Yikes, well most of have cracked dashes....



Mine was pretty rough...



I started by using a dremal and removing the cracks, down to the base, and out far enough where the sides were stable.



Lots of cracks...



I then used a product called U-Pol 706, which is a flexible plastic filler. Very nice stuff to work with.

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Now, this is when I attempted to recover the dash with vinyl, no go. I really dont see how it would be possible without having a full vacuum table and a way to evenly heat up the vinyl to allow it to mold. After wasting 50 bucks of Vinyl and more for the 3m glue I started over.

I finished up the "body work" on the dash and then cleaned it and wiped it all down with SEM Plastic & Leather Prep. Then I applied 3 light coats of SEM Rubberized Undercoating to give me the grain back to the dash.



Then I applied 3 light coats of SEM Rubberized Undercoating to give me the grain back to the dash





I followed this by 2 coats of SEM Primer Flexible Primer Surfacer.

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After the primer, I used 320 grit to knock down any bumps etc, no aggressive sanding here. Once done, I gave it 3 coats of SEM Color coat glossy Black.







I also prepped and painter the speaker covers to match. And of coarse, Cubby door, which I did all the same steps as the dash so they would match as well.



Here are all the products I used.



I think it turned out passable. Time will tell on durability, it has the feel of a nice plastic dash now and seems to be easy to clean and shine. Keep in mind, I have VERY bright LED fixtures in my garage, so the final dash shots look a little more glossy that they do in person. in person it looks basically stock. I'll get some shots in the car after I reinstall.

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Wow, nice work and great guide for folks to use in the future! Looking forward to seeing it installed in the car

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1975 W115 300D

Respect.

Feel like we're breaking new ground here.

Would you mind posting a photo after you've reinstalled? Be nice to see it in context, with trim adhered, etc.

-

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1981 240D 4sp manual. Ivory White.

The problem with dashboard crack repairs, from my understanding, is that the vinyl and underlying materials including foam expand and contract at different rates. What you did is pretty novel.

The most interesting material for dashboard repair that I've come across, but not used, is Sugru, a unique rubbery plastic that is incredibly strong, sticks to anything, and has, if I understand correctly, the ability to expand and contract without breaking.

It's available on Amazon, and you can get different colors to blend to your dashboard color. There are a couple of YouTube videos of people repairing their dashboards with it. Sugru is different than any other material I've ever run across, and the company itself says that it does work for dashboard repair.

Looks interesting .

My '84 300CD's dash is worse than yours was....

Has anyone bought one of the $800 remolded dashes from Germany ? .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

That's pretty inovative! Would love to see installed shots in natural lighting.

vwnate1:

Do you have a link to these remolded dashboards?
Do they include the 86-87 300 SDL? (W126)

Partrim Online Classic Interior Trim Shop is a trim shop that offers brand new dashes and of course there is the company in CA "Just Dashes" that can take your original and completely restore it (for about 2500 bucks). There is also the ebay special leather dash skin that runs about 350, and still need to be fitted and glued on correctly.

All the supplies I used came to 100 bucks. My time is free. I figured it would not hurt to give it a try and see what I could do! I'll start replacing some of the trim etc today and take a picture. It wont be back in the car for a bit because I still need to address the vacuum pods etc in there.

Great work. That looks fantastic. If you wouldn’t mind, could you post some snappies after the install?

Corey - how long did it take?

Yes, I'll post up pictures installed.

As to how long... forever lol. The setback I had with trying the new vinyl first more than doubled my work as I had to then sand all the new glue back off... Live and learn!

If that had not happened and I had all the supply's on hand ready to go it could be knocked out in a solid weekend. Several of the coats, like the Filler primer, you want to wait at least an hour before you hit ti with 320grit etc. I did all the painting in half a day after waiting the 10+ minutes between coats etc. Also this was my first try at anything like this. I'm sure an experienced body man could knock out that work in a few hours. I on the other hand did it, and redid it and then a couple more time until I got it were I liked it. In fact I did the rubber coat and added the first coat of primer before I realized I had missed an area and had to sand it all back down AGAIN to fix lol. You basically need to shoot those 3 light coats of the undercoating holding the can about 12 inches away and doing a circular pattern across the entire dash in one pass so you have it come out nice and even. I practiced a little on some cardboard.

Im about to try something like this in my 78 300D. Im going to try Plastex dash repair as I only have two small cracks

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Satan creates nothing: he only ruins everything. He does not invent: he tampers. And his followers are no different ~ Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigaṇ

Nice thread!

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Sugru is just silicone with talc filler I believe.

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CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?