I have used plastic weld to repair an original and have repainted one using SEM flexible paint for plastics but first giving it a real good cleaning and prepping it with SEM adhesion promoter. It's a lot of work and in the end, you often have to redo the silver around the feature holes. If you're installing a survivor interior then saving an original is likely worth it, but if you plan to restore and install a new interior and a new dash pad, then you have other options.
The dash surround in my current car had two broken tabs and the radio holes were cut so this time I chose to try the repro surround from HBC. Aside from having to drill and tap the wiper studs for correct sized screws, I was pleasantly surprised with how well it fit. Definitely a better use of my time to start with a nice bezel and then swap the original gauges over. FWIW, here's how it looks when done and said. Some people despise reproduction parts, but there's also a time when hard old plastic becomes brittle and I'm just sharing this to show how it looks when a dash is swapped out. IMO, most would have no idea when seeing the car finished up. I can tell you it sure looks clean and isn't out of place in this car?
01-17-2021, 03:58 PM
Hybrid Mode
