WIW: a nice black uncracked '71-'74 b-body dash pad

[hemi68charger]

 Was wondering what the trend is for a nice black uncracked '71-'74 b-body dash pad? Anyone out there wanna trade for a nice burnt orange '70?

Troy

[TruckDriver]

I've seen them go for $5 - 600. bucks. And I'm sure if you had the right person, they would pay more. But you have to remember, the vinyl is still 30 years old and brittle. And Just Dashes will restore it for about the same price as a used one, but you end up with NEW Vinyl which is soft. I'm going to have http://www.justdashes.com redo mine

[Hemidoug]

I've seen them go for $5 - 600. bucks. And I'm sure if you had the right person, they would pay more. But you have to remember, the vinyl is still 30 years old and brittle. And Just Dashes will restore it for about the same price as a used one, but you end up with NEW Vinyl which is soft. I'm going to have http://www.justdashes.com redo mine

Troy....I have a nice one also, when you find out let me know (lol).....

ChargerGuy....Yes, just dashes can recover your pad, but from what I've seen, you are not going to like it. The new pad does not take on the exact shape of a stock pad and looks "puffy" like a pillow rather then sharp and "stiff" like stock. You do what you want, but I would advise against it. I had them do a pad for my Dad's 66 Fury and I was un-impressed. At least they got the color correct, but the pad looks like it belongs in a Caddy, not a 66 Fury. Very "puffy" around the edges and not at all like stock.

[hemi68charger]

Thanks guys.... I'll probably be selling mine so I can get a burnt orange one I want..... since I don't have a '71 b-body any more............

Troy

[TruckDriver]

Thanks guys.... I'll probably be selling mine so I can get a burnt orange one I want..... since I don't have a '71 b-body any more............

Troy

Well hell, If I knew you were selling one, I'd said $200.

Doug, I'd buy a good used one if I got it for a good price, but I feel anything over $400 is out of my price range. And even that is really more then I can afford right now.    That's why I am thinking if I'm going to spend that much one one, I mize well go new. But your the second person to tell me that about Just Dashes. THAT being said, I recind my last statement................. You finance Troy? 

[hemi68charger]

Thanks guys.... I'll probably be selling mine so I can get a burnt orange one I want..... since I don't have a '71 b-body any more............

Troy

Well hell, If I knew you were selling one, I'd said $200.

Doug, I'd buy a good used one if I got it for a good price, but I feel anything over $400 is out of my price range. And even that is really more then I can afford right now.    That's why I am thinking if I'm going to spend that much one one, I mize well go new. But your the second person to tell me that about Just Dashes. THAT being said, I recind my last statement................. You finance Troy? 

Hell, if I found a good burnt orange one for $50, you could have it for $50... There's one on ebay now, so we'll see if it's something I can "compete" for.. He would take my offer...........

Troy

[hemihead]

I am going with a Dash Cover.The kind that glues over your pad.I helped a guy install one, easy job with the dash out of the car.Looks great to me and cheap too.

[NHCharger]

I had just dashes do the dash pad on my 71 about 10 years ago. i thought it looked good. Right now my 71 is at the body shop, when it gets home I'll take a pic of the dash pad for you DCG.

[TruckDriver]

I had just dashes do the dash pad on my 71 about 10 years ago. i thought it looked good. Right now my 71 is at the body shop, when it gets home I'll take a pic of the dash pad for you DCG.

That will work!

[PocketThunder]

who else does recovering besides just dashes?

[Nacho-RT74]

I found mine on ebay at $250 including shipping and map light insert... it is very nice.

[twilt]

i snagged a mint uncracked green pad on ebay for $175 Buy it Now. i believe that i was the first viewer of the auction and jumped on it immediately. a nice used uncracked black one has a market value in the $400-$600 range. personally, i would not pay that much for a used pad though.  I`d rather spend about the same amount for just dashes to redo a core and have a pad that is warranted against cracks. My 72 Rallye will get the uncracked green one i bought,  the other 2 get the cheaper dash caps. 

[defiance]

Dashboard Restorations USA does them.  I used them for mine.  The prices were the same as Just Dashes ( I think they both quoted me $450 if I remember correctly), but JD told me theirs was approximately 14 weeks (!?) turnaround due to how busy they were, whereas dashboard restorations turned me around in 5 weeks.  http://www.dashboardrestorations.com . 
I must disagree on the 'pillow' thing; when I got mine back, the dash lines were very well defined.  It was definitely softer, but not 'really soft', just pliable enough that I don't worry about it cracking.   Here are a few pics.  It's dirty here, but you can see the dash pretty clearly.

http://www.cei.net/~defiance/frontint.JPG
http://www.cei.net/~defiance/dashtop.JPG
http://www.cei.net/~defiance/ecu.JPG


As for how much 71-74 pads are going for, I spent 6 months trying to find a good shape one before I bit the bullet and went for a restore.  Bidding wars on ebay ended in the 500-700 range most of the time.  I actually went for a ~700 one before going with restoration, but as luck would have it, UPS bashed in the side of the darned thing
Still, I'm VERY happy with my dash now, and I don't have to worry about it having 30+ years of weather exposure

[defiance]

i snagged a mint uncracked green pad on ebay for $175 Buy it Now. i believe that i was the first viewer of the auction and jumped on it immediately. a nice used uncracked black one has a market value in the $400-$600 range. personally, i would not pay that much for a used pad though.   I`d rather spend about the same amount for just dashes to redo a core and have a pad that is warranted against cracks. My 72 Rallye will get the uncracked green one i bought,   the other 2 get the cheaper dash caps.  

Wow, you lucked out!!

As a note, I tried a pad too (I've tried about everything for the dash ).  It wasn't satisfactory, IMO.  The thing faded pretty quickly, was very stiff, and cracked after just a few months (the cracked foam underneath it kept expanding, I guess, because it cracked in the same place...)

Still, I've heard others say they had good luck with them, and you can find them for reasonably inexpensive, so it might be worth a try.