Beretta.net

New member! Hi guys! Anyway, my lil $600 '93 Beretta GT is fun and I love how unique it is.. but I'm an idiot.

I noticed the dash had a little bit of sun warp in it. Not realizing the plastic had dry rotted a bit.. I pressed down on the domed part of it to see if I could flatten it.. *SNAP* I put a gaping rip in the dash above the passenger cup holder..

Is there any way I can DIY repair this or do I have to get a pro to do it? Also, CAN it be repaired? It is an older car after all.

Hello and welcome to the message board!

Our dashboards are the only weak link in our cars.  Every Beretta seems has this problem.  We have awards for those who don't! lol.  

I'd love to see a list here of what people do to replace theirs with a "new" look!

I got lucky and found one in a junkyard that I'll be putting in my '88 [lemon] , heck, my vinyl is all gone!  The dash isn't as nice as some, but I think I can work with it.

Cliff Scott had a new one customed in [looks great].  He can provide more info on that.

Many people use covers, plastic or fabric to cover over it.  

Fiberglass coatings I have not seen, though I think it would be ....shall we say not functional.  The tray put in to our passenger side area would need to be wiped out and it may look okay, if not, the glass would be so smooth, nothing could be set up there, which is pretty much the case now anyway.  Also HEAVY and unnecessary, and this is coming from the heaviest beretta owner here, lol.  Do I need to mention that it may not match the rest of the interior?  It would be quite an undertaking to do all that anyway.

Andy
lemonjuice

Oh, and to answer your immediate question.  

I think most use [contact cement?] if their dash is not cracking when pushed back into place.  This can hold it for the most part and to the best of my knowledge, only gets rid of the bulk of the irritation.  It can't quite get perfect again, which is why I listed other alternatives.

Andy  

For the crack or rip or whatever...You might be able to get one of those vinyl repair kits for door panels and stuff...It may work, it may not.  You should probably fix the warpage before repairing the crack/rip.

i glued a little stuffed dog over the hole in my dash, it worked great! dash looks new as ever as long as you don't move the dog

How's that for innovation? If you don't have a dog on hand or you're not an animal person, you could order a dashmat (as I believe Andy was referring to when he said fabric).

I cut out the depression on the passenger side along the line of the false stitching.  Once out, I covered it in a cool red-black-checked heavy fabric that I bought at Bou Claire and glued it to the cutout.   then I put velcro fasteners under it on the top of the plastic under the dash and fastened it in.  looks good.  I used the same fabric on the roof insert.  Took out the crap fabric that was falling out like a tent in the wind, cleaned up the panel and glued the new fabric on.  I also cut all the stitching out of the visor and used the pattern to fashion and sew up new ones in the same material.  I should post a pic.

(MarkStack @ Mar. 17 2007,18:24)QUOTEI should post a pic.
Yep

 yeah, pics would be nice

okay.. will try to post a pic this week.

(EmeraldGreen3.1 @ Mar. 12 2007,05:25)QUOTEi glued a little stuffed dog over the hole in my dash, it worked great! dash looks new as ever as long as you don't move the dog
ROFL.. you just made my day  

Here are some pics of my dash and roof: