Dashes Direct pad vs Dashes Direct “OEM tooling” pad

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Joined
Jan 17, 2015
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Location
California
My Car
71' Grande project.
I finally got a dash pad installed.

First I tried the standard Dashes Direct pad, and when I wasn’t super excited about the fit I tried their “OEM tooling” version that was double the price.

Cant say I was really excited about either product.  But the “OEM tooling” dash pad was a better fit.

Both pads arrived with issues.  Both pads arrived with two holes to secure the pads missing or misplaced.  The “OEM tooling” pad didn’t have one of the relief cutouts for the dash mounted clip nuts.

The “OEM tooling” pad had a different internal profile on the tips of the “wings” than the standard pad.  Also the OEM tooling pad had a contour that better fit the center bezel above the map light.  The non “OEM tooling” pad was very tight there

The green tape in the pictures was applied to the “OEM tooling” pad.

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Great pics! and thank you for the write up. Any pics of the dash installed and after you corrected the OEM pad?  Was the install difficult? or did the install go on smooth without issue?

 
I have had very good results having the originals restored by "Just Dashes" in CA. Chuck

 
Great pics! and thank you for the write up. Any pics of the dash installed and after you corrected the OEM pad?  Was the install difficult? or did the install go on smooth without issue?
I’ll post some installed photos once the dash is 100% together. Maybe next weekend?  I am waiting on parts...

As for the install-

It wasn’t too bad.  I had to take a razor blade and trim off some of then foam flash that Dashes Direct seemed to miss.  There was also foam residue on the vinyl in a couple spots but that seemed to buff off with some elbow grease. The two mounting holes that were covered up required trimming off some foam and vinyl with a knife.  The relief for the dash mounted clip but had to be cut out.  Luckily the hole locations were molded into the foam marked with a dot, and the relief was marked with two lines. That got me down to the steel insert, which had the pilot holes drilled in the correct location.  A couple minutes with a step drill had the pilot holes opened up to 5/16” which seemed about right for the clip nuts.

I put the clip nuts on and secured the pad to the dash top using the studs.  It slid into place without much fuss.  The clip nuts lined up with the holes in the dash.  

Like every repop part I have laid my hands on so far it takes some time to make it fit.  That being said it did fit much better than the standard version.   

 
Almost bought one but instead wrapped mine in really nice vinyl. Heard a lot of horror stories trying to fit repo pads.

looks awesome 

 
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