Opinions on ABS core dashpads

[Marty]

Are they still in business? I haven't heard from them in six months.

[70 Challenger Lover]

I'm not excited to move my projects forward either. I picked up my yellow 71 barracuda and it included a new dash in the box. That was almost as big a motivator to buy as the car itself!

Next time I find nice dashes as a show, I might just buy several. Damn things go up in price faster than our cars it seems.

And since no one does burnt orange (they paint them), I'm probably going to change my Challenger to black interior when I get there just to guarantee I have a nice interior for years to come. I don't mind painted plastic but I don't think I can go with a painted dash pad.

[70/6chall]

I was very very fortunate to find an OE steel core '70 Challenger black, non-air, 3-speaker dash pad from a stalled project car. Perfect unblemished condition no damage of any type. And, alls the guy wanted was $100.00. He had it wrapped up in plastic in his garage. Deals like this dont exist nowadays.I put it in the car as soon as I could.

[JH27N0B]

They call colors on dash pads "dyed".  I don't know if that's just a fancy word for painted?
For what it's worth, I got a dash pad restored by Just Dashes for my convertible 5 or 6 years ago, I think they charged me around $75 extra for burnt orange.
It's fine, looks good and no deterioration of the color or anything since installing.
I put a El Paso dash pad (I don't recall now what name they were using then) on my T/A when I restored it. 
Having used both, I prefer the El Paso only because they are less expensive.  Both have flaws, neither are perfect OE and both could be better. 
If price was equal, I'd go Just Dashes just because the El Paso guy has been somewhat flaky and Just Dashes seems more ethical.  But given the price difference I'd go flawed flaky El Paso over expensive but also flawed Just Dashes if I was needing a dash pad now. 

[70 Challenger Lover]

I dealt with the El Paso guy once. He was at a show so I got to see it before buying. Put it in my RT before selling it. It was pretty decent overall.

I've heard so much about that guy that I don't think I'd buy from him unless I got to see it first like at a show.

[ignition1]

End of last year I called and emailed Just Dashes and they were very helpful, they answered all my questions and were very professional to deal with. Not pushy, informative and insightful. I don't doubt their service would be excellent through out the dash pad restoration journey with them. I haven't seen their quality in person, but if there was a problem with quality I feel good that they would stand behind their work. When the time comes I'm leaning toward picking up the conversation again with Just Dashes, I'm not here in the project yet.

[70 Challenger Lover]

I got a quote from them not long ago and the to my door price after sending mine in was going to be around $3,000. And from what I've heard, the product is nice but not perfect and still looks a little different from factory.

Maybe I've lost touch with reality but for $3k, I expect it now. Now nine months later and I expect it to be concours perfect.

I've talked to upholstery guys over the years who say they could do the job nicely if I wanted them to try. Not crazy about throwing money out there just to see what happens. My fear is that it would look nice but also look custom which I don't want.

I've wondered how hard it would be to do a dash yourself. If one could perfect the process of getting the right density foam laid down and sculpted, glueing the material couldn't be that bad. Or does it really need to be 'vacuumed' down to keep firm as it bakes in the sun?

Has anyone tried or had a shop try? Seems like the trickiest part would be the stitch across the front.

[Deezel]

There's no way I'll go $3K USD on a steel core dash pad. I'll take my chances with an ABS core before that happens. If it was for a rare car, I wouldn't bat an eye and just spend the money but the truth is, it's going into a higher quality driver that I want to enjoy and maybe hit a few show & shines with.

I've reached out to a couple different vendors on pricing & availability. I'll make a decision based on what I hear from them.

Thank you everyone for your input so far. 

[RUNCHARGER]

I think $3k is just greed. I'd be buying a dashcap or get a kit to repair the cracks in the original if it wasn't too bad.There comes a point when it just doesn't make sense anymore and $3k for a questionable part is that point.

[anlauto]

Even at $1699 USD, that will be very close to $3000.00 CDN by the time it's shipped here. You can recoup some of that shipping your core back to them as a core charge of $395 equals about $535.00 CDN minus the $200+ return shipping cost...

[JH27N0B]

I've wondered how hard it would be to do a dash yourself. If one could perfect the process of getting the right density foam laid down and sculpted, glueing the material couldn't be that bad. Or does it really need to be

[/youtube][/youtube][/youtube][/youtube]'vacuumed' down to keep firm as it bakes in the sun?

Has anyone tried or had a shop try? Seems like the trickiest part would be the stitch across the front.

The only guy I've seen trying to restore a dash pad himself is a YouTube guy called Weird Beard.
He does everything on a budget and a lot of his work I'd describe as swamp repair, but it's always interesting to see and I admire his ingenuity figuring out how to repair and restore things inexpensively, even though his work is as far as can be from concours!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt9qOqIvuJg
No idea how places like legendary do stitching. Also they don't use the correct grain vinyl covering.  It's a GM grain.  I guess Mopar wasn't enough demand for them to come up with correct grain material and they decided the GM material is "close enough".

[Deezel]

Yikes!!!

First quote just came back from Just Dashes, $2400 plus shipping and a 4-5 month turn around. This puts it in the realm of $4K CAD.
It's no wonder the price of these cars are going up almost daily....

Still waiting on more quotes but if they're anything like the first one I got, it'll be ABS core for me.

[JS29]

 

[Skdmark]

Not mine. Good original for sale.

https://www.forebodiesonly.com/forum/threads/71-challenger-rt-original-dash-pad-with-frame-glove-box-ash-tray-center-speaker-screen.30012/

[Deezel]

Not mine. Good original for sale.

https://www.forebodiesonly.com/forum/threads/71-challenger-rt-original-dash-pad-with-frame-glove-box-ash-tray-center-speaker-screen.30012/

Thanks for posting that, I appreciate it! 

I'd be a little concerned with how pliable it is anymore. One would think that after 50 years it's going to dry out and would be more prone to cracking.