Dash Pad Cover for C3

BBShark

Garage Monkey
Staff member
Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Messages
4,846
Location
Right here
I am going to have a windshield put in next week and wanted to have the dash in place before the windshield was in (its hard enough to get in place without one). However the dash I had was beyond repair except for the underside. I've seen some aftermarket dashes and wasn't impressed with them. And, they cost $350-400.

I saw someone is making a cover (Accu-form) that is a vacuum formed shell that you glue over the top of the old one. They are about $139 bucks shipped. So I got one not expecting much. When it arrived I thought it looked pretty good but didn't really fit that well. To make it fit I sanded off some of the edges and epoxied where i cut into the foam so it wouldn't de-laminate I bought a shitload of spring clamps and mummy wrapped it to get the edges to lay down.

I think it turned out pretty well with the exception of depressions the clamps left in front of the defroster vent. The manufacturer says you could do this while installed on the car. You could but I would look awful.

45e6d3baabe1c8.jpg
 
I put this in yesterday and found that gluing the cover actually flattened the outside corners of the dash. Made it impossible to put back in correctly. So I removed the outside clips and screwed it down from the underside.

Also the defroster vent is pushed down about 1/4" because of the cover is not trimmed correctly. That makes it impossible to install also. The fix for that is to trap it in place with the defroster duct.

Looking back, I would have been better off buying the more expensive reproduction and saved myself a lot of trouble.
 
It's ABS with a textured finish. I does look good. However, I'm not sure how UV stable it is. A lot of Black ABS will turn blue gray. So, I ended up painting it. That flattened the sheen and improved it's appearance.

On a related note, I was hoping to get the windshield installed today and was advised to get a late 70's windshield. The installers showed up and said no way.
 
Whats the benefit of the late 70's windshield? Are they the ones with the black ceramic border to hide the glue edge?
 
I am going to convert to a long hood and get rid of the wiper door stuff. However, the 68 wiper door completely covers the wiper well and the long hood has to leave a gap for the wiper arms. The 68 windshield will show the lower edge of the glass on the outside (I think).
 
Top