Good result but I dont think it will last very long. The hardness of the Bondo is too different from the hardness of the rest of the dash which will cause cracks very soon after restoration. You need a filler with a compareable hardness. I take PU foam to fill the cracks and then a layer of Sugru, then sanding and painting.

Nice job!... I'm an auto interior trimmer, so my next step would be to wrap it in new vinyl, using contrast stitching around the gauges.

Wow man, nice job! Makes me feel confident that I can repair my 280zx dashboards. Thanks for the video and inspiration!

That came out fantastic I didnt expect bondo to work well with this application because of its hardness but I'm pleasantly surprised. Grade A sir .

Great job. I did very similar job to 65 mustang. I covered it with vinyl afterwards. It lasted about ten or fifteen years.

This trick has possibly saved me quite a bit 😁 thanks heaps for the video, I’m almost finished doing this with an Australian 1979 Holden Gemini, so far it’s looking great ☺️

Awesome job! This will help with my 84 camaro project!

Nice job, I never heard of padded dashboard filler. Now I can give it a try. Thanks for the video enjoyed it.

I have to thank you. I have a 77 280z and my dash is in the same condition as yours was if not worse. I was looking around for another dash but now I will try this method. Great video.

doing the dash is kind of a right if passage for Z-car owners. It almost sets the standard for your where your project will go. I did mine with my dad in 1997. He did his with HIS dad around 82. Lot of fun

Awesome job, the result is very impressive. I'm French and unfortunately we don't have these products here

I had a vinyle welding business in fl. Around 1980- 82 Datsun dealers were my best customers. They all crack in the same place.

Thank you for this tutorial! It's the best video I've found and has made me feel better about trying to do the repair myself! thanks!!

Auto like! Awesome work on the dash! Looks incredible💪👍👌

Loved the "Fade to black" at 3:20. :)

Looks good. I went slightly different, expanding polyurethane foam , then flexible bumper filler, primer, then finished it off with spray truck bed liner. The truck bed liner i held at a distance to give a nice texture, then after it cured for a couple weeks i wet sanded it with 1500 grit to give it a nice smooth feel. It looks very stock.

Great job alot better than other videos I've seen.

Great job. Please don't to the haters. People that have no experience doing this should not comment. Its always I saw this on You tube and he did this or that. As long as you are happy with it that's all that matters.

good job!!!,,,ill be doing a 70 ford ltd soon,,its pretty flat ,,easy ,, thanks for showing what too do here !!

Looking good. Coming together nicely.

Good job, don't think it will crack for a long time as the cracks only appear on the curvature and streach areas, these have already been filled in and blended properly by yourself thanks for making the video

Gud work bro. you make me so confident as well. give us more ideas about repairing

Good job ! Looks 100 times better!

keep up the good work man

When I restored the dash cover on a 240z I stabilised the foam core with epoxy resin after iAd gouged out the damage. The epoxy soaked into the foam core and made it much stronger and more stabile to repair. The gouges were filled with filler with fibres in it.. the surfacing was done with semi flexible bumper filler. I used a textured spray paint to give a uniform finish. Customer was very happy with results,maybe 90% of new looking. Not bad as was pretty much unusable as it was. Had considered getting it covered in upholstery vinyl?

That is a killer job!

This guy make plastic caps that go's over the dash that won't crack it just pops over the stock dash. But I'm glad you are going to show a diffrent way to do it.

At the end of each crack in any type of plastic repair - ALWAYS drill a hole two to three times larger than the crack (the size of the hole will typically depend on the material your are 'trying' to repair - the operative word being ",,,trying..."). This helps eliminate stress riser cracking later on. I learned this my 'first job in life' as a dental technician. Repair a crack in a plastic denture without drilling a hole at the end of the crack - and BINGO - snap it in two with little effort. With the hole drilled - 'good as new'. This dash repair has excellent blending out - but could have been improved by a hole at the end of each crack - always 'better to be safe than sorry' type 'insurance'. CHEERS from AUSTRALIA.

Came out great!!

Well done man!

Wow what a difference, nice job man

Great work! Looks amazing compared to what it was! Taking notes for a project coming up. Thanks man!

Great job man

I do think you should sand the top down again with course paper and then lay down a full layer of glass. At the moment your base is very weak and will just keep cracking as the foam shrinks

Nice job getting ready to do mine also!

Great video mate, well done really enjoyed it, out of interest how’s it lasted, realised you flicked too, keep up the great work

Looks great!

Damn you are the dash man👍

I also repaired my middle console like this, but I asked myself if fiberglass filler really is the right material since its flexibility is very different from the remaining original material which means that if the dash / console is bent it could crack between the filler and the old material. So far my repair looks good, but I ask myself if anybody of you has long term experience with using fiberglass filler for that purpose.

That turned out awesome!!!!

Great job men

Great job!

Damn, you widened the shit out of those cracks bro. Got a little carried away with it.

Nice job mate.

satisfying to watch!

Looks great

to all hater comments. keep negativity to self if u dont like it dont see it. its a great project guys all these haters and negative feedback its because they cant do 1/4 of what u guys accomplished so they have to talk smack. looks really good iam doing the same to mine hopefully i can do it as good as yours. thanks great tutorial

Nice job!!

Did the same to my S130 dash last winter, and doing my Z31's. So far it holds up great and I used the same prosses besides the dash filler (I used bondo gold and short strand fiberglass filler). Once the Z31 is done, then I'm gonna flock both of them.

Holy shit , that looks mint. Cause,RACECAR!

GREAT job!!!

I got to tackle mine eventually...Mines not that bad I got about 3 cracks to deal with and rust on the dash frame. Not going to be touching it for some time probably. Been waiting to see how you did yours. Great vid and thanks for posting.

Does look good!

Awesome job man.

Plastic x from upol is nice for finishing and comes in a good size tin

Nice! I did something very similar. Wish I would have watched this first

Good work amigó

good work man

Nice work

You can also wrap it in carbon I suppose fiber for super durability. But it's a bit of work and will change the original look.

excellent job

Good work

Looks great…how is it holding up? Also how do you clean and or protect from the sun damage? Thanks

I would have done fiberglass filler on the other side to make it stronger but good work um raptor bedliner spray can to paint the dashboard to give it a texture look

I thought he was ganna life hack this with ramen noodles 🤣😂

What about using a can of spray foam to fill in the cracks? Then just level it off with a razor blade. Fill in whatever is left with body filler. Then you wouldn't need the fiberglass, and maybe less body filler.

great job

Great video bro I'm going to do the same to my 280z hopefully it goes well 😅

Nice work!!! Came up great!

Wow, considering how bad it started, the outcome was great.

Looks really good not like the last guy I seen using caulking and house paint

looks like a lot of work but the result was great!

Big thumbs-up achieved at 11:46.

nice job.

I recommend using black ! body filler. If something cracks later on , e g on the edges, you immediately Look at a whitish colour…. otherwise back not that easylii visible

I would use welding rods for polyurethane and a soldering iron, or alternatively flexible bumber/ plastic repair adhesive as it flexes a lot more than fibre glass, fibre glass is actually not that flexible.

Whilst you did good work, it won't last (in the long term) because something else will crack. The long term solution is to strip the whole underside and much like in a orthodontic prosthesis, attach structure points and screw jacks where current cracks exist and then tighten it up slowly, finishing with a full on reflashed glass reinforced bottom. Only then, the cosmetic side of things can be tackled. This comes from watching one of my car mentors repairing one of these (not as bad) and asking him why such an elaborate process. The basic answer was, 'it's junk, it was junk from the start, and like all junk, you patch one hole and it cracks in another.'

Great video how it holding up by the way

Hmmm, turned out nice.

Atm that looks mint

Fiberglass and bondo, that's a lot of work, and you did an excellent job. However, for most people... some of the other methods look almost as good with barely any effort. It seems like, if you are going to go through this much effort, you might as well make a mold and form a new dash out of a modern foam (more flexible and better elasticity) and you won't have to worry about more cracking down the line.

Problem is the other parts of the dash are old and weathered and will crack too.....

Nice video. My 1975 cheyene is actually worse than that.. so that's going to be fun

I've owned s30s since the 80s. I would not call your dash abnormal because they are all different. The number and severity of the cracks depends on the age and amount of sun exposure it has seen over the years. Keep in mind that this type of repair has been done before and is temporary. It will crack again given enough time. The only real "permanent" fix is to replace the entire dash - even then mother nature will break down the plastic over time.

Fibre glass is very rigid would only use on metal or fibre glass body not on a flexible surface such as the dash or bumbers flexible bumper repair or urethane rods would be better. But thanks for sharing your work

Awesome work man! Do you know if it is possible to spray wrinkle finnish on something like this or does that only work on metal surface?

Im gonna refer to this when it comes time to make my wifes dash for her 240z look better!!

How is it holding up I think I might try this myself

Educational that shows cracks can be repaired

Subscribed!

Please make a video when you flock it or is there on already out?

Use primer filler it's thick primer that will coat over most of all the scratches I use that on a lot of projects it's like spray on bondo you have to work quickly when you mix and spray one time I added to much hardner and it harden in the can before I could even spray it on my car live and learn, you should try it when it comes to body work on your car it's easy sanding and fills in a lot of scratches then they have this other stuff they sell like bondo it's at the auto supplies store for paints that fills in the pen holes and small dents that you couldn't get with the body filler. It's easier to sand and work with but only for small chips and scratches and areas that you don't want to body filler it, then you use primer filler and it will come out great I learn that trick from professional body work guys that showed me the trick that made it a whole lot easier than all that sanding

@ 8:55 you shouldve left it alone on the 1st pass Gotta know when to leave it alone and just sand it a little

Pretty amazing. Wonder if that wrinkle paint would have been better?

How well has this held up? any cracks formed?

Why didn't you fix the crack? Add more bando and lalala...?

I have a 1996 Chevy pickup. My Dash especially right there next to the windshield where the vent grates are there are three screws that attach the dash up there and they have cracked and broken is there any way to put in or hide in that area some type of seller or something little still at the defrost work but doesn't look like a giant oval hole? What do you get on completely refurbishing a dash like this if I was to send it to you?

Heads up when ya doing bigger stuff like this probably use a die grinder makes life easier and there not too dear

What is the putty for Lexus RX350 year 2008? Please

Im going to cover mine with astroturf and call it good.