it over the entire surface to make everything smooth. Then we stretched vinyl over it and it looked almost like new. I already had the materials lying around so it didn't really cost me anything to do it. (The reason we used the poster board was that we had tried to stretch the vinyl over the pad without it but every small flaw underneath still showed.)
 
FJ5 said:
My dash pad is gone too. I just assumed there was a company making replacements.
Click to expand...

There is. Just Dashes will redo your dash. I think its about a 6 mo wait and around $1000 or so. Also I think BE/A is selling repops.
 
whats up Greg , didn't you see my dash cap ? I think you would be pleasantly surprised how nice it looks

100 bucks and a little time

and a before shot , this thing looked like it was in a fire

Dashpad 18-1.jpg


Dashpad 18-2.jpg


Dashpad 18-3.jpg


Dashpad 18-4.jpg
 
I have an order in at BE/A for a Dash Pad .... he is making some soon ..... should take a couple of weeks ..... he will take care of his customers first and sell the rest to places like Classic and other well known companies ..... :D
 
dtmlevatan said:
I have an order in at BE/A for a Dash Pad .... he is making some soon ..... should take a couple of weeks ..... he will take care of his customers first and sell the rest to places like Classic and other well known companies ..... :D
Click to expand...

I was waiting for his first 68's to come out about three years ago . I was on the list. His two weeks turned into 6 months . I ended up putting a cap on.
Nice guy just time frame was wrong and the dash cap turned out really nice.
 
I've had 3 cars with dash caps so far. I put one on our '68 Charger and one on our '69 Chevelle. The AAR clone I had already had one on it when I bought it. The previous owner (he'd had the car for 14 years) told me that he had replaced the dash pad when he bought the car and the new dash pad only lasted him 3 years before it cracked. Supposedly these dash caps will live a lot longer. They are so easy to install (even come with the adhesive) but as far as I've ever seen, are only available in black. So you'd have to dye/paint them if you wanted another color.
 
73AbodEE said:
whats up Greg , didn't you see my dash cap ? I think you would be pleasantly surprised how nice it looks

100 bucks and a little time

and a before shot , this thing looked like it was in a fire
Click to expand...

I probably did, and just don't remember.
Looks nice though, just like new.
 
My 69 dart has it's original uncracked dash pad ,

When I bought the car in 1981 the first thing I did was coat the dash pad with armor all and it has kept it uncracked , about once a year I put on a new coat.

Just incase I have have another black one that is perfect I pulled 20+ years ago, I keep it in the house wrapped in plastic
 
GEO said:
My 69 dart has it's original uncracked dash pad ,

When I bought the car in 1981 the first thing I did was coat the dash pad with armor all and it has kept it uncracked , about once a year I put on a new coat.

Just incase I have have another black one that is perfect I pulled 20+ years ago, I keep it in the house wrapped in plastic
Click to expand...

Cool so,,,,,you are not a people without a dashpad then? :-D
 
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