[VWandDodge]

Originally Posted by ILOVEMYTRUCK99

First let me say that I love my Red 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 and have no intention of selling or trading it. This past year I started seeing cracks appearing at several places on my dash board top and a couple of cracks starting down around the instrument panel which were basically continuations of the dash cracks. Then I Googled the problem and discovered that many others were having this same problem mostly with
the 2001 model year. This is obviously a manufacturing defect but Dodge is denying that.

Dash rugs do NOT fix the problem.

Thank GOD someone else here, besides myself, has common sense here.

Ok here's a fix that works and what I have done:

1. Clean the dashboard around the full length of the cracks with a solvent. Make sure it's dry before continuing.
2. Use a medium grit sandpaper (about 80 grit or so) and rough up the surface over and around the full length of the crack.
3. Go to your local hardware store (ACE carries this) and get the PC11 Marine Epoxy. It comes in 2 cans, (PC-11A) white paste and (PC-11B) green hardener. I got the small cans (12 oz).
4. Also get a can of Krylon Black Metallic Hammered (#2915) spray paint. For those dashes that are a dark or medium gray this is a near perfect match. Try Home Depot, Lowes, or Ace for the paint.
5. Using 2 separate sticks (I broke a wooden paint stir stick in half) and a piece of cardboard, scoop out an equal glob of the 2 parts of the epoxy onto the cardboard and then mix them together stirring until it is all white with no bits of green showing.
6. Then using a small spatula (no more than 1" wide), trowel the epoxy over the cracks. Using the flat side of the spatula, make sure that you apply enough pressure to squeeze some epoxy into the crack as well as covering the crack (about an inch wide). Do not cover the cracks with a thick coating of epoxy. Keep it thin. If the the crack is not even, i.e., doesn't line up, use something to hold it in place like masking tape or a weight, etc. Trowel around the tape or weight. You can always go back and finish after the epoxy is dried and hard.
7. When finished, let it dry over night. In the morning it will be hard as a rock. Use sandpaper to smooth it out and remove any rough edges of epoxy. By the way, it will be white when it dries.
8. Finally, tape newspaper to the inside of the windshield and any areas you do not want paint (like over lettering, nearby knobs, etc. Then shake the paint and spray over all the epoxied surfaces. Let it dry. The paint blends very close to the dash color.
9. You can leave it like this OR you can get one of the hard molded dash covers to cover the dash. The epoxy stops all cracking in the damaged areas and the dash will now be stronger than before. The dash cover will only be cosmetic now as the original dash after epoxied will be extremely solid. After several months, there are no new cracks.

That's it! It works and will prevent your dashing from crashing and collapsing. It took me less than an hour to fix mine. This is a lot better than paying the "big bucks" to replace the dash.

Awesome write-up, and this needs to be in the DIY section. The dash in my 1997 is getting worse, and I'd love to fix it. I will use your method.