Cracked dash

[PHenry]

Yesterday I realized that I should have been using that sun shade that is tucked under the rear seat. Now I have a cracked dash. I have looked at Gino's for a dash cover. Has anyone tried the rigid dash cover? How well does it work, and how does it look?



Thanks.



DODGE RAM DASH COVER - BLACK ('03-'05)-Dodge Cummins Diesel Truck Accessories – Geno’s Garage

 

[EricBu12]

This is why on my old 01 and my new 09 I bought a carpet dash cover. .



This cover at genos looks to me and I assume that it might be a 3M stick on. Just like my old 01 where I had a wood grain cover for the face of my dash. heres the pic of it. .



So it might be a sick on cover like this.

 

[Regcabguy]

I rugged mine up from week one. $45. 00 vs. $800,no contest. The shades only work when the vehicle's parked.

 

[Crunch]

I rugged mine up from week one. $45. 00 vs. $800,no contest.

Same here. I bought one from NAPA for $30 the first week and my dash is still solid. I never stuck the adhesive velcro tabs to the dash but the mat doesn't really slide that much unless the Nuvi navigator slides when I hit the breaks. Nice fit and all the speaker and vent holes line up perfectly. I also use the sun shades for both the front and back windshields. I ran some string cord through the top in two places for the rear windshield and hang it on the hooks above it. The sun shade wants to accordion back in, but I have a length of PVC on the same kind of cord that I put on the same hooks to hold it in place. Like you said, no contest. Every vehicle I've had before this truck ended up with a cracked dash, but not this one. Another thing to do is not use Armor All or other rejuvinators on your plastic. It sucks out the existing chemicals and dries your plastic out even faster. On an `84 Ford truck I had it even started breaking down the plastic in the Texas heat, leaving it rough like sand paper.

 

[Prairie Dog]

I second what Crunch wrote about Armor-All. It's the worst thing you can put on plastic or vinyl. Of course I had to learn this the hard way. .

 

[Crunch]

If the crack isn't too bad, and isn't spidering all over the place you might use the same approach glass repair companies use on cracked and stone damaged windshields. Fill the crack with an epoxy of some kind so the dash doesn't flex and cause the crack(s) to grow. Like a windshield repair, it won't fix the cosmetic problems, but you can eliminate or limit any further damage to your dash. Then spend the $$ to cover it with some kind of a fitted dash mat to hide the visible damage and limit further damage.

 

[CookJ]

I bought a dash cover from lmc a little over a year ago. They offer them in two colors (black and gray) and each are paintable. I opted to go with the black. The cover comes with a tube of adhesive that is to be appied around the vent openings and outside edges. Since it sits pretty much perfect, i have yet to glue it down. Have considered just keeping it black as well. As for the cracks, i drilled the tips to prevent them from propogating further. Last i counted, i had 5 total. james