Am I being too picky? Just Dashes Dash Pads ...

I need a sanity check. Am I being too picky?

I had just Dashes do a full restoration on a 1969 RR upper, lower, and glovebox lid pads. The upper and glove box came out great. The lower is a whole different story. I first received the lower pad and it has a bunch of weird messed up areas, such as random lumps, lines not being straight, just really weird mess ups. I sent it back. They redid it. It's better... But still not quite right.

I expected perfection on this over $1k lower pad and it's not there. I need to know before I bug them again... Am I being too picky?

New issues:
-Atrocious ash tray fitment. Pad is a half inch higher than the door. Top of door hits the pad.
-Column plastic cover lines totally messed up.
-Reverse light hole covered by pad.

They said it was on a test dash and I witnessed it on a video but this just seems like laziness. Am I crazy? Their website gallery seems to show a perfectly redone one so I expected a little better.

Tell them, if they can't do better than that, then send your money back.

Nope if your paying for it to be done right then I would want it done right. I would mention your on this site and will be posting pics of their work. Tell them your not happy and send them pics. I would want what Id paid for.

Thanks for your opinions. Never had any work like this done before so not sure what's considered "good enough" with this stuff (which there shouldn't be, only perfection). I'll send them another email. Too bad nobody makes the lower dash pads and this is the only option.

There is nothing negative about them online besides people saying how expensive they are, so I am hoping this is an outlier.

The dash looks acceptable to use, but only if they give you a huge discount or your money back and let you keep the dash. As others stated, it’s not acceptable if you are paying them to do it correctly. They need to either do it right, or give you your money back. Getting your money back and keeping the dash is the only way I would consider using it.

I wouldn't be happy spending $1,000 on that pad - JMO.

NHRoadrunner said:

I need a sanity check. Am I being too picky?

I had just Dashes do a full restoration on a 1969 RR upper, lower, and glovebox lid pads. The upper and glove box came out great. The lower is a whole different story. I first received the lower pad and it has a bunch of weird messed up areas, such as random lumps, lines not being straight, just really weird mess ups. I sent it back. They redid it. It's better... But still not quite right.

I expected perfection on this over $1k lower pad and it's not there. I need to know before I bug them again... Am I being too picky?

New issues:
-Atrocious ash tray fitment. Pad is a half inch higher than the door. Top of door hits the pad.
-Column plastic cover lines totally messed up.
-Reverse light hole covered by pad.

They said it was on a test dash and I witnessed it on a video but this just seems like laziness. Am I crazy? Their website gallery seems to show a perfectly redone one so I expected a little better.

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Send it back til it’s rite. You paid their price and they are the best scource for dadhes but I wouldn’t be happy if that were my dash and pieces after spending 1k

Would anyone be willing to take a look at theirs to see if the ash tray door hits the lower pad or if it actually fully closes? My original one is way too warped to check. The new one has the door hit it.

I'll comment since they may read this. Just the lower is over 1K now??
The main reason I didn't send mine is because they could not reproduce the stitching. I was willing to live with a nice ebay OE one and dye it then.
And nothing seems to be perfect in this reproduction world. I think I'm reasonable in that fashion.
One I could live with. Two is getting uncomfortable.
But that it three strikes and for what it cost it should be more dead on.

Speedbird said:

I'll comment since they may read this. Just the lower is over 1K now??
The main reason I didn't send mine is because they could not reproduce the stitching. I was willing to live with a nice ebay OE one and dye it then.
And nothing seems to be perfect in this reproduction world. I think I'm reasonable in that fashion.
One I could live with. Two is getting uncomfortable.
But that it three strikes and for what it cost it should be more dead on.

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Exactly my thoughts as well. This is getting... unprofessional (?) at this point. I've done some more fiddling with it and the biggest issue is the center crease that runs along the whole center horizontally is raised upwards about a quarter of an inch which throws everything off, it's not being held down right like I would think it should be.

I planned on doing a full restoration for a really nice driver and my thought process was the originals are usually at least a little warped, and if I'm going to drive it a lot I didn't want to risk warping one more (parking in the sun, etc). But it looks like I might have to.

Yes, I think it was roughly $1300 for the lower. Somewhere around there. For perfection it would be understandable, but I shouldn't have to settle. I got the glove box and upper pad done so they would all match but if they can't do the lower right then they can have them all back.

Send it back and get your money back.

You’re not being too fussy! It sounds like they screwed up a hard to find part. You are probably better off with an original pad with minor blemishes than something that will bug the **** out of you every time you get behind the wheel. Find a decent OE pad and dye it. They frequently show up in the interior classified ads here on FBBO…

Yeah, that pad would not work in my world. I would be sending that back for a full refund. I have never understood how anyone can justify the prices that Just Dashes charges. Maybe if they could replicate the original fake stitching and the finished product ended up being the exact physical size as an original, but theirs does neither. I have always been able to find nice original pads when needed.

I would not be happy with those issues.

I bought a used one from a seller on this site for 150 bucks, painted it with SEM landau black, and it looks better than yours.

Sent you a private message, your inbox is full. I recommend you spend 50.00 and get a gold membership it’s so worthwhile. I might be able to help you.

440 4 speed said:

Sent you a private message, your inbox is full. I recommend you spend 50.00 and get a gold membership it’s so worthwhile. I might be able to help you.

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Jeez that fills up fast. Maybe I will. I will clear it and send you a PM.

That IS a lot of money. They could redo it five times and still make money.

Just an update. They sent a full refund and took at back as a return. They were their cores, so I don't know if they would have done that with my own.




New vs old. As they stated on their site, they do not replicate the stitching. To a casual observer one may notice gentle curves and a general look of soft lines instead of the sharp angles of the original.



Original vs new steering column cut out. The originals have sharp, straight lines to match the plastic cover plate.




Original is approximately 1.25" thick at top left from metal plate to surface (read second post below, this one shrunk a little bit)


New one measured approximately 1.5".


I forget which part this was. I think it was the top right corner. Measured approximately 1.5".



New one measured 1.75" in same location.


New pad fitment around ash tray. Their test for photos from their dash frame seemed to look better than I could get it to fit on my original frame. Not sure why they had better results than me.

More below.

This is the right side of the ash tray. It's supposed to go flat against the dash. It is shown next to a straight edge. The nice one I recently got (detailed below) looks like this:



Thanks to another member here, I acquired a nice original dash pad. I did some measurements on it to see how wrong my original was. The measurement of the left side is off a little, the new dash pad is not that much thicker than a good original which measures a tad below 1.5", maybe 1.4"? The top right corner measurement, however, remained the same, the good original I have measures 1.6" (1.5" on my trashed original), and new one was over 1.75". I am sure all the original pads vary a little bit, so I don't know what's right or wrong.

Overall, I was very impressed with Just Dashes customer service, however towards the end I felt like the rep I was talking to was thinking I didn't know how to put the pad on the frame correctly and was making a big deal out of nothing.

Their website shows another 1969 dash pad and glovebox they redid. It seemed a little nicer than how mine came out. Their website, in my opinion, reads as if the new dash pad will meet original manufacturer specs. I am pretty sure the manufacturer of these originally had a mold in the shape of the dash pad, lined it with stretchable vinyl, placed the metal structure plate on top, heated the mold, and injected expanding foam into the holes in the metal plate (which commonly have foam all over the backside). They were not skinned foam, there was an actual vinyl layer. Just Dashes does it the other way, they construct the foam and then cover with vinyl.



I will leave it up to you to decide if the new pad met factory specs.

To be fair, this is a hard piece to replicate. I appreciate their work provided as it benefits many exotic and rare car owners that do not have the great used parts supply we benefit from. All in all, it was a good attempt, I was happy with the service I received, but was unhappy with the final product for the lower dash pad itself.

The upper dash pad came out excellent. Very nice work. The glovebox door came out nice as well. The pieces seemed more hefty than the originals but I did not weigh anything. The new foam they use is more rigid than the originals, there is very little flex, and I think that may be why I had some issues as detailed earlier on. I returned all three pieces because I wanted the vinyl texture and sheen to match between all pieces, and I wasn't going to spend $1000 on just the top pad when I can get a redone or new one from elsewhere for half that.

They used black vinyl but it seems like they painted over the vinyl. It did not at all resemble the original sheen of the original parts. The originals I have seen have a low gloss to them. These were flat black and had a soft finish that was easily damaged.

That's it. Figured I'd write this up since there is no info on the web about them since nobody on here seems to have used them on the lower dash pads. It's not meant to be a review, just meant to document my opinion and experience. Seems like a good company overall.