Repair dashpad or run without

[gophman]

I have removed my dashpad to paint the cab of my J4500.
It's pretty beat up (speaker mesh gone and a crack down the centre) I'm in two minds about repairing the dashpad or running without.... Is anyone running without a pad?

[SJTD]

I swapped to a late 60's dash in my 84. Even if I'd had the pad for it I would have left it off. Had to fill the holes.

The trucks and Cherokees' pads were't as ugly since they didn't cover the face of the dash on the passenger side so in your case I might keep it.

[mwood65]

I just tore mine out down to the steel underneath.


I have to close up the holes in the steel now, sand & paint it.


I prefer the steel dash, especially here in AZ. the sun isn't kind to dash pads.

[joe]

Depends on your sense of esthetics? My 63 Wag was a pre-pad days car and looks period correct/good. On a later 72 J-4500 the pad was sun damaged/aged and it wasn't expensive to have an auto upholsterer recover it. Next time if the foam pad is sound I'll give it a shot to recover it myself. It's not a complicated geometric shape. If you're dealing with a later 3 pod dash and the pad extends down the pass side front of the dash you'll have to decide where you want to spend your labor/time/money. Recover or fix the holes in your dash and repaint. Not a fan of the later style huge pads but prolly still fix it rather than weld/grind/repaint the steel dash. Your truck, only you can make that judgement call.

[SJTD]

Just thought of something. On the '73 - '85 (or whatever) design the fit of the instrument cluster without the pad would be something to consider.

Might be a big gap around it without it.

[Towtruck]

I liked the modern three pod instrument cluster, and the old style radio speaker on the passenger side....looks balanced to my eye. So I made my own. They were cut and rejoined somewhere just to the left of center...long time ago. Fairly easy except that the new style windshield defroster vent had to be transplanted into the old passenger side dash piece in order to get the factory air conditioner to fit.

DSCN1518 by Rufus, on Flickr

[JPSwapMohn]

I prefer the metal dash. We put a 69 dash in my 88. Modified for some stuff, but it bolted right in. We did have to modify the hole where the steering column passed through as they moved the column in later years.

[Crankyolman]

I have removed my dashpad to paint the cab of my J4500.
It's pretty beat up (speaker mesh gone and a crack down the centre) I'm in two minds about repairing the dashpad or running without.... Is anyone running without a pad?

Is yours a "73 or is it earlier?


Pre '73 looks fine without the pad, I'm not sure what the '73 looks like.

[Kaiserjeeps]

No mention of what year you have.. I tried to recover an early kaiser eyebrow dash pad and it did not go well. The skin is a plastic with a vinyl grain. Using 4 way stretch ATV seat vinyl I built a jig that held a used metal 1970 dash so I could actually attach the dash pad for the rework. The inital results were beautiful. A month later it failed miserably. The glue I used reacted with the original plastic skin and almost melted it to a soft mess. The 4 way vinyl shrunk and pulled loose everywhere starting at the eyebrows. Essentially it was a show stopper. I was fortunate to know some one with 11 acres of jeeps and was able to score a decent used early eyebrow pad to get the rig done. I am not done messing with dash pads. I have several trashed ones that won't be a loss if I have another failure. I will nail it.

I have a later black dash pad that covers where the speaker screen is. I believe it is a 73ish and up. It is in super good shape and very usable.
If that is what you are looking for, I have one. Shipping and even packing it up will be a pain. I would expect 60-75 bucks for shipping. Not sure.
PM me if it will help you. I don't want a million dollars for it. But I won't give it away either. So PM if you are interested. I do not have any early kaiser eyebrow pads that are worth a darn. Hope this helps.

EDIT: I see you are in Scotland. That could be difficult shipping something like a big dash pad. And expensive.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Towtruck, what you did with your dash is very cool.