69 camaro dash pad

[ronnieredline]

hi everyone
does anyone know for sure about the dash pad on a 69 camaro?
what i am asking is:
when installing the screws in the dash, the 2 screws that go above the speedo and tach that hold down the vinyl dash pad to the plastic instrument cluster. is there some sort of metal bar that both of these screws go into?, my original dash looks like there used to be some sort of re-inforcement that was about 3" long by 3/4" wide? this would be there to keep the screws from going all the way through the dash pad and leaving a big hole in the dash pad, it would also spread out the torque from the screw heads. this would be a piece that would come off if you took out both screws above the speedo and tach.
please let me know
i just looked at the dash and it just doesnt look right to me?
but who knows
thank you all for an answer.

[Salvatore]

I don't think the repop dash pads have that metal reinforcement. I had to use 2 small washers and try to hide them so the screw would not just pull through. Repop stuff is annoying at times isn't it? My theory anymore is not to restore anything unless it really needs to be restored, changed, replaced etc. It doesn't seem ever to be as good as original. JMO

[parkbrau]

Your right. There is a metel piece imbeded in the OEM dash. I glued a piece of metal about the same size you mentioned onto my repop dash. I should have just kept the dang dash and paid the money to have it refurbed.

[ronnieredline]

first off
if i made a repop dash i would do it with style and elegance.
second, i think they do a decent job but why go to all the trouble of making it appear right and then leave out the special details.
where's the pride fellas?
i am so upset with this, that someday soon if i have the money im going to make a repop and what ever it is, it will be a mold taken from SEVERAL factory items and it will be as perfect or better than the originals. if compared to an original my description would be, "you practically cant tell them apart" even at a second glance or 4-5 guys putting their heads together at the same time to look at it! ! ! !

i know i could do better than they do, for crying out loud, i am a detail kinda guy, but to leave out the re-inforcements of the dash to even LEAVE OUT the rest of the studs that an original has is simply PATHETIC,

i mean come on people. this is a useless piece of material, leave out the metal re-inforcements and leave out most of the plastic bosses to bolt it down with??? i wouldnt have bought one, but mine had almost every plastic boss broken off, i didnt do it but the kid before me did, why i dont know, but its just not worth saving the old one, it cant even be mounted right, not without buying stock in JB weld! ! ! i will save it, but to anyone its a no brainer to use it.

good grief, how hard can it be to make a mold and do it right, most of the time it costs a little more but the price of a dash that acts,looks and fits like the original would be worth alot more, i see factory dashes go for up to 1500 bucks on ebay.
so why couldnt you do it right and ask oh lets say 450 for a dash, that looks like,acts like and fits right? if i had a repop and one that looked like the original right next to each other and the repop was 300 and the better one was 450, its a no brainer ???

if i designed a repop i would have them beating down my door, just because it looked like the original and bolted in like one. there is no quality control no research, mark my words, if i ever do decide to make a repop, i will make a prototype, test it , research it and let a few people try it, id sell it to them for 450 bucks, if they give me the correct feedback and tell me what they did or didnt like i would change it, id make it better and so on, then after there remarks on my prototype, id give them a full return or a 150 bucks off to match the price of the lesser quality ones out there.

most of the products today are made and pumped out, who cares how well it works, its because we buy them and take it that thats all we can get?
this is AMERICA , lets do it ourselves in our own shop and do it right, it is an AMERICAN car, it was done 40+ yrs ago, with the technology of today, dont tell me it cant be done faster and better???
just like the after market console guages, the ones with the "made is USA" on them, they dont say MADE IN USA because they arent made in the usa their made in china!!!!
how hard could it be to press these out and get them painted???

this stuff is so simple and i could go on forever, this might spark a long post but its just not right, the thing is
THEY KNOW IT, and we keep buying it to support it.

i dont buy stolen tools from people because it supports the theft of doing it in the first place see what i mean??

anyway, if i can soon finance this kind of repop stuff, you wont hardly know the difference, i would be flooded with calls, the word would spread like a wild fire in california during a drought of 5 yrs. I would be escaladed into having to make the company bigger due to the demand!!!!

i am flooded now with calls for my business, why? because i do it as right as i can, i research the product, apply per instructions and even research the instructions per application.
i have had so many tools and when you buy one, it seems they tried it for about an hour or so and said hey it works, and then you buy it and the switch goes out or it just locks up or burns up during the first few hours of being used. ???

any way someday look for RON'S REPOPS buy one from me after my research and YOU WILL BE BACK for more!!!!!
thank you and have a nice day.

[Salvatore]

WOW Ronnie its good to vent. I am with ya brother. Disgusted with alot of repops and don't like restored, frame-off cars as much anymore. If a car needs paint, paint it. If it needs an interior replace it. Reason why everybody is always asking about the cars paperwork is because there are so many out there with complete restorations. Not much original anything. Can't trust its pedigree without the paper. This is why I think the Day-2 thing is beginning to pick up some steam. After many people saw Sam's blue Deuce in Chicago and in Hemmings Muscle that changed their minds which is a real good thing IMO. Keep the fire hot Ronnie!

[Nova Jed]

Ronnie, I am way younger than you and most of the guys on this site and it seems to me that this is the way the whole entire country is going. Somewhere along the line it has become ok to produce an inferior product or ship manufacturing off to some other area of the world so someone doesnt hear about quality and have to pay the cash to fix it. As we all know, these cars weren't perfect from the start, but they didn't have the quality control that we have today. I agree with you. If you are going to do something, do it right the first time.

I work in th HVAC trades and if I didn't do my job to a t, someone would lose their house or worse.

[Salvatore]

maybe the QC, assembly was not as good 40-50 years ago BUT the product, parts etc. were of much better quality and seemed to be built to last! My nova still has the original exhaust, clutch and chrome but some of the fit and finish is not perfect.

[SS427]

Ron, if you really want to sell your product, DO NOT use, &quot;you <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">practically</span></span> cant tell them apart&quot;! I would not even consider buying a part that was worded that way. Instead and if in fact, word it &quot;undetectable from an original&quot; or something similar.

[ronnieredline]

boy oh boy, and they still chew at ya??
hhaaaaa hhhaaaaaa
anyway, i agree with the last post, ok i wouldnt say &quot;practically&quot;, of coarse i would have a advertisment consultant to advise me on the wording as well.
but, if i put myself on the other side so to speak, then yes if i heard &quot;practically&quot;, then maybe yes i would be a little reserved i guess.

ok now, proof is in the pudding:
if the words &quot;practically&quot; were in the advertisement, BUT you had the repop in one hand from china and then a repop from &quot;rons repops made in USA&quot; and you could see i went to strenuos efforts and you couldnt really tell mine from the old dash you had, then what would you say?
what would you do if i said ok &quot;buy it, if you dont like it for any reason then send it back&quot; as long as it is in the same conditon as you recvd it, &quot;shipping paid both ways by me&quot;
absolutely no cost to you! ! ! uh huh now what?
hmmmm id bet even you would buy one !!! hhaaa hhhaaa

this is how i run my own company, after a whole house has been built buy me, i still come back and fix those darn faucets for your outside hose, that leak UH HUH made in CHINA AGAIN! !! !
but i go back and fix them, even hack out drywall to do it.
i fix the kitchen faucets,toilets, seems only things i fix is something i actually didnt make.
man does this piss a guy off.
but my customers keep coming to me with new ideas and new projects, i have a customer base of over 500, been in business for over 20 yrs.
i wish the world was this way.
oh well, we all know how it is ya know.
i even went and got 9 licenses with the EPA because my old HVAC guys couldnt calculate the given air exchange rate for any given room in the new house??? duh ? ? ? ? can you say uh cubic feet per minute?? uh CFM ???
anyway, look for me people i might just make a repop sooner than later, im gonna make it in my own shop, if and when i do.
YOU WILL HEAR ABOUT ME ! ! ! ! !
WE HOT ROD OWNERS WILL UNITE ! ! ! ! !
thanks all
is this a great site or what ! ! ! ! ! ! !