I have a black dash pad for my 1968 Cougar that is in great shape other than the top portion which is sun faded. (there are no cracks anywhere) The sections of the dash where the sun did not damage the material is nice, black, soft and pliable. I tried rubbing coconut oil paste on the dash top but it just soaks in and returns to the faded color after a day or so. The top part of the dash also feels like sand paper and is not as pliable as say the underside. I have tried a few other cleaners such as Meguiar’s G10916 Gold Class Rich Leather Cleaner & Conditioner with no luck as the faded color comes back again.
Question - As anyone tried wet sanding the dash pad with say 1500 or 1800 grit wet sand paper? I don’t want to ruin the dash pad as it is nice except for the color fade on top side. I also have the dash pad out of the car to work on it so getting it wet shouldn’t be an issue. I think the sun fade is very old and happened in the high desert of California as the car was purchased new in Lancaster, CA.
Clean it a few times with dawn dish soap to remove contamination. Then clean with prep solvent. Scuff it with a scotch brite pad. Clean again with prep solvent. Go to Amazon and buy SmArnold refinisher (picture). It will look like new again.
Isn’t SEM Landau Black the color that matches the original dash black the best?
If you have texture issues or blemishes, the color is kind of translucent so you might want to spray a light texture coat on first. SEM texture spray works really well for this and hides the imperfections perfectly.
Search for dash pad restoration as there is a thread on this topic well in the past that gives a lot of info. Found it: https://cccforum.discoursehosting.net/t/dash-repair/3381/9
Heck, if the SMArnold stuff is a good alternative it’s nice to have options.
There’s a place called “just dashes” that restores padded dashes. I’ve heard they do an excellent job but not cheap by a long shot! I was quoted 1400 bucks! Needless to say, I haven’t pulled that trigger yet. That’s a last resort scenario. I would refrain from using sand paper on your dash, but thats just me.
The dash pad is vinyl so no don’t sand it. You risk damaging it, not to mention you’ll remove some of the texture. Use a good prep and very lightly spray it to restore the color.
$1400 is crazy money to restore one. A nice uncracked one is really hard to find but I’ll bet you could find one for half that.
Sorry, forgot to add that. https://www.amazon.com/SEM-38343-Vinyl-Prep-Aerosol/dp/B003HL8U8S
Just lightly scuff with the scotch brite pad to give it some bit. You don’t have to get aggressive with it. I’ll see if I can get a good picture of my dash later today.
I refinished my 69 dash pad with good results. My car was also a desert car for 30 years so it got some sun. I used the Colorbond Paint products and was happy with the result. I found that the best match for the dash pad was charcoal black. I used their prep solution and clear protective clear coat as well. The prep solution is not a solvent and you mix it with water. It gets the plastic clean and the paint sticks and stays on. I did not find a way to make the pad more pliable. Supposedly plain Vaseline will help but I have not tried that yet. I also used the Colorbond paint to change the color of all of the vinyl from off white to a tan color. So far it is holding up.
Needless to say, I haven’t pulled that trigger yet. That’s a last resort scenario. I would refrain from using sand paper on your dash, but thats just me.