70 dash pad ?

[slck6t9]

I am in need of redoing my dash pad on my 70 camaro. I was wondering if anyone has used the dash pad overlay or is it better to just spend the $ for a new reproduction pad?

[go-fish]

What kind of 70 is it?

For 1970 'Cudas the overlays are crap and I would figure the Camaro/Firebird caps would be crap too. I think a new dash pad would be the best route if you want quality and good looks.

[slck6t9]

Sorry, this is for my 70 camaro.

[1976CamaroGuy]

I bought a oer dash pad when I pulled my old one. I haven't installed it yet but I'm kind of anal about my car and couldn't bring myself to capping my old pad. I guess if it was a daily driver or something that would be different.

Look at it this way, other than the guages...the dash is the second next thing you will have to stare at most of the time when driving....you will always be able to tell the difference between a cap and an original looking original pad. You'll see the edges on a cap...it's usually held on by silicone.

[slck6t9]

Thanks alot for your input. New dash pad ordered....

[1976CamaroGuy]

no problem!

[jeffandre]

Installed new OER dash in my 71 last year. I put a lot of time into it, decided not to try it in a weekend, instead since the car was sitting for years I spent hours strategizing, doing Google research for others tips, and went real slow. The pad did not fit the lower plastic assembly very well, had to drill and screw together the area above the radio to make it fit pretty good. I did a lot of tweaking with the pad to get it to fit that lower part.

The pad did not fit against my dash cowl very tight, mostly okay but had to do some extra tweaking here too. I had to use the shortest clips, make a few of my own for a nice snug fit, came out pretty good. I also had to redrill most of the clips to move the dash closer to the cowl.

Installing the plastic piece under the steering column was a challenge as it did not fit good enough to the pad until I added some more screws to pull it together in the ashtray area. It also didn't line up that great as far as being centered under the column, had to use loosen the entire dash pad again and shim it over, then retighten everything, fit much better and looks pretty good.

The gauge carrier fit okay, but after working it for a while without applying too much pressure I was able to get it screwed into position pretty good. I did have to redrill a few holes to get everything looking right with the carrier. I also had to do some cutsom fitment work on the gauge assembly too, it did not line up well with the carrier.

There are probably other things I did that I cannot remember now, but overall I bet I spent 50+ hours on putting together and installing the dash and associated parts. I cursed myself at first for not trying to buy a good used dash but in the end with all of the extra tweaking the dash looks really good and I am happy with it (I am a perfectionist, some people might not have had to spend as much time and effort as I did). If you are good with your hands, don't mind improvising with mount and fitting things together you will be fine. Again it is much better if you don't need to drive the car for a while, that way you don't get in a hurry and break something. Good luck,