The Dodge Challenger Message Board

I purchased a dash cap for my 73 Challenger with a/c and 1 speaker. I am planning to install it over the Christmas holiday. Was wondering if anyone can offer any "lessons learned' or tips before I get started.

Just want to say that the blue colour of your car are nice! Looks really slick! (What colour is that?) Feel free to show us some more pics if you got Welcome to the board btw! (What size do you run on those rims? What engine?)

the cap ive got is very tight & ive had to cut quite a bit of my dash pad away to allow it to fit im glad my dash pad was in such bad condition or i dont think i would have been able to bring myself to be so savage i still havent glued it in place ill do that this weekend i think test fitting is the most important thing mmake sure it fits before glueing
cheers ian

Thanks for the compliment Jimiboy, I am very proud of her too. The color is Bright Blue Metalic. I am running on Boyd Codington Junkyard Dog wheels with 17x7 fronts (225/50/17) and 17x7 rear (255/5017) tires. My engine is a 383.

Very nice! Welcome aboard.

I like the blue interior too.

dp73115 wrote:My engine is a 383.

Very Nice!!!

From the picture, your dash look's pretty nice, to me. There must be some crack's, I don't see. Remind's me of the Cuda', interrior I had before. I miss that car. Dash cap's are nice but, nothing beats, a fresh dash. Very nice car, though!

Great Looking car. I really like the blue and blue. I need a dash cap for my Challenger. One interior trim shop says that he uses velcro to install the dash cap. Has anyone tried that??

Well I finally completed my dash. I started out by purchasing a dash cap from one of the big names in the cap business. I also had them paint it. All total it cost me $155. They did an excellant job with the paint. I installed the pad without using any adhesives just to see how it would look. From the front it looked good and it wasn't extremely obvious that it was a cap. However, I had a 1/2" gap on each side of the cap at the windshield pillars. You could actually see the old dash in these gaps.

Maybe I am too picky, but I didn't find this acceptable. So I did what I should have done fro the start, I purchased and installed a dash pad with a metal frame.

If you only want a bandaid repair and are not concerned about an invisable repair, the cap is a good option. If you want anything more then a bandaid, save your money and buy the pad.

Now you are the expert. Where did you get the metal back pad and how did it fit?

dash caps are not show quality, but i have had mine on for 10 years now and ya know i get trophys ,and i dont care how it looks but i did remove my entire pad and did all the work off the car with clamps and weights to make sure it would stick

,i can take some pics if you want but be prepared to do some trimming, and also i had to remove some of the old pad to make it fit a little nicer i dont have a half inch gap any where it looks good to me

make sure you take your time , the velcro idea is good too! the reason i used a dash cap was because the reproductions were not avalible at the time, it might be a wise investment to get a new pad, i have a gran coupe barracuda im restoring and that dash pad will most likley be new, just my 2 cents have fun

For 800 for a dash pad vs 115 for a cap, I will take the cap. There is no way I can justify 800 on a pad....

Drew, I just took my pad out and am planning on fitting the cap out of the car to more easily trim and glue it. I was going to sand into the pad to fit the cap, just like you did apparently. Is there anything that might get me into trouble if I am not constantly re-fitting it in the car to check things?

ya know your gonna have to fit the thing to make sure your are all the way back ,yes you will have to check it after your are done sanding the old pad, also one of those electric carving knives works well to cut that foam i think i ended up cutting alot of the old pad off just to get it to fit,

i do remember having to check my fit in and out of the car alot, after a while i got pretty good at installing and removing it about 10 or 15 times but it still looks pretty good, like i said dont get in a hurry because once its in, you wont want to take it out again

I just got the dash out and started fitting the cap. I see what you mean about the tight fit. I have already taken quite a bit of foam off the pad working towards a close fit.

cool now that wasnt so bad yes now you see the gap problem if you dont remove some of the old foam

I couldn't even get it on without starting to take foam off!

yea mine was the same i had to carve the old pad so it would fit
cheers ian

Do any of you have photos of the work you did?

drewcrane wrote:ya know your gonna have to fit the thing to make sure your are all the way back ,yes you will have to check it after your are done sanding the old pad, also one of those electric carving knives works well to cut that foam i think i ended up cutting alot of the old pad off just to get it to fit,

i do remember having to check my fit in and out of the car alot, after a while i got pretty good at installing and removing it about 10 or 15 times but it still looks pretty good, like i said dont get in a hurry because once its in, you wont want to take it out again

You must have done a great job Drew! I don't think I even noticed it, in the car. And those things tend to stick out. Especially to my eyes. I tend to be a dash snob, just ask Eddie.

Does anyone have any pictures of their dash cap during and / or after installation? I just ordered one last week from here (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... K:MEWAX:IT), it was a custom order as i didn't want the radio hole (hate radio). The people there are very helpful. I don't think the glue they supply will be that good though, i think Sicaflex might be better (liquid polyurethane)

One on my 74 was redone with vinyl by same old guy who did front and back seats. I like results, but that's of course not original anymore. There was article on Mopar Muscle some time ago about installing dash cap. You have probably seen that already, but I'll post link in case someone else might be interested. My dash was not quite as bad as one shown on first pic, but it was still cracked to multiple pieces.

http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/howt ... index.html