Just like dropped eggs or a resigned gangster under the harsh spotlight of police questioning, it’s likely that your dashboard will eventually crack. That crevasse-tastic surface then stares back at you every time you get behind the wheel, taunting you the way Donald Trump’s comb-over taunts both aesthetic conversion and the wind. There’s two things you can do about that: put a dash cover over the cracks, or, put a cover over the dash before they happen.
Carpeted covers tend to run the gamut from carefully tailored and as form fitting as a starlet’s Oscar-night dress all the way own to… well, those as randomly shaped and ill-fitting as The Donald’s unruly mane. What we want to know is whether any of them – dash caps, not Trump’s toupees – are worth using at all. Are they an acceptable means of either concealing existing damage or preventing it from ever happening in the forst place? What do you think about dash caps: are they a good thing, or are they evil?
Image: Bimmerforums
Hooniverse Asks: Carpeted Dash Caps, are They a Good thing or Evil?
By Robert Emslie
Aug 28, 2015
Jeff Glucker
They are stupid, but as a subsequent owner of a vehicle prone to cracked dash pads, I am glad some moron with questionable taste chose to shield the dash from the sun during its first decade and a half of existence.
I’ve never liked the look, but as a former owner of a brittle-dash I can see the value.
http://www.gotmovietrivia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/clear-plastic-couch-covers.jpg
But really they are the plastic sofa covers of the automotive world.
They look great with a matching sheepskin seat cover.
That’s the ill-fitted clear bra of furniture preservation.
If I lived someplace sunny and hot, like Vieques or Las Vegas, I’d consider it. But I almost always park indoors. Now if I had a performance car, like a WRX, a custom alcantara dash wrap might be an attractive choice.
I accelerate too hard.
They always slide off into my lap.
Without one, your “78 Brougham d’Elegance is just another Caddy.
Hey, the ’85 elegant bro I bought back in 2000, had one.
On occasions where I have had to let older cars with brittle dashboards sit outside, a beach towel has always done the trick for me.
I live on the 49th Parallel (technically 48.8 degrees N but close enough), no worries about dash cracks here.
Personally, I guess I’d prefer to see the crack(s) rather than a carpet toupee.
I’m with you on this one, carpet toupee is the best way to describe it. Unless you’re preserving a mint collector car…If you dash is cracked, you may as well embrace it. Adding a carpeted dash cover to hide your ugly dashboard is even worse than having a cracked dash, IMO. I suppose if I ever experience the pleasure of swapping a dashboard I may change my opinion on using one as a preventative measure.
Here at 60.461°N the main worry is rather water leaks everywhere – doors, windshield, trunk etc.
A resounding NO to all sorts of covers…one always wonders what’s underneath anyway.
This is why I laugh at the Geographically-challenged when they are surprised when areas of Western Europe have trouble with 90-degree heat (which is pretty common in this part of the US.) But friends of mine from Missouri are just shocked by it.
They don’t realize how far north Europe actually is. Stuttgart is nearly 4-degrees latitude north of Minneapolis and London is pretty much equal to Calgary.
Obviously ocean thermals come into play for the climates, but still, that’s the sunshine you are getting.
This blew my mind when I learned about it in school. The thread of a weakened Gulf stream as part of climate change is really scary to some people here, too.
I gained a bit more appreciation for this once I started working for my current employer, a transnational company with a significant presence in Italy. My coworkers in Turin/Torino are on a latitude that I cross every time I take a trip ‘home’ from Fargo, ND to visit family in eastern South Dakota. The European manufacturing site for my product line is in Lecce, in the “heel” of the Italian peninsula’s “boot”, yet they’re still almost as far north of the equator as my employers’ combine factory in Grand Island, Nebraska which is near the NE/KS border.
I’d never use one. I just couldn’t justify making my dash look ugly to keep it pretty. I can have years of a crack-free dash to enjoy before it cracks, but I don’t get to enjoy the dash that remains crack-free at all, because it has been covered its whole life.
However, I’m all for the current owner of whatever I might buy in the future using one. I’m not going to preserve it for the next guy, but if I’m the next guy, feel free to preserve it for me.
Only if it’s this…and in velour.
http://b.cdnbrm.com/images/products/large/dashboard_covers/9019_coverking_velour_hawaiian_print_dash_cover_hero.jpg
http://www.autoanything.com/dash-mats/coverking-velour-hawaiian-print-dash-cover
…and the driver is wearing a matching bikini top.
Or not wearing one. 🙂
That can fix a lot.
I can see the point of these, but they still look tacky. I can still remember hearing the bang when the dash pad in my ’78 Audi Fox let go. It was less than two years old at the time, and I still blame Armor All.
It depends. I owned a 87 325i with one and it looked better than the mess underneath. Usually, it’s crap.
The dash in ’82 Volvo Diesel wagon has chasms rather than cracks, so I got a cover that fits pretty well. That being said, I would much rather have a new dash.
I don’t mind the cracks but how do I undo decades of POs applying cockpit shine to it? The reflection of the reflection is blinding in bright sun.
I’d try some naphtha in an inconspicuous area to see if it’ll cut through the years of Armor-All.
I’ll give it a try when the lousy weather is off again. 2016?
Living in Sub-tropical Australia, as I do, where the UV is stronger than anywhere in the US, they are an necessary evil if you don’t want your dash to turn into the Grand Canyon. They also prevent the Hydrocarbon haze appearing on the inside of the windscreen.
Surely a rally car style flocked dash is the way to go? http://www.rallyarmor.com/store/images/gc_flocking3.jpg