Just received my 72 Polara dash pad, on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd give it a 6, it lacks the definition of the original and the number of speaker holes is different. Hard to tell from the photo's but the original pad has a step up that runs along the top, the new dash is more of a slope.View attachment 60990View attachment 60991View attachment 60992View attachment 60993
If I just kept my eye's closed I wouldn't need to restore the car at all, that's great advice. Just wish you came up with it sooner! lmao.If you drove around with your eyes closed the blue one would have been good.
Without doing some really expensive tooling that would drive the price sky high, that is as good as you will get.
I'm sure the way they make these is in a mold made directly from a good dash pad. Remember the Michael Keaton movie "Multiplicity"? The copies are never as good as the original. It will loose the crisp lines and fine details.
It really comes down to there isn't much out there in repop land that's as good as the original.
Actually no molds are made, they start with grinding down the cracks and most of the original vinyl, they then fill the cracks and sculpt the contours into the foam , they add a layer of thin foam (assuming they sanded enough of the old foam down). Once the shaping is all done they then vacuum form the vinyl over the pad and work it with a heat gun.
The problem happens when they lay the thin foam down, if they could just stick to sculpting the foam it might be better. I'm guessing they have a problem where the new meets the old.
Alan
By the way, Bob's supplier makes a complete mold using a perfect original dashpad - he also uses an original metal frame and that is why he needs your core. And he reports he isn't selling many. I guess people would rather spend $1500 for a Just Dashes blurred original redo, rather than $800 for a near perfect original molded one. Go figure?
By the way, Bob's supplier makes a complete mold using a perfect original dashpad - he also uses an original metal frame and that is why he needs your core. And he reports he isn't selling many. I guess people would rather spend $1500 for a Just Dashes blurred original redo, rather than $800 for a near perfect original molded one. Go figure?