Day 9 got off to a slow start, but turned out to be a productive day. Today was an interior fix kinda day. The dashboard was loose on the driver’s side and the passenger’s side dash needs some attention too. Time to peel the onion and see what is uncovered...
I started by pulling the dash pad, it needs to be painted to clean it up a bit and as I’m pulling the dash pad, I start seeing broken plastic pieces so I tread carefully. I really do not want to have to replace any of the dash pieces, but with the loose driver’s side dash, there is no telling what the issue is. I got the driver’s dash tore apart fairly easily and removed the LCD dash so I could clean the contacts before it is reassembled. At this point, the loose dash problem is evident, the main mounting point is made of 1/8” thick plastic, and with the age of the car, its no surprise the mounting point is broken… Really a poor design, but fixable. Now I turn my attention to the passenger side dash. I struggled to get the “bread box” off. That is the hideous puffy pad on the passenger side of the dash, no doubt an early attempt to provide protection in a crash, but did it have to be so hideous looking? No matter, the previous owner purchased a flat panel conversion, so that will be getting installed. The bread box finally succumbed to brute force applied on the factory rivets to break it loose… What a PITA.
After the bread box was off, it was evident the passenger side dash suffered from the same superior design of the driver’s side… There really needs to be a sarcasm font… Well, one more repair to make, gotta love old vehicles, right? Now that the upper dash was taken apart, I turned my attention to the under side dash. More screws and plastic, but soon, everything was out. Now what to do…
I found a lot of cracked screw holes that need some reinforcement, and once that’s done, I’ll need to paint the pieces, but no biggie. I got started by stripping the parts down and pulling the air vents, less to mask off or paint. Once that was done, I cleaned all the parts in preparation for some epoxy reinforcement. I also gave the dash pad a once over with the wax and grease remover as it will likely need additional cleanings to make sure the coating will adhere properly. Now time to apply some epoxy. It went quick, as it has to because the stuff sets up in 1 minute. I turned my attention to the dash support repairs, but that would require additional materials, of course, right? Another trip to the hardware store got me all set up with the pieces needed to fix the dash and while I was there, I picked up a roll of carpet padding so I can discard all the old stuff in the car. But the carpet pad will have to wait for another day.
I fabbed up brackets for both sides of the dash and installed them, what a difference. Nice and solid. I’d snap some pics, but the brackets aren’t very pretty, but they work. That’s what counts here. I take a break from the inside work and focus on getting the dash pad and the dash panels painted. Then I took care of swapping out the carpet on the bottom sides of the dash panels… then dinner time.
After dinner, I started to reinstall the dash parts. I started with the underside dash pads and then got the lcd display put back in the car, in case I want to take it out for a spin, kinda need to know how fast you’re going. And with that, enough for one day…
Parts replaced today:
Knee bolster carpet
Parts cost so far: $850
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