While getting ready to repair my dash, i thought it was time to complete a thread, about, how to do it. So with that said, I'll attempt to talk you threw it step by step, with pics to follow.
1st) Remove you dash from the car, I'm not going to go into how to do that as almost any tech manual will explain that. I only want to address, the actual dash cover fix here.

2nd) Separate your wiring harness from your gages, being careful with the connections, for after almost 40 years they may become brittle. Grasp each side of the connector's and pull apart.( MAKE SURE YOU LABEL ALL THE WIRES, AND THEIR PROPER LOCATIONS, SO RE-INSTALLATION IS CORRECT.)

3RD) Next you will notice a metal support plate, under the cover. Remove all the screws, which secure the plate to the cover.

4) Now comes the fun part! To separate the 2 pieces, use a long standard screw driver, and a putty knife. You must be extremely careful, to work the vinyl wrap off the plate slowly.
5) Use a razor blade to separate the glued vinyl edges from the plate. Once you have done this slowly begin to separate the pieces.

6) At this point you have a decision to make. Do you fix the cracks, or do you get new vinyl, to recover your dash.

7) To fix existing cracks, you must do 2 things. A) Fill the void under the vinyl., and B) then repair the vinyl itself.
I use closed density foam, which you can buy from either an upolstry supply house, or most insulation supply companies.

9) Build up the void, ( crack) to just below the bottom of the vinyl.. Then cement the piece in place using spray adhesive. ( You can also use spray foam out of a can) avaliable from most hardware stores.

10) Now shape the foam to the correct contour of the surrounding dash pad.

11) Next i use a vinyl repair kit from the Eastwood Company, for the vinyl repair, itself. This kit comes with 7 bottles of color, graining, and backing paper, glue, hardner, and a vinyl iron, which looks like a soldering iron, with a flat tip on it. Just follow the instructions found in the vinyl repair kit.

12) Lastly, prep your dash pad with Sem vinyl cleaner, and paint your dash with the correct Sem vinyl paint.

The pictures i will supply with this post will show the actual crack repairs, usint the vinyl repair kit. I intend to remove the old vinyl, and install new vinyl instead. I'm doing the repair kit method to show you a lower cost repair.

I hope this helps anyone who attempts to repair their own dash pad.

Dan Linquist

Can't wait for the pictures!! Sounds like a good project for most Z owners.

This is a subject which effects ALL early Z owners, and one which needs LOTS of discussing.

Back in the day, I recall a repair kit which let you fill the dashboard cracks with some "black toothpaste" stuff. It was murder to get off your hands but if you took your time and did it right, the results were amazing.

The dashboard cracks in the early Series-1 cars were caused by lateral stress and body twist. I suspect the strut-tower braces (pioneered by BRE and BSR Racers) could have prevented most of these if the factory had installed the braces from the beginning. Anyone who goes to the time, trouble and expense of repairing or replacing a cracked dash on an early Z car MIGHT want to consider preventing it from happening again by bracing the strut towers.

Thanks Dan ~ looking fwd to the Step by Step or Before and After pictures.

.....and some would think I'm nuts for saving old cracked dashboards. Basically your idea has been floating in my head for awile, and when I get time was going to try it on some of my spare dashes. Now, If I could get it wrapped in leather for a good price, that would be the ultimate, but a cheap repair is defiantly a choice. Looks like someone tried some repair on my 240, I can see what appears to be fiberglass cloth now showing through. So mine is a mess, and the rest of the interior is all redone, so this is the last frontier for what I need for my 240. (besides, finishing the exhaust, brake booster, and some other minor mechanical things.) Interesting in seeing your progress, keep us posted, thanks.

First let me respond to Frank by saying sorry, but your conclusion is incorrect. As i have mentioned before on this site, i was and am a certified Datsun mechanic. When i would get training updates in Chicago, dash crack causes were mentioned. The root cause of cracking dashes is the result of improper care, in almost every case. A good,vinyl protector applied regularly, will prevent cracks. It is the hot and cold expansion that causes cracks.

Paul, as for the leather idea, go ahead and do it yourself. You can buy a leather hide from an upholstry supply house. Then carefully remove the old vinyl from your dash pad. Next make sure you fill any cracks in the foam that is and was under the vinyl. Make sure when you are done that the contour of the foam is smooth and flat, and it matches the surrounding foam pad. Next apply spray adhesive to the dash pad, and leather hide.

Then you start the fun part. Start at the top, and lay the leather on the dash pad. Overlap the top edge and press down on the leather, carefully removing any sags or wrinkles. Once you have wrapped the dash you are done. When you reinstall the dash cover the leather with plastic sheating, to prevent scratching the leather.

I hope this really helps all of you z brothers. Don't be afraid to try this repair, it's not as hard as it seems.

Dan, thank you for the true scoop. I had always been under the impression that twisting and flexing caused these cracks. That idea also appeared to be supported by the fact that no matter how old a car was, the lower the mileage on the car the fewer cracks it seemed to have. In other words, the hi-mile cars seemed to have more cracks than the low mile cars, which would seem to indicate that mileage was the culprit rather than time.

Lucky Clive just found an original 1970 car parked out in the snow up in NY, with something like 6X,XXX original miles on it and it has no cracks. My '71 parts car, with 154,000+ miles on it, is cracked in the "normal" three places.

I owned #2807 when it started cracking in the late 1970s but I don't recall the mileage at that time. I know the car had sat in the the blazing sun of Hawaii and North Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma most of it's life, and had been driven in the snow of upstate NY and Canada. So it had both mileage and temperature extremes.

Shoot ~ now I feel guilty, knowing there was something I could have done to prevent my dash from self-destructing. That means I was negligent in caring for the car I loved; sort of makes me feel like I got caught with a rusty rifle!

I'm going out to the garage and apologize. Be right back.

Frank T

Don't be so hard on yourself Frank, I'm sure 'lil miss 2807 understands!!

Phil

Phil, my car laughed at me!

Really, I feel this is a most-important thread Dan has started. These cracks effect every early Z owner and obviously there is confusion among us about the cause (and therefor the prevention) of them.

#2807 has a new replacement dash with fewer than 2,000 miles on it. If I intend to keep this car for my lifetime, I figure I had better learn what to do to prevent the same damage from happening again.

I will note that the S31 cars didn't seem to have this problem (and look at your own perfect dash, Phil), so either Datsun/Nissan redesigned something or else used different materials for later dashes.

As far as I know, all the S30 cars up thru the 280s eventually got dash cracks. Maybe the early '70 and '71 cars didn't start cracking in time to make any changes on the 280Z, but I seem to recall repair kits already out while the 260 was new in the mid-70s.

I suspect our summers are nowhere near as bad as the Australian sun, so maybe we can get OBSIDIAN PETE's input on this subject? The market Down Under skipped the 260 cars and went directly from 240s to 280s, so maybe they had a different experience with their dashes?

Tom W and Paul M have had so many Z cars btwn them that they HAVE to have some insight to share on this. John K is the original owner of his perfect 1971 car, but I don't know if he restored it or it just never cracked. I used Armor All on my dash back in the 1970s but it cracked anyway.

WHATEVER the cause, I need to know how to prevent it from ever happening again.
Frank

Frank,

You haven't looked close enough, my dash is cracked too. In the same place most 280zx's are cracked, to the right of the speedo cluster, running from to back. There were interesting threads on Zcar regarding the proper care and feeding of Z dashs several years ago. I remember some folks claiming that Armor All acually is harmful to car interiors and even to tire sidewalls. Seems it pulls the moisture out of the surface and actually expedites cracking, etc... I remember some people recomended sun tan lotion and even baby oil!! I'll attempt to find the thread later this evening....

Here are the first set of pics. that i took after i got the dash pad out of the car. Note the cracks, holes and broken piece. The broken piece happened when i bumped it against my washer, in the garage.

I have taken the following pictures, 1st the color bottles, 2nd the graining paper and backing paper, 3rd the flat iron used to harden the liquid vinyl, and 4th, the hardner, air adhesive, and the mixing cup. The last pictures are of the underside of the dash pad. You can see its made of closed cell foam, in a plastic wrap, to facilitate removal from the mold.

Tomorrow i will make the repair, and take pictures.

This is gonna be fascinating to watch, whether it works or not. Who makes that kit you're using?
Frank

The Eastwood Company sells this kit. Look them up online, they have many restoration products, as well as people with technical expertise.
Dan Linquist

Here are the pictures i took of the repair. Notice the parts of the crack where the vinyl filler stayed in place. You can see how the graining paper embosses the filler. The problem I'm encountering is, the vinyl filler is sticking to the graining paper, as i pull it off.

I have contacted the Eastwood co's. tech. dept., and am waiting for a reply. Unless the transfer of filler stops, this repair is useless.

I still plan on recovering my dash with,either, vinyl, or leather. If i decided to use leather, that will constitute a whole other interior thread. I would change all the vinyl interior pieces to leather including wrapping the steering wheel, and shift knob.

I'll keep you guys posted on the developments from Eastwood.
Dan

Now THAT would aggravate me.

Depending upon their reply Dan, you might want to Post a note or two about them and their product in our VENDOR RANTS AND RAVES forum.

Temperature is always a consideration in any project. Would a hairdryer make any difference?

Frank T