Fwd: <VV> 1968 Dash Pad

[Tony Underwood]

At 03:50 hours 03/03/2005, HallGrenn at aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 3/2/2005 7:39:51 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>airvair at richnet.net writes:
>'68-9 pads are tougher to recovered. I've
>seen it done, but not without seams.
>I've read of firms that redo the '67, '68, & '69 Camaro pads which are molded
>like the Corvairs, but have no personal experience.  As Mark said, you can
>have an upholstery shop recover yours, but with seams.  If you don't need
>concours condition that's a good alternative.  I've seen some beautiful 
>seamed
>recoverings that looked better than new and I plan to do the same for my 
>blue '68
>when the last pad cracks.




If you practice a little ingenuity and indulge some elbow grease, you can 
recover a '68-'69 pad without seams via using non-fabric backed vinyl 
("silkspan" style batting-backed material will stretch and conform where 
fabric backed vinyl will not) and a heat gun.   You may have to do some 
foam repair as well...  cracks and missing material can be replaced with 
careful applications of carved urethane foam and contact cement.   Been 
there done that and it works.   And it *is* possible to cover the contours 
of the '69 pad and do it without seams by using the right material and 
applying heat to the right places to  stretch and conform the vinyl.

The pad in the blue '69 was repaired/recovered (over the existing covering 
which wasn't too bad) in such a manner and it looks pretty decent if I say 
so myself.    I've not done a '68 but it doesn't look too difficult.   A 
'67 pad would be a pie job since it's pretty much just a straight length of 
foam covered sheet metal with almost no curves or contours.    And I have 
done many '65-'66 pads which are easy.

Don't be afraid to consider working on re-covering a '68-'69 dash 
pad.   Not easy but not impossible.


tony..