My dash has about a 4 inch crack that runs from the defroster vent towards the driver's seat. Does anyone know a good way to stop it from getting worse. Thanks for the help.

 

Drill a small hole where the crack stops. Then cover the dash with some type of mat.

MikeyB

 

Won't help. It will crack in a diffrent place. I've had peices of dash sitting alone in a room and they broke into more peices without anyone touching them. If you ever get to witness a fresh break, you'll see some sort of oily substance on the freshly exposed edges.

It ain't armourall. if that were the case then every plastic part in mine would also break and it has not happened. The subcontractor that made them just didn't mix the batch or cure it right. Just part of the fun of owning one of these.

Go ahead and start setting aside about $200 and a day to swap it out. Remember that your vin tag will be attatched to the dash that you take out so that will have to be transfered.

Many Dodge owners have allready been thru this. There's many how to post allready. Just search this site for cracked dash. You'll see all kinds of discussions.

Also, don't break the black bezel when you take it off. That'll be another $200.

 

there are a lot of places that sell dash repair pads. I did a quick search and found this one http://www.1aauto.com/1A/Dash_Pad_Co...DC00267/597612 Also Geno's has them for $55 http://www.genosgarage.com/prodinfo....mber=CKM-D8107

 

believe it or not but a good way to prevent it happening and I've done this for years on all my cars new or old spf 30 or higher and then on top of that armour all, works like a charm

 

Ditch the armorall for 303 Aerospace Protectant. It's formulated around a sunscreen to protect against harmful rays, basically uv light that breaks down the abs and cause it to become brittle. That spf 30 sounds like the same idea.

Kurt

 

I still disagree with the protectant beleifs/issues. It's a design and or mfg issue. if it were a protectant or lack of protectant issue, other plastic peices withthe same treatment would be breaking up.

Dash caps are temporay. When it all crumbles, there will be nothing left for the dash cap to sit on. Mine cracked and crumbled so bad, there was room for a person to ride in the hole left behind. My radio wires faded out from the sunlight.

 

Move North!

 

You keep your northern snow, I'll keep my southern job.

 

The compound is ABS, which is similar to those plastic models everyone used to build - unfortunately, model cement is now safe for children and no longer styrene, so it won't work - however, yer local hardware emporium carries ABS, PVC, and CPVC cement - getcherself a can of ABS cement, clean the area with alcohol, carefully apply the cement into the crack several times, letting it dry between, till the crack is full - then, an aftermarket dash cover mat will protect the uv-sensitive ABS plastic from the sun's rays, and it may survive - at this point, damage is prollly way past recovery, so you should put yer order in for the replacement at DCJ

DCJ used ABS, where the other marquees used PVC, or vinyl - vinyl does'nt crack much from heat\uv, but does powder\crumble from deep cold, and is totally unrepairable, as there is no glue which will bond with vinyl, as ABS cement bonds and becomes part of the ABS plastic base.

FYI, mine had two similar cracks when I pulled it from the donor truck 3yrs ago - I replaced the complete brown interior with gray, and that was the only gray dash I could find that was not multi-cracked - cleaned and patched it with ABS cement, installed it, covered it, and it is still good today, surviving several Texas summers - the gray carpet cover mat is easily removed for dusting once a year.

Try it - you'll like it...............

 

Duct tape? Lots of it?