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Well its been 25 years coming I guess. The upper right corner of the dashboard has a single 6 inch crack. Again its not in pieces. Just a single small crack.
It looks like it should be a good candidate to remove and possibly place some type of a patch on the back side to put it back together. Has anybody done something like this?
If I do end up needing to put an overlay on it, is there a particular brand overlay that seems to work better than others?
I had a small crack on mine and decided to just bite the bullet and replace it with an OEM part...NOT cheap, but in the end, I knew it was the only way I'd be happy. BE WARNED though...all-though I only had small crack, the sun had already done it's damage and even though only one small crack was visible, when I started to pull the cracked one out, it wouldn't come out in one piece. It broke in several place as I removed it. If you plan to try and patch it, be extra, extra careful or you may discover patching may no longer be an option if it comes out in pieces as mine did...
I had a small crack on mine and decided to just bite the bullet and replace it with an OEM part...NOT cheap, but in the end, I knew it was the only way I'd be happy. BE WARNED though...all-though I only had small crack, the sun had already done it's damage and even though only one small crack was visible, when I started to pull the cracked one out, it wouldn't come out in one piece. It broke in several place as I removed it. If you plan to try and patch it, be extra, extra careful or you may discover patching may no longer be an option if it comes out in pieces as mine did...
This has been my experience in doing one on my son's car and attempting to pull units with small cracks in boneyards. Per the quote above, If I were you, I'd live with it until I was ready to replace it with an OEM unit, now that they're available again.
Did not realize OEM pieces are available again.. When did this happen and how much are they?
As far as I know they're usually used "Like new" or on the rare exception "Old New Stock" I've seen some on Ebay from the last couple production runs that were still in original packaging going for almost 500$ But that was a few years back and I haven't looked since. Back in 2010 mine ended up cracking on me, I picked up a used one that looked brand new for almost 200$ and that lasted maybe 5 years even with it being garage kept and weekend driven. Back in 2016 I picked up a really nice overlay, Looks OEM and you cant tell the difference, interior color is a perfect match as well. I cant for the life of me remember who or where I got it from though. If you go the overlay route. Make sure you pick up an adhesive that isn't temperature sensitive as extreme heat and cold cycles will cause the adhesive to separate. Happened to a friend of mine who didn't listen to me and wanted to be cheap. I was able to snag some 3m Adhesive from a body guy who is a friend of mine but I cant remember the product name. But I have had zero issues since I installed mine.
I stand corrected, but my price was almost on point. Way to much money, when there's companies out there making dash caps that look just as good as OEM. Now if your dash cracks into a million pieces and makes the cap unusable. Then maybe I could justify spending that much on a new OEM Reproduction part....but I wouldn't enjoy it that's for sure.
Just as a reference, I ordered a new dash panel for my '98 Z28 in Oct. of 2011 while they were still available from GM. The '97-'99 gray panel was part # 10422746 and I paid $227.26 shipped from GMPartsDirect back then...
Dash caps are crap! And yes if you happen to find the right place new ones are still available here and there. Yes they are expensive, but is it worth it to you? Mine is cracked, need one also
Dash caps are crap! And yes if you happen to find the right place new ones are still available here and there. Yes they are expensive, but is it worth it to you? Mine is cracked, need one also
How so? I'm curious as to the explanation for your opinion. Mine looks OEM, and I've had it for 3 years zero issues. Even came with the defrost vents, Like I said, there are cheap crap made ones out there. The company I picked mine up from sold them in the OEM Color coded interior.
GM has them available again. Just call your local dealership and get an OEM one. Yes they are expensive but they fit and are correct. I’ve never seen a cap that looked factory.
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Finally...a cracked dashboard 
