jwillman

My 79 has a horrible leather dash, console is pretty good but I am currently refreshing the seats with new solid cork vinyl and the console won't match.

It appears that original factory vinyl console and dash had no stitching, looks like vinyl was just stretched over the top.

I have read that the factory had to do some triming of the dash / console to do leather covering. I want to pull dash and finishing peeling the leather and replace with matching vinyl from the seats. Would also need to do the center console.

Am I going to have huge fit issues deleting leather and going with vinyl?

Additonally the lower edge of the dash where it meets the console looks to have pulled up as the leather has dried? What will I need to do to fix this? Whats under the leather and vinyl dash?

S4ordie

Just Dashes can recover the dash for you in vinyl, or you can enlist the good services of Mr. Budd

karl ruiter

The leather dashes are just a leather cover glued down on the molded vinyl dash. The molded dash is a sheet metal frame with foam molded onto it and then vinyl molded over that. If the dash under the leather is good one option (I am thinking of) is the use some SEM paint and paint the dash, console and armrests to match the new seat covers. Sounds a bit cheesy, but I am pretty sure this is essentially what they did on the GTSes with colored dashes. There is no wear on the dash and console to speak of so I am guessing the SEM paint will hold up better than on seats. The only detail I was thinking of was trying to get the actual handle part of the arm rest covered in the same leather as the seats, and probably shift **** and steering wheel.

okbarnett

you can try to strip all the leather off first. Be gentile, dont break or scratch any of the vinyl. If it turns out you can then srtip the vinyl with acetone and paint it with SEM. You can get this color matched at most paint supply shops. You can do all the seats and door and panels with this. It will hold up %99 if you strip everything and do a good prep job first. If you dont strip and prep it will never be any good.

heinrich

Looks like your dash is dead, not just the cover.... which is usually the case.

Nicole

Before you consider Just Dashes - do a search here...

It may be best to recover your dash, console, and door arm rests at the same time, in the vinyl matching your seats. Dash, console, and arm rests are tied together visually; if they are covered in mis-matching materials, your interior will not look "right".

danglerb

Just Dashes seems to have uneven reviews, some got good results, some didn't, and those who didn't got no satisfaction from them either.

jwillman

Has anyone bought the DIY vinyl pieces from Robb and installed them on the dash and console? I have been looking at his stuff for a while and am already planning to use his DIY vinyl kit for my rear quarter panels.

My door panel arm rests and handles have always seemed a miss match to me. The existing leather seats look to have already been painted once - badly.

GlenL

The leather dash is a vinyl dash with leather over it. PLUS the vent grills that are a bit taller.

The shrinking leather tends to distort the dash foam. Get a vinyl dash that's merely cracked, fill the cracks with Bondo and apply the leather.

I used a cover from Robert Budd and it looks good. Not "great" as I'm not a leather installer. Then again, very pretty compared to the way t was. Maybe I just see the imperfections. Got a piece for the glovebox door, too. I'd say have him do the installation. Or Paul Champagne does it, too. IIRC!

tmpusfugit

There can be some pretty unpleasant surprises under the leather covering when removed. In my case I am looking at fitting a fiberglass dash over the bare steel frame having removed the substrate along with the leather. I would like to do the fiberglass dash like the original parts, with functional glove box door as well as removable console and the like. I am not certain the financials work out on making proper molds for a fiberglass pod, dash, and console. While the one piece model I have is OK for a race car, it is not so good for a stock interior replacement part.

ROG100

I had my 79 cork dash covered in vinyl by Rob Budd and it is AWESOME.
Matches the original cork perfectly and will not suffer as much under the TX sun as a leather one.
My car was not originally leather but Rob can redo in vinyl with the leather stitching.

PC-85-928S

What year dash are interchangeable with what year cars?

Jim M.

I've seen Rob Budd's vinyl stiched dash up close and personal and it looks great! Better than the factory vinyl without the problems of leather shrinkage.

Elmiko

Don't try DIY on this stuff! I'll do almost anything on my car, but covering in leather is an art. I bought Rob Budd's DIY rear quarter panel leather covers and ended up paying another $250 to a local auto trim shop to have them done right. Since then, I've sent everything out to Rob and it comes back looking perfect. I was able to do the armrest cover myself, but that's as far as I'd go!

pcar928fan

I am stealing that '79 the next time I get a chance! LOL!