rejuvinating dashboard, what can I use at this point?

flyinhawaiian968

flyinhawaiian968

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Hi all,

New member, but have been a lurker for years now! Here's my dilemma, I'll be honest, I've neglected the dashboard in my '85 Toyota Supra for years. Although its had a car cover on the car and placed in an enclosed garage (that's heated and cooled throughout the year) and not driven at all (engine died in '08 or '09), the dash (and only the dash! Nothing else has been affected like this) has not held up well. I'm finally getting close to finishing the "resto-mod" and noticed that the dashboard is really bad, so I've been trying everything I can think of to rejuvinate the vinyl.

I tried cleaning it with Meguiar's interior detailer to no avail, and so I moved on to deep-cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol, diluted simple green, and then trying to bring some life back into it with rubber/vinyl cleaner/conditioner (Meg's #40), and even tried using Meg's leather conditioner (G7214), it soaks it up, then turns back to what you see in the photo. Hell, I've even thrown on some Gloveoleum lanolin conditioner to see if it would seep in and revive the dry vinyl, it didn't do anything more than the other things I've tried. Sadly, this dash is in perfect shape, aside from the discoloration. No cracks, no splits, no warping, just the discoloration.

My concern is just getting it to look presentable, I'm not worried about it being too shiny or reflective, as the car will probably never see much more than 2 or 300 miles of road time a year. I just want it to not look horrible as it does right now!

What products would you folks recommend at this point? I'm looking at another round of cleaning agents to remove what I've put on there already, have Meg's APC, as well as more isopropyl alcohol, and more simple green if neither pulls the greasy feeling off of it. Would a coating work better for this job, such as Wolfgang Cockpit sealant?

View attachment 61255View attachment 61256


Thanks,
Chris
 
Give 303 a try but curious as to why the low mileage per year?

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Thanks for the quick reply! Its garage queen #2! The car has only 125k on the odometer, and is really just a play car for me. After blowing up the turbo 6mge engine (yes, from Japan, not the original 5mge it came with), I've thrown in a Lexus V8 engine in it and just finalizing the wiring at this time.

Sadly, I also have an '87 toyota truck that sits in the other garage, and that sees about the same mileage now as the supra will be seeing! I haven't even bothered sealing it (my '11 4runner has CQuartz, that's the daily driver), as the wax I threw on the truck last year is still slick and clean! According to the smog report, I drove it 550 miles in 2 years!

Guess I'll pick up some 303 now, would you suggest the harsh cleaners before 303?
 
I have an inexpensive and out-of the-box suggestion- try a small area with Kiwi Shine & Nourish Creme (basically cream shoe polish). It’s made for leather but I had outstanding results with it on a motorcycle seat.
 
Well, I've tried a few out-of-the-box items so far, this one surely can't make it any worse! I think I have some of that creme in the house, off to search for it now.

Thanks!
 
Good luck to you getting your dash taken care of but I'll never understand nice cars parked, just sits there and wastes away, sorry.

Any pics?
 
I agree, they really shouldn't sit, I try to drive the truck at least a few times a month, although with me working 7 days a week most weeks, there's just no time to really enjoy my vehicles much.

Here's the truck:

View attachment 61259

As for the supra, it looks like a disaster right now, there's literally wires coming out of every opening, but I'm hopeful that I'll have enough time to finish it before spring. Here's an older pic before I blew up the last engine:

View attachment 61260


Chris
 
DRIVE THEM========

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Another off the wall unorthodox product you might consider.........Future Floor Wax.

I once had to go this route on a relatively new vehicle I had bought and was only 6 months old when disaster struck.

It was a fully loaded and ordered 1990 Dodge/Cummins 3/4T 4x4 Pickup I bought back then.

The "lovely" product Armor-All I applied one day had the Paint literally flaking off the entire dashboard, it was simply painted was all!

The Dealer and their paint shop wanted to rip out the entire Dash! I said no damn way, it will never be the same. So, here's what I did.

Went to an auto paint supply shop, where they would custom mix the interior color and place into aerosol Cans (Lacquer) and I ordered 3 cans.

Stripped, scrubbed, prepped and taped off the entire Dash, covered every living thing inside that truck. Spent a good 2 days just on prep and masking.

Then sprayed, and the dash came out perfect, but because it was Lacquer, the finish on the dash was duller than ####! Absolutely no gloss. So I said "now what am I going to do?"

Couldn't go back to Armor All, that was for sure.

So, I tried Future Floor Wax. Gave it 3 coats. The Gloss the Dash then had was amazing, and in fact was off the charts, just beautiful, but at times could be annoying in the bright summer sun.

But I cannot tell you how many times I got compliments on that Dash, people asking me what I put on it, that it looked so good!

Of course YMMV
 
Wow! That's definitely unorthodox alright! I'll try the other solutions first, and if nothing brings the shine back, I may just go ahead and pull the whole dash out (its practically there now with the wiring I'm doing for the new engine), strip the whole thing down, then shoot it with SEM interior paint in the same blue that's on there now. While the SEM paints are mostly a matte or semi-semi-gloss finish, I think it will be enough to pass for stock and I won't need to coat it with the floor wax!

I've used SEM paints before, my truck has it on the inclinometer's dashpad, has held up very well for the past 15 years, still looks good and hasn't peeled or cracked. I was just hoping not to have to resort to painting the Supra's dash by just adding something topical to restore the original sheen and not have so much streaking.

I am curious about this though! I still have a bit of Rejuvinate floor restorer, it reminds me of the old future floor wax stuff! Maybe that would work similarly? Doubt I'll use it on any of my cars though, but maybe my neighbor's jalopy! LOL!!!
 
I'm glad you're keeping it Toyota

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Yep! That was the whole point of putting the 1UZ in it, including the 5 speed transmission the car came with. I'll be honest, it would have been a ridiculously simple swap if I went with a GM or Ford engine, and way cheaper too, but I just couldn't stand the idea of having not-toyota in the car!

Having said that, I've scrapped the idea of keeping the OEM wiring and ecu at this point, there's just no benefit to me in doing it, and it requires I replace a fair amount of sensors and electrical items that were either broken or not there when I got the engines, and that alone would cost more than 2/3rds of a standalone ecu. I figure I'll gain a couple of hp without all the extra stuff on there too, probably a good thing since the 1UZ engines really don't put out a ton of power in stock form.

Once I get the hood back on, I'll roll her back out, give it a good wash and start working on paint correction, so I'll be here again, asking a thousand questions about that part of this build!
 
I was at Team Nostalgic car show 2 summers ago and a guy there had a Viper green 77' Celica liftback with the Lexus V8 in it...Oh yeah a turbo also for good measure too

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Might want to try a water/gel based tire dressing in a small area. Something like Optibond or CG VRP.
 
SUCCESS!!!!!
​

So I had a break from real work today, decided to screw with the dash for an hour. I really felt it needed a really good, deep down cleaning, so I grabbed some Meg's APC, diluted it around 5:1, then drenched the dashboard with the stuff, wiping the drips with a mf cloth, then wiping it off and doing it again another 3 times. It was looking pretty good at that point, but I wanted to make sure there was no oils/residue left behind, so a 70% Iso-alcohol spray down was next. That got it really good and clean, but I wasn't done yet!

Next came Meg's vinyl cleaner just for good measure on yet another fresh mf cloth to make sure I see absolutely no residual dirt/grime/oil/whatever on the rag after wiping it clean.

This is what it looks like sitting 2 hours after cleaning it:
View attachment 61294

View attachment 61295

Still got a bit more to do on the driver's side, I think one more full clean will get it perfect, but I'm almost there. I'm still a bit leery of using conditioners or oils on the dash at this point, don't really want a glossy dashboard, but I feel the vinyl really needs something good that will keep it this way. Guess I'll be reading a lot over the weekend to see what the consensus is for the most liked dashboard detailers.

Can't thank you guys enough though, the ideas you sent me were well-appreciated, and I'll be picking up some 303 just to try it out (seen a lot of talk about 303 products over the years, never tried it, guess its time), and if I ever find that Kiwi creme, I have another project that might work perfectly for too!
 
I wonder if McKees Plastic Trim Restorer would work well for this.

I just puts some dash to see how it would look.

It adds some gloss but not super glossy

74db7a226444ab900b48cdc7819c7cce.jpg



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Wow! It has been a REALLY long time since I updated this thread!!! Just thought I'd follow up 3 years later, lol!!!!!

The dash still looks perfect after the cleaning I did, and all I've been using on it is Meg's vinyl/leather conditioner over the last few years, its kept it perfectly clean and a dull shine is what I have on it!

As for the car, I finished the engine install in 2018, drove it for several months and ended up having to repair a few things on the car, so it sat until a couple months ago. She's fixed, but now its cold and wet and this car does not get to see wet roads, so she'll sit under the cover in the heated garage til spring!!!
 
flyinhawaiian968 said:
Wow! It has been a REALLY long time since I updated this thread!!! Just thought I'd follow up 3 years later, lol!!!!!

The dash still looks perfect after the cleaning I did, and all I've been using on it is Meg's vinyl/leather conditioner over the last few years, its kept it perfectly clean and a dull shine is what I have on it!

As for the car, I finished the engine install in 2018, drove it for several months and ended up having to repair a few things on the car, so it sat until a couple months ago. She's fixed, but now its cold and wet and this car does not get to see wet roads, so she'll sit under the cover in the heated garage til spring!!!
Click to expand...

Holy Resurrection, Batman!

I didn't realize that this thread was 3-years old and I read through the whole thing. My initial thoughts were that you were going to need to re-dye/paint the dash.

Glad it all worked out for you.
 
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