Recovering Dash

[frank]

Hello my name is Dash and I'm a recovering Porscheholic....

Actually, can anyone give me some advice about recovering my dash. It's out of the car right now and it has the usual cracks in the vinyl. I was thinking of using the vinyl material I've seen being sold somewhere.

Has anyone had good/bad experience with this method of restoring their dash?

[PeteD]

Unless you go the whole hog and invest in a highend, multistep vinyl repair kit, like the ones made by SEM, costing a few hundred bucks to get started, you will be sorely disappointed in the results.

The local SEM system shop wanted $400 to do the job including R&R of the dash. (I think they were telling me that they did not want to do it). (Could buy a new dash for about that.

I tried the "vinyl repair" kits you see around. Got the one made by Permatex. You just can't get a perfect match, and the material is softer than the original dash. You might could patch the dash then paint it with SEM paint, but after spending many hours with the cheap patch kit, I went a bought a Dashcap and love it! It looks just great! I did however go through 3 of them before I got a good one. The first one arrived with a crack in it. The second one had a knife cut in it (but no knife cut in the bag it shipped in, go figure). The third, was just right. Clean the dash really well with ammonia per the instructions and remove the pads on the window columns for clearance. For about $70, I was certainly pleased.