The dashboard in my car had some serious cracks along the top but I couldn’t pull the trigger to send it off for rework because of the cost. I wanted to try to repair it somehow though, I had to try something!

Here’s a few pictures of the cracks.

I beveled the edges of the cracks on both sides, this would enable the filling materials to get underneath the crack and have something to hold on to. I backed the cracks with simple masking tape and filled the cracks with Great Stuff, insulating foam sealant, available at Ace Hardware of course.

Here’s a picture of the cracks after I sliced down the foam and the materials I used. I was concerned with all the voids in the foam. I had expected something solid but realized all those open holes would provide an excellent base for the SEM plasticized bumper repair which was applied next. I had to apply two coats of the bumper repair plastic. It was easy to work with and feather edged nicely.

After the repair areas were finish sanded, I scuff sanded the rest of the dash with 220 grit paper and cleaned the surface with SEM plastic/leather prep.

After that, I sprayed the complete dash with SEM’s texture coating. I followed the directions on the can. I kept the spray nozzle approximately 20 inches from the surface and when the coating was finger dry, I knocked down the texture with scotch-brite.

I let the dash dry for 24 hours and then lightly scuffed the complete surface. I cleaned again with the plastic/leather prep and then applied two wet coats of SEM’s Trim Black for my finish coat.

Here’s some pictures of the finished product, it isn’t perfect but it exceeded my expectations. I don’t think I would have attempted this repair if the dash was in the car. Total cost was approximately $60 and maybe five hours of labor total.