Has anyone installed the ABS Plastic Dash Cover over their cracked dash? If so, how does it look, was it difficult to install, etc, etc. Thanks in advance for the feedback.

 

I have seen far too many that do not fit and look twisted or lumpy. They will warp and crack as well.

I personally do not like the look they exude and don't own any. Some of my friends have them, but none are ecstatic over them. I prefer the carpet 'dash mate' myself on the several of mine which have hairline cracks.

OR the beauty of a pristine dash.... but not many of those are around 30 years later.

 

True that many warp, especially when glued down. I had one on the '83 at one point.

But ANYTHING looks better than the hairy dash...that just screams cheesy. Even a cracked dash.

Just save up to have it professionally done, or DIY if you're up for it. Dash covers are terrible, these cars have great looking interiors when they're in good condition.

 

Has anyone researched manufacturing a reproduction dash? This is something a company as opposed to an individual would do as it would be quite an undertaking. I'm just curious...

 

You forget the plastic dash cap is there most of the time.
For what they are they work well.

Tempest, I have looked into it a bit - without a serious production run (few thousand pieces) the price would be around $2000 apiece. The tooling is NUTS for this type of piece. I am trying to get EMPI or similar to consider it though as they do door panels and stuff for Beetles which is the same construction as our parts.

 

+1
Until it warps/shrinks, it looks great and you forget it's there. Even after it warps, it's still better than cracks.

That would be amazing. Let me know if I can help. But to be honest, if I were to buy a new dash, I'd want it to be better than the stock one, not the same.

 

I'm in this boat as well. My dash is in rough shape and am trying to decide if I should just put a cap on it and be done with it (for the moment) or pull it out and recover it. I'm not opposed to spending the time/money to remove and recover the dash but I'm wary of the number of 30 year old plastic pieces that'll break in the process.

BB.

 

Werk924 makes a reproduction early dash, last I checked it was $1200-2000 or something. FWIW I think the classic9 dash material looks nicer but to each their own.

 

I purchased a 944 for the track and checked the mechanicals very carefully and gave the rest of the car a quick lookover. Car turned out too nice to tear up so I drove it as a DD and didn't notice the dash cap for while. On an early car they aren't that noticeable unless you look closely. They sure beat the eyesore of the horrid dash that lay beneath many of them. Following the lead of MGJ I put a dash mat in my S2 to help save the dash as I think the woven material doesn't get as hot as a plastic dash cap used for dash protection. I used to drive with A/C on in the defrost position to help cool the sun heated dash while driving before installing the mat. My original 25,xxx mile 84 has some small cracks I just live with and limit sun exposure. Installation has a lot to do with getting satisfactory results. Many, many smaller beads of evenly applied adhesive (think of how tiles are glued) to help eliminate voids between the surfaces making for a solid feel rather than applied in dots over the surface. Been there done that.

 

^^^^
Thanks for this Information. http://www.werk924.eu/dashboards/
690 Euro in case of exchange, 1.190 Euro completely new.
I'm looking for a dashboard solution as well. I will contact them soon.
Here is a picture of my dismounted genuine dashboard, that I replaced many years ago for a better (second-hand) one. But the replacement dashboard meanwhile has cracks too. So I will bring them this genuine dashbord for refurbishing.

 

Wow that's cheaper than I remember....if I had to do it again, I may go with them. The C9 piece looks amazing but I ended up at about $800 invested after shipping IIRC. But that included reupholstering the glovebox and eliminating the speaker thing in the center. Maybe it was $900....but who's counting

 

Sweet!
thank you for sharing the werk piece.

 

Wow, thank you for the information! I'm surprised the Werk924 piece hasn't come up in conversation more here. Cheap it isn't, but as mentioned there's more to manufacturing these than most of us might imagine. I am surprised however, that additive manufacturing couldn't be used here. I think it would be a perfect use of it.

 

Thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts on the subject, I think I will just keep the dash mat for now and maybe someday remove the dash and have it covered in leather (always nice to dream of things).

 

There is a German company that does better quality abs covers than the Coverlay ones we get in the US. They do various colors also, try searching Motorform on eBay.de.

Edit: just found their website <MotorForm 944 to 85.5><MotorForm 944 85.5 on> no affiliation.