josephm

After another dissapointing result to a nice sounding 951 ('89 white on e-bay w/52k mi) for sale, I have to ask the following question;

To owners of 944's who's dashboard is not full of dash cracks, can you please provide a public service announcement to advise what you do to prevent this occurance?


Seriously. There are nice 944's out there w/out these dash cracks. Why is every 944 listed for sale, from Auto-trader to Cars.com to e-Bay full of dash cracks? My local Porsche dealer's mechanic can rebuild the water-pump, replace the timing belts and install a new clutch. He can't however, order a new dash from the factory.

TheDice951

mine is crackless and i use armor all and the windshield was tinted by the PO. i know thats illegal but it works and i can see fine even at night....

john durdin

PARK IT IN SHADE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE IT HELPS A LOT TO SAVE THE DASH ! JOHN

Sour Kraut's 951

No cracks on my 86. Original owner tinted all side and back windows but not front. No evidence there was a dash cover, but it looks like it was kept in a garage or shade it's entire life.

PSA: Armourall has alcohol IIRC and that will dry out the vinyl. There are other products that are safer to use to dress the dash. I have always just wiped them down with a damp rag after washing and have never gotten any cracks. Not even on a mid 80's Mustang GT which was notorious for dash cracks.

stogie25

I found a cheap dash, took it to a local upholstery guy, and had him releather it. It cost a few hundred dollars including the metal trim strip from 928 Leather Shop. It took a couple of hours to pull it out and put it in respectively.

When I first bought the car it had a dash cover on it. It was a little warped, but got worse over the first few months.


I took the cover off, and found a cracked dash underneath.



I had the bottom of the new dash dyed to match the car, and the top leathered.


I pulled my dash out.



And put the new one in.




While I was in there.

Hollywood D

I use Aerospace 303 on my interior of my BMW, which is my daily driver. The 944 already has dash cracks. I use it there too though.

I"ve never heard many good things about Armor All.

Darwantae951

I was always told to stay away from armorall because it was silicon based and if it wasn't kept up, would actually dry out quicker. I just keep a sunshade up and make sure it's parked in shade whenever possible.

Shawn Stanford

My 87 is close to flawless inside and out. It is - and was, I believe - garage kept. If I was parking it outside, I'd put a cover on it. FWIW: There was a discussion on the 928 forum (I think) about repairing a cracked dash using a sort of flexible automotive body-putty.

DLarsen

Two things that minimize dash cracks are garages and car covers/dash shades.

I owned my 1986 944 since new. When I used it to commute to work (15 yrs); I used a car cover (every day). Went through 3 car covers over its life (they dry rot after 5+ yrs of daily use). When my car was at home; it went into the garage.

I didn't use any dash products; just a damp wet cloth. My dash has some cracks.......they are minimal though and not very long.

black944 turbo

Mine has been garaged its whole life and every time I am out it has a windshield cover. I just noticed yesterday I have 3 small cracks starting (it always had two small ones) still one of the nicest dashes I have seen on these cars. I believe there is no way to avoid it with exception of never driving the car. I have always used vinylx.

Mike C.

I suspect it's just a limitation of the plastic they used back in the day. Mine had no cracks when I bought it (it was 3 years old w/40K miles) and the cracks started in the corners of the defroster vents and progressed from there (early dash).

hevquip

Luckily my '89 951 is fast enough that a few dash cracks don't mean a damn thing to me! My '86 is flawless though...oh wait, I have one of those ****ty plastic overlay dashes covering up the original. Do they even make/sell those anymore? Mine isn't like the one Stogie posted a pic of, that one looks more like a "cover" (maybe that's because of the warping) while mine blends in much more seamlessly (or tries to, finding edging not matching up is when I finally noticed there was an overlay on the dash). Those might be of some interest to people, though they never fit perfectly of course. And it's not like my dash is actually ****ty, I just feel that way about it because you can tell it is an overlay if you look close enough and that lead to much disappointment when I realized I didn't have a original, uncracked dash. Are other older Porsche models as notorious for cracked dashes as the 944s are? I imagine they used the same plastic for any of their cars.

944Ross

In the Southwest there aren't many cars more than 5 yrs old that aren't cracked (any kind of car, any material, etc). The UV in sunlight dries out plastic and leather no matter what. First thing I do when I get a car is buy a dashmat, if it doesn't already have one. I've never been fond of the look of shiney plastic or leather on the dash anyway, the carpet of a dashmat keeps the car cooler and prevents reflections. Also makes it possible to put stuff up on the dash and not have them slide around on cormers. They cost $30 and you're done in a half hour.

PS, my '86 came to me with one of the overlay dashes, PO tried (in vain) to adhere it to old dash with about 3 tubes of clear RTV.... that stuff is a bitch to get off

67King

My 89 had not seen the light of day since 2000 when I got it. Only 64,000 miles on it, always in a garage. That's pretty much the game, set, and match. A 25 year old car that is affordable to a lot of people will not get parked in teh garage for all of its like in all likelihood. The ones that are that nice just had situations where tehy always were.

303 is great stuff. MEguires also makes a silicone free cleaner, but it can generally only be found at paint and body supply places. I do not use silicone based products, but the reason is that silicone is VERY hard to clean up. I think (could be wrong!) that the thing about drying out is an old wives tail. But restorers will not use the stuff because the silicone will cause fish eye in paint, and it gets everywhere when it is sprayed.

rhs63

My 1986 944 has no cracks in the dash. I have a $30 custom fit Window sunshade that I put up whenever I park the car. At home it's always under a cover (I don't have a garage).