Dash repair before paint.

[graff104]

Well as a few of you know im slowly fixing up my interior to make it all purtty.

Anyways my dash has a few small cracks because of abuse from the previous owner. (actually whoever rode with him all the time cause the 2 cracks are on the passenger side...) I would like to go ahead and fix them cause im worried about my paint peeling around those spots. Any suggestions of how to fix them? I was thinking about just fiberglassing those small spots, but not sure how good that would look. Any suggestions?

 

[mattpresley]

Do you have a vinyl or hard plastic dash. Assuming you have to vinyl like my 99 I would try filling the cracks with fiberglass since you are going to paint. make to to make it level with dash and wipe away all excess from around the cracks. Also post a picture when your done painting. Its good to see someone fixing up an old ranger

 

[graff104]

Yeah i plan on borrowing a camera and posting up pics when im done. I wish i could take pictures of the progress, but instead of spending money on a camera it keeps going to the truck lol.

 

[cocoasranger]

An alternative would be those inexpensive kits at auto parts and J.C.Whitney for patching tears and punctures in vinyl interiors. You fill the tear with their liquid vinyl, let it set, then apply heat (with an iron) through a supplied pattern sheet.

There are two advantages to this method. The repair is flexible vinyl like the original and won't crack, and the repair has the same "grain" or pattern as the original dash, so after painting it disappears completely.

Themore expensive kits color match, but you don't need that if you are painting the repair.