Building a boat and fixing a cosmetic crack in a dash are two different puppies.........

THe vinyl and the underlaing foam have deteriorated and will only get worse.....thats why a dash cover is the best adn almost the only alternative.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

From the discussion I have seen on this in the past, I would say try it and let us know the results, especially if it works.

It sounds like those that have had the most success with their repairs did a very thorough prep. Others have recommended super glue, silicone and vinyl repair kits. It probably depends on how extensive the damage is.

__________________
Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

I really think this product will work and hold up in repairing a dash. I am a skilled woodworker. Filling cracks is no big deal as long as you use a chemically compatible material that will last.

http://www.systemthree.com/p_st_metlweld.asp

Boats take the harshest environment that any weather can dish out. They also do a LOT OF FLEXING and twisting. However thier epoxy bonds are what keep them floating and from going to the bottom. I am going to call System Three and talk to their engineer about this product.

I truly believe that if you were to mix it and put it into a "pastry bag" for icing a cake with a small tip and dispense it evenly and then use an auto body spatula to fair it out. Let it set up and then color it, that you will not be able to see the repair much at all.

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1982 300SD Light Blue
2002 Honda Accord SE
1974 Toro Wheel Horse Tractor
2000 Toyota Tundra Pickup

Forgot to say - they also build airplanes and race cars out of epoxy over lightweight wood.

Here's a link to West Systems Epoxy. They show how to do successful rust repair with epoxy. This stuff beats bondo any day. It will last longer than your car.

http://www.westsystem.com/ewmag/17/pdf/autobody.pdf

I have seen 40 foot boats with twin Caterpillar diesels that hold over 1000gallons of fuel built out of wood and epoxy with no screws - only the glue. This is the toughest stuff on earth.

__________________
1982 300SD Light Blue
2002 Honda Accord SE
1974 Toro Wheel Horse Tractor
2000 Toyota Tundra Pickup

But you dash is vinyl over foam rubber.........a totally different puppy as I said. You can gob stuff in the crack and it might look fine till it gets hotter or colder out....then....CRACK........but feel free to try.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I used some of that forever black on mine to dye the foam black, I'd be scared by filling the crack that it'd get worse. From what I read the reason our dashes crack is because MB did to good of a job anchoring it. Any dash overlay that is anchored to well voids the warranty, it needs to be able to move. Eventually I'll get a dash pad.

What really is a bit disturbing is that when I bought it there were no dash cracks, after that first winter it had two huge ones.

__________________
Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

Epoxy will not crack. Boats flex and twist severely on the ocean. I guess you've not ever been out on a small wooden boat. Epoxy tolerates severe extremes in temperature. It is the hardest bond on earth. The best epoxies cannot be bought at places like WalMart or Autozone. That stuff is crap.

West System and System Three are the best. Epoxy will form a chemical bond to the foam underlayment. If you look at the west systems site, they bonded metal bolts to styrofoam sheets with epoxy.

The epoxy would saturate the foam underlayment - put in with a syringe and then harden. It would take the flexing and temp extrememes. You could shape it with a dremel and then color it to match. It could likely be injected through a needle under the dash skin to fill a deteriorated area and believe me, if it was under the top skin, they will never lose the bond.

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1982 300SD Light Blue
2002 Honda Accord SE
1974 Toro Wheel Horse Tractor
2000 Toyota Tundra Pickup

WillRev:
Epoxies are terriffic adhesives. They are strong, durable, and relatively cheap. What you are overlooking is the properties of the foam.

It doesn't take much to break the foam. It's really weak. You could fill the crack with a solid plug of perfectly bonded adhesive and it may not matter. Cracking would likely continue in the foam simply because the foam is under tensile stress from shrinkage and temperature change and **the foam itself is weak**. Also please realize that the crack forms to relieve the stress and relieving the stress is a good thing.

IMO the best approach to mitigating the damage is to fill the crack with something compliant, but which sticks in place well enough to stay put. My educated guess is that blunting the crack by drilling a hole ahead of it *may* slow down further growth. That practice is used to slow crack growth in metals. But foam is a cellular material and may behave differently. I am also unsure whether most people would view having a crack and a hole in the dash as much of an improvement.

__________________
1985 300SD, 203,000 miles, dark blue

Lil Sarah says: "Poor old Grandma Blue Car...She's sad."

ANd why I said put a dash coverlay........you are going to waste a lot of time and effort to fix what can't be fixed and end up doing this anyway.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I don't understand the resistance to the coverlay approach. Is it the cost?

If you think you can hide the cracks with epoxy and then coat the whole dash cover with epoxy to hide the repair then you may have something, for a while anyway.

You have little to lose by trying. You can always cover the mess with a coverlay if it turns out badly.

I have never seen a dash cover that doesn't look like a dash cover.

What about another option?

These dash's are backed by aluminum, why not remove the dash and get it recovered in new vinyl. It would be a big project but not something out of reach. I have had a big chunk of my dash apart they come apart pretty easy. I rather do that then look at a dash cover.


You can try West System's but you will need to paint it, epoxy does not like sun. Also it gets hard, epoxy doesn't let boats flex the wood or fiberglass does. You want to use as little epoxy resin as possible, good fiberglass boats are vacuum bagged to get as much resin out. Also the pressure helps the curing process. "Hand laid" glass is cheap crap. I have built 3 boats with West System's and used it for years, good stuff but not for dash cracks. It bonds to certain types of foam ok, but epoxy will not stick to plastic and I bet it wouldn't stick to vinyl either.

Silicone however sounds interesting.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

The contours of the dash make that impractical....It works on the fairly flat dash of the Truimph or MG but too many curves and dips to stretch vynil on the average benz........and a dash cover hardly looks as bad as a cracked dash or a dash that looks like a third grader tried to glue it with elmers glue.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Have you ever seen that show "Pimp my ride"? Or that show on TLC with Foose? Those guys can do anything with vinyl, what could a dash cost to recover? $200-$300? I really hate dash covers, mine has a crack less then a 1/4in. I plain on keeping it that way, but a dash cover is not an option. Something about them, I have never seen a nice one.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Unless you can cross the border in Tiajuana you might be surprised...a local shop quoted me $750 per seat to reupolster a set of recarro seats in cloth adn $1,000 to do the back in matching cloth.........for a HONDA!....guess he didn't need work too bad.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

For a collectible car you buy an original dash. For almost all cars you buy a cover. If a cover bothers you, you need to get a life. Don't spend so much time looking at your dash.