Hooray for road salt!

Topic: Hooray for road salt! (Read 1720 times) previous topic - next topic

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #15 – June 28, 2015, 07:56:53 PM

I was intrigued at the idea for interior parts as mentioned earlier, but it looks like he has the ebay skin ontop of the cracked dash. Check out the vents. Bummer

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #16 – June 28, 2015, 11:21:04 PM

I don't think the dash cap takes away from it. Show me a crack free dash and ill show you a car that was never driven or used. Its almost impossible to get the speaker covers off of a dash without damaging it.

Only a matter of time and every one of these cars left will have a dash cap.

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #17 – June 29, 2015, 05:55:58 PM

My 86 has a crack-free dash

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #18 – June 29, 2015, 07:24:50 PM

I have three crack free dashes, two 88s and an 86.

You need to have cash sitting, the patience of job, and the ability to buy a whole car if necessary.

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #19 – June 29, 2015, 07:26:19 PM

Sounds like I'm bragging. That wasn't the intent. The intent was to communicate that they are out there if you hunt for them and are willing to plunk down cash at the time.

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #20 – June 29, 2015, 09:05:00 PM

For the seats alone $500 is a steal. It cost me more than that to have the leather panels replaced on my front seats......

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #21 – June 29, 2015, 10:28:20 PM

I don't know if it has to do with our lack of humidity or our temperatures, but i have never seen a crack free dash here. Mine has almost turned to dust. In some places, if i brush up against it lightly with my finger it will crack. Every other car I've had has been pretty similar.

99.5% of people won't notice it has a dash cap, if any do. And that car having one proves that the last owner tried to take car of the car. I couldn't even imagine buying an entire car for a crack free dash, but i like to se the bottom of the barrel.

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #22 – June 29, 2015, 10:47:23 PM

Yeah I was waiting for the barrage of people busting out pictures of good dashes

But yeah out there in the desert areas I'm sure it's far worse.

For what it's worth don't the two-generations ago Dodge pickups split their dashes real quick? I swear I've seen a bunch of pictures of the '02-up ones all messed up.

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #23 – June 30, 2015, 01:25:29 AM

Im not exactly in a desert, but we have low humidity due to our elevation, and on average hit 100's about 6 times a year and get below 0 about 10. If anything its worse because of how hot and cold we get constantly. I remember getting 1" of snow on my brothers june 13th birthday and two weeks later we were sitting over 100's for two weeks straight.

Maybe if i got a funny cat pictured windshield blocker screen my dash would be okay? My first couple of cars, i would lube up the dash with petroleum jelly or dip a shop towel in used motor oil and it would really clean up the dash well and you could actually see it soak it up and become more flexible as you went. Most plastics need oiled.

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #24 – June 30, 2015, 10:21:47 AM

I always wonder what's worse, the heat or actual direct sunlight exposure and if simply covering it actually works. I've gotten dash-rugs for all of my good ones, and I use a shiny reflective sun shield in the summer too. I have a couple old tshirts I keep in the red car for the leather portions of the seats. Crazy much? Yeah.

My co-worker who moved here from Las Vegas several years ago, still has his first daily driver, '90 Accord 2 door. Beautiful blue interior and the winter salt is just starting to take its toll on it. He's always had a rug on the dash and maintains it spent most of its life out there without a problem.

Plastic is made from petroleum so there are probably components that out-gas and vaporize away leaving degraded remnants.
An "ex-co-worker" who quit last year, has been a chemical engineer for 30+ years and worked for Texas Instruments, Boeing to name a few. His claim is that poor plasticizers are the biggest reason dashes crack. Which are the components that actually make these materials flexible and bendable. Logically makes sense I guess :hick:

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #25 – June 30, 2015, 10:37:01 AM

i think our cold weather keeps the plastic from over expanding on the foam and cracking..... my 85 vert has a good dash, but that was also a Chicago car, and only in florida for a couple of years

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #26 – June 30, 2015, 02:08:45 PM

My Thunderbird has a dash cap. It was bought new in Santa Monica, CA and spent the first 14 years of it's life in California. The dash was perfect when I bought it. After one winter in Chicago it cracked after it sat the winter in a garage. Go figure.

Hooray for road salt!

Reply #27 – June 30, 2015, 02:23:17 PM

:( I haz a sad.