Yep, I said it.... Dash Covers! Those carpet like looking things to protect the dash from harmful UV light.... I never thought I would be that guy to consider it, but I am. A friend had the dash crack on his minty 1994 Formula Firebird with less then 100k miles and I feel both the Montes I own might benefit from dash covers. And I was initially just going to make an order, but I was looking and not totally sure. So.... I am curious who has them, where did they buy them, are they happy with them? What is the backing material of them?

Show me what you got lol!

 

Don't do it

 

I know, I know - its not what you asked: but - if the goal is blocking UV rays, why not tint the whole windshield?

Doesn't have to be gangster dark - even the 3M crystalline 90 (very hard to detect to the naked eye) blocks 99.9% of UV and nearly half of total solar energy. You won't have to deal with an ugly cover and no one will even know its tinted if you go that light.

I do some level of windshield tint on all of my cars in AZ and haven't had a single cracked dash in the decade+ I've lived out here.

 

That is an interesting idea Bumpin. I never thought about tinting the front windshield with a light enough tint as a UV shield. Just curious, aside from your Monte, how many cars have you had that were in the 20-30 year age range?

 

Zero. My GTO is the closest I've had (2005) to that range.

The other thing that complicates the data though is that my cars get different levels of sun exposure depending on what gets the garage at the time. I also didn't get into tinting windshields until moving to AZ (for an interior heat control perspective). So even though my monte is my oldest car, I'd bet one or two of our old Impalas (that have been sold for years now) probably got more total solar energy into them between being parked outside 24/7 and being in AZ (whereas the monte spent nearly half its life in IN which has was less sun intensity).


I was just thinking that if the main concern is UV that most of the good films are rated at 99% UV blockage regardless of darkness level (granted blockage for other types of solar energy vary with darkness).

 

I am guessing the dash damage is a combo of heat and uv exposure. My friend with the 1994 Firebird who's dash just cracked, that car has spent a bulk of it's life in a garage (just not climate controlled). Perhaps it's an unavoidable battle. I just feel I need to consider something. Or maybe I junk yard grab a bunch of good dash pads lol.

 

It does seem like some cars are much worse about it than others - and F bodies do seem to be one of the problematic ones.

When I picked up a trashed 01 Camaro for RWD parts for my monte, it had a pristine dash top. I got more money for that one part than I did for almost all of the other items I sold from it combined. I guess they're hard to come by out here in the desert (which ties back to your thoughts on heat).

 

I always keep dash mats on all my cars, pickups. Not sweating the looks more than the cost of a repair, should that happen. Probably so rare to get a new dash pad or even a nice used one. If a mat is not used, one is always reaching up to dust off the dash too, I know,oooh minor annoyance, but with the mat, hides dirt, vacuum when it becomes obvious its dirty. Probably 3 times a year versus 2 times a month dusting dash.. So I have the mat and windshield heat reflector set up for double protection, one for dash uv, heat protection, other to limit ambient heat temps overall to interior . I have the DashMat brand on the Monte, carpet style to tie in with the floor for some continuity. Then on my GMC I use the CoverKing molded style, only $80, easy cheesy.
So I swear by them for going on over 29 years, an ouce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as the saying goes.