dash pad restore

fifty year old dash pad



remove brittle and loose vinyl



cut out and slice off bad foam




the right spray foam from local hardware store will be low expansion, stay spongy when set and act as a bonding structure. Of coarse the right beer is esential.



fill in the cracks rubbing the wet foam into the old foam with a spatula.



dont try to do it in one go, too much foam makes for large gas bubbles.



sand with coarse block paper and repeat as necessary to acquire correct shape..



test fit prior to upholstering.







wrap with thin high density foam sheet, then your new vinyl using a spray glue that dose not melt the foam.





install




M1D

Nice job! Luckily the one on my Econoline wasn't as bad.

M1, you must be the Most Interesting Man in the World!
Great instructional thread for those who haven't done this before...(like me!)
This is a Fantastic site for all the information that can be gained in working on these vans.
Your dash turned out Great!!!

M1 You are very talented .Nice job ! Bill

Wow! You did a great job. Thanks for sharing.

This is my next project. I haven't taken a close look yet at how it's installed. How do you get the dash pad off? Is it screwed in from underneath or does it pop off?

On the 2nd gen van there are Phillips screws across the underside of the lip and a series of nuts under the dash.;

Great, thanks!

I'm (finally) about to start repairs on mine. The embedded bolts are not that long, and the nuts holding the pad down were pretty close to the end of the bolts when I took it off.

Did you have any problems with the bolts not being long enough after adding another layer of upholstery?

Mine seems rather brittle everywhere. Is there a risk of cracking the pad in unrepaired spots when re-installing, or is it more solid than it appears to be?

great job