Passenger Airbag Cover repair
05-26-2013, 10:43 PM
#1
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Passenger Airbag Cover repair Hey guys,
I have been told I need to replace my whole dash. I cannot find a dash for the life of me that is in good shape, or local. Is there anyway I can repair the cover? It got damaged after my airbags went off due to an exploding rear Ujoint.
Anyway, can this be done? I will submit a picture tomorrow to show the damage. It is just split on the edges in a few places... nothing major
I have been told I need to replace my whole dash. I cannot find a dash for the life of me that is in good shape, or local. Is there anyway I can repair the cover? It got damaged after my airbags went off due to an exploding rear Ujoint.
Anyway, can this be done? I will submit a picture tomorrow to show the damage. It is just split on the edges in a few places... nothing major
05-26-2013, 11:35 PM
#2
It would be tedious repair. Underneath the dash foam and vinyl, the dash is filled plastic. The area where pass. cover is, there are slotted reliefs so when bag pops, it breaks away from the dash cleanly. When it does break away it kinda deforms the cover, which is made of dense foam, a clear film and covered in vinyl. If the cover is deformed, there's not much your gonna do about. Its really rigid and not too friendly to conforming. That's why its so hard, or next to impossible to fix the covers that haven't popped, but have corners or edges that are starting to warp or lift up. If you replaced the passenger bag, I wouldnt attempt to repair it. Who knows what would happen if it ever blew again. There'd be no way to predict how the cover would act not being secured to dash as intended. I would hate to see a passenger get seriously injured due to a air bag cover. If you didn't replace the bag, I would take the dash out to see if you can get the cover to situate right and glue it back down. Your gonna need to go beyond commercial epoxies to get it to hold though long term like 3m's industrial line of 2 part epoxies that's shot through a gun ( like a caulking gun ). Another suggestion if will remain inoperable and if your fabbing skills are up to the task, is remove the cover all together. Go to you local fabric store and source out foam at the correct thickness, or use spray foam and sand it level to the rest of the dash to fill the hole. Then recover the entire dash with vinyl or leather. Use Dap top and landau contact adhesive sprayed through a paint gun to bond the new vinyl or leather to the dash. The spray can contact adhesives might work short term, but I promise over the long term the material will start to lift.
Hopefully you can find a new dash, it would be more cost effective. All the adhesives I mentioned about aren't exactly cheap. Sure theres cheaper adhesives at the local hardware stores or autozone ect. but been there done that, they just fail over the long term with automotive interiors.
Might of been an overkill explanation and a bit general
The pic will help alot when ya post it in regards to advise.
Hopefully you can find a new dash, it would be more cost effective. All the adhesives I mentioned about aren't exactly cheap. Sure theres cheaper adhesives at the local hardware stores or autozone ect. but been there done that, they just fail over the long term with automotive interiors.
Might of been an overkill explanation and a bit general
The pic will help alot when ya post it in regards to advise.
05-27-2013, 12:03 AM
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I'm just thinking outside the box here, could a Camaro dash work on a Firebird? Or vice versa? Only reason why I ask that is it seems pretty common to see Fbodies being 'parted' out these days. The parts should be out there in motor land somewhere.
05-27-2013, 08:13 AM
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It would be tedious repair. Underneath the dash foam and vinyl, the dash is filled plastic. The area where pass. cover is, there are slotted reliefs so when bag pops, it breaks away from the dash cleanly. When it does break away it kinda deforms the cover, which is made of dense foam, a clear film and covered in vinyl. If the cover is deformed, there's not much your gonna do about. Its really rigid and not too friendly to conforming. That's why its so hard, or next to impossible to fix the covers that haven't popped, but have corners or edges that are starting to warp or lift up. If you replaced the passenger bag, I wouldnt attempt to repair it. Who knows what would happen if it ever blew again. There'd be no way to predict how the cover would act not being secured to dash as intended. I would hate to see a passenger get seriously injured due to a air bag cover. If you didn't replace the bag, I would take the dash out to see if you can get the cover to situate right and glue it back down. Your gonna need to go beyond commercial epoxies to get it to hold though long term like 3m's industrial line of 2 part epoxies that's shot through a gun ( like a caulking gun ). Another suggestion if will remain inoperable and if your fabbing skills are up to the task, is remove the cover all together. Go to you local fabric store and source out foam at the correct thickness, or use spray foam and sand it level to the rest of the dash to fill the hole. Then recover the entire dash with vinyl or leather. Use Dap top and landau contact adhesive sprayed through a paint gun to bond the new vinyl or leather to the dash. The spray can contact adhesives might work short term, but I promise over the long term the material will start to lift.
Hopefully you can find a new dash, it would be more cost effective. All the adhesives I mentioned about aren't exactly cheap. Sure theres cheaper adhesives at the local hardware stores or autozone ect. but been there done that, they just fail over the long term with automotive interiors.
Might of been an overkill explanation and a bit general The pic will help alot when ya post it in regards to advise.
Hopefully you can find a new dash, it would be more cost effective. All the adhesives I mentioned about aren't exactly cheap. Sure theres cheaper adhesives at the local hardware stores or autozone ect. but been there done that, they just fail over the long term with automotive interiors.
Might of been an overkill explanation and a bit general
The pic will help alot when ya post it in regards to advise.
I am trying to piece the airbag system together, but that is on the bottom of my list 
I might have finally found a dash, so if I ever do get the airbags working again, i can trust that the pad will not screw up
.The seller was in Oklahoma, and he hasn't responded in a week or so... I hope he didn't get hurt by the tornados
Last edited by ThoR294; 05-27-2013 at 08:38 AM.
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06-07-2013, 03:15 PM
#8
If thats the only areas you need to repair, they do make vinyl repair kits. In the essence of not making a bigger deal than necessary, unless you really want to wrap it, thats what I would do.
Something like this.
http://www.autogeek.net/3m-leather-vinyl-kit.html
Something like this.
http://www.autogeek.net/3m-leather-vinyl-kit.html
04-06-2016, 03:06 PM
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can I bump my own post? I really need to fix this damn piece. I called some local interior places and they said they won't touch it even if I offered to sign a waiver. I bought the above piece so I have a perfect airbag cover. I don't think I can separate it without damaging it though.
04-06-2016, 03:41 PM
#13
Second thought. You dont need to remove the top vinyl/foam portion of the cover. If you use a dremel and plastic cut off wheel you should beable to cut the cover out from underneath. Just follow the perforations. The cover is only bonded to the plastic piece underneath, not the rest of the vinyl on top. Drill out the rivets on the teather. Then use a good epoxy to secure it to your existing dash and pop rivet the teather back on where it needs to be.
If I had no access to buying a new dash shell, thats how I would do it.
If I had no access to buying a new dash shell, thats how I would do it.
04-06-2016, 05:20 PM
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Second thought. You dont need to remove the top vinyl/foam portion of the cover. If you use a dremel and plastic cut off wheel you should beable to cut the cover out from underneath. Just follow the perforations. The cover is only bonded to the plastic piece underneath, not the rest of the vinyl on top. Drill out the rivets on the teather. Then use a good epoxy to secure it to your existing dash and pop rivet the teather back on where it needs to be.
If I had no access to buying a new dash shell, thats how I would do it.
If I had no access to buying a new dash shell, thats how I would do it.
I guess I should remove my dash to do this?
