My mom bought me a dash cover from dashtop.com for Christmas and I have been waiting for warmer weather to install it.
I read up the writeup over at coolcats and saw where it said to trim to fit. I assumed that there would be some tpuppies, but jeez there is a lot of tpuppies!! I'm not even done yet and have probably a handful's worth of shavings. Good news is that even mocking it in place, it looks a million times better.
Any one have any tips for me for when I finish it up? I have some pretty bad cracks on the existing dash and I plan to sand those down. Is it a good idea to install the speaker covers over the new dash?
Mine is cracked bad too but I was thinking of the ebay dash covers that are bade with carpet. They look good. And stop the summer glare.
The area above the instrument cluster was bowed, installing the dash cap exaggerated that. Otherwise mine fit pretty nicely. My big complaint is that I don't like the defroster vents. I cleaned the dash, then smoothed some rough areas and installed it. Didn't like the defroster vents and the hump so pulled it (after the adhesive dried) and did it again.
To get the pad to fit tightly near the glass, I stuffed bath towels at windshield base until everything was wedged tight. You should check it periodically while the adhesive dries to make sure it doesn't twist, pop, or otherwise move before drying finishes.
I got mine in. The biggest place that I am unhappy with it is around the side window defroster thingys. You can tell there is a gap between them and the new dash. Also there is a hump above my instrument cluster (right where a big crack was) but it may come out when I part it in the hot sun.
Overall it looks a hell of a lot better than a cracked old dash.