If you've spent any time looking at a substantial crack while cruising, you know getting a solid 1969 dash pad firebird substitute is basically a rite of passage for classic Pontiac owners. There is something incredibly soul-crushing about having the beautiful car with a cockpit that will looks like the dried-out lake bed. The 1969 model year was a special one for the Firebird, however the materials they utilized back then definitely weren't designed in order to survive fifty-plus many years of sun publicity and temperature shifts.
When you sit behind the particular wheel, the dash is the one particular thing you're continuously looking at. You can have a perfect paint job and the screaming V8 below the hood, although if the dash is curled up at the edges or divide over the middle, the particular whole car just feels a bit tired. Fixing or replacing a 1969 dash pad firebird isn't exactly a stroll in the park, but it's among those projects that completely transforms the inside from "project car" to "show stopper. "
The reason why the initial Units Always Fail
It's easy to blame the previous owners regarding not using a sunshade, but the truth is that will the tech at the rear of these original dash pads was pretty flawed from the start. They will used a steel or plastic framework, covered it within a thick coating of foam, after which wrapped it within a vinyl skin. Over time, the chemicals in that vinyl—the plasticizers that keep it soft—basically evaporate. Once these are gone, the particular vinyl gets brittle.
Combine that will brittleness with the particular foam underneath shrinking and expanding since the car sits in a hot parking lot, and you've got the recipe for the disaster. Usually, this starts with the tiny hairline fracture near the speaker grille or the particular defrost vents. Prior to you know this, that crack offers migrated all the particular way across the passenger side. Simply by the time most people start looking with regard to a 1969 dash pad firebird, the particular original is usually curled up apart from the windscreen, making the vehicle appearance like it's literally peeling apart.
The Big Controversy: Repair, Recover, or Replace?
When you realize your own dash is toast, you generally possess three methods to go about it. Each one has its own group of headaches and price points, therefore you have to choose how much "originality" matters to a person versus how very much you're willing to invest.
Professional Recovery
If you're doing a high-end, numbers-matching restoration, you might consider sending your own original core to a professional shop. These guys basically strip it down to the particular bare metal framework and rebuild it using modern materials that look exactly like the factory grain. It's the particular most expensive option undoubtedly, often charging double or three-way what a reproduction pad costs, but the fitment is normally perfect because it's your own original frame.
The Reproduction Route
A lot of people finish up buying a brand-new reproduction 1969 dash pad firebird. Companies like OER happen to be making these for years. The quality has actually got a lot much better recently. Ten or fifteen years ago, the fitment on reproduction pads has been hit-or-miss, and you'd spend hours cutting foam just to get this to sit flush. Nowadays, they're significantly closer to the particular factory specs. It's a "buy this, box it, and bolt it in" solution that functions for 90% associated with hobbyists.
Dash Caps: The Spending budget Band-Aid
After that there's the dash cap. It is a slim plastic shell that will you glue right over your present cracked dash. Appear, I'll be honest—it's a budget shift. If you're upon a tight spending budget and just want the car to look decent for a regional cruise-in, a cap is fine. But if you look closely, you can always inform. The edges never ever quite look right, and if a person don't prep the dash perfectly, the particular glue can fail. If you're going through the trouble of taking the interior apart, I suggest just springing for the particular full pad.
The Reality of the Installation
Getting the old 1969 dash pad firebird and putting in a new one is the kind associated with job that requires the lot of tolerance and perhaps a several cold drinks. It's not technically "hard" in the sense that are needed a master's degree in design, but it is incredibly fiddly.
You have to pull the particular instrument cluster, the glove box lining, and all these little trim pieces that have most likely been stuck in place since the Nixon administration. The toughest part is often reaching the nuts that hold the pad to the firewall. You'll find yourself upside down underneath the steering column, questioning why Pontiac engineers decided to place a bolt in a place that only a person with three elbows could reach.
One tip I usually give people would be to check your heater core while the dash is off. There is nothing worse than installing an attractive new 1969 dash pad firebird then having your own heater core blow two weeks later, requiring you to rip the entire thing back out there. If it looks even slightly crusty, just replace this while you're in there.
Getting the Color plus Grain Right
One thing that will trips people up will be the color. Many of these cars had black decorations, which is easy enough to complement. But if you have one of the particular more exotic 1969 colors—like the parchment, blue, or green—you're going to possess a harder period finding a "ready to install" pad in that specific shade.
Many of the time, you'll end upward buying a black 1969 dash pad firebird and then using a high-quality internal paint (like SEM) to suit it in order to your interior. The particular trick here is definitely the prep work. You have in order to get every little bit of manufacturing oil off that fresh vinyl, or maybe the color will just peel off off in linens. If you do it right, although, you can obtain a finish that will looks like this came straight from the factory floor in 1969.
Dealing with the Car windows Gap
One of the most common complaints along with a new 1969 dash pad firebird is the distance on the base associated with the windshield. Occasionally the new pad sits a little high, or the particular mounting tabs don't line up flawlessly with the holes in the cowl.
Before you tighten everything down, "dry fit" the pad. Set it in place without the clips or screws and see just how it sits. If there's a large gap, you might need in order to trim a bit of the particular foam on the bottom where it meets the metal sub-dash. It's a "measure twice, cut once" situation. You don't want to go hacking away in a $400 part, yet a little little bit of strategic cutting can make the particular difference between the dash that appears like it belongs and one that will appears like it was shoved inside since an afterthought.
Finishing Touches and Maintenance
As soon as you finally get that will 1969 dash pad firebird installed as well as the gauges are back in, the difference is definitely day and night. The entire car feels tighter and more expensive. To keep it that way, you have to change how a person treat the interior.
Contemporary "protectants" really are a bit of a questionable topic in the classic car world. Some people swear by them, while others think they really contribute to the plastic cracking later on. My advice? Prevent the super-shiny things. It creates the glare on the particular windshield that's in fact dangerous when you're driving toward the particular sun, and it looks a little bit "cheap. " Make use of a matte-finish ULTRAVIOLET protectant that's designed for modern vinyl. And, for the like of all things Pontiac, utilize a sunshade in the event that you're parking outdoors for more than twenty mins.
Replacing the dash is usually a big work, but it's possibly the single best thing you can perform for your Firebird's interior. It's the centerpiece of the cabin, and once it's right, every thing else just seems to fall into location. It's about more than just looks; it's about making the car a place where you in fact want to spend time.