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New owner of a 2005 RX-8 Shinka Edtion. It has the common dash cracks on the right side if the dash. What is the best dash pad cover for this dash or is there another replacement or fix idea. Thanks, Bob
That's just the certificate of authenticity to know you have a genuine RX8! Joking aside, my plan was to smooth it out then the add a thin layer of body filler/sand and then carbon fiber vinyl wrap it. A new one is $300 so this seems to be the best solution I can think of. Really need to do mine soon because it looks worse than anyone else's...
I've been putting off the same job for a while now, thinking about doing the same with some thin 3M carbon fiber vinyl wrap but then that implies I'd have to do the dash behind the steering wheel for consistency...
The body filler part of your statement concerns me a bit, I know it's been mentioned an annoying amount of times as to the dangers of "impeding the airbags deployment" but a layer of body filler may be something to keep in mind, if it's thin and away from the airbag it should be fine.
Some guy on youtube just did this job and tried to keep it OEM, it'd be nice if I could find the material he had reapplied as I don't think I have a "local leather specialist" lol.
Man that was tough to listen to, but i was waiting for him to say that his fix did not impede the action of the airbag blasting through it.
He said it, but without proof of this of course, ................... do this at your own risk !
Creates questions too - what if the airbag blows, but cannot escape through the dash toward the seat occupant. Where is it going to go ? Airbags blow with tremendous force and that panel is designed to split open in a designed manner.
Just sayin !!
I think id rather trust Mazdas engineers !
There is an "H" shaped cutout that allows for the airbag to come out. As long as you dont impede those cutouts for the airbag it will work just fine. I wouldn't fully wrap it in leather though, that material will be too hard for the airbag to come out it would just explode shards of plastic into the face of the passenger. That's why I'm opting for a vinyl wrap that will have a razor thin cut for the airbag on the back of the vinyl wrap. I cant imagine that thin material will impede the airbag in any way.
Yeah, definitely not the most interesting video. He goes into some explanation in the comments trying to defend his decision of using that material. I kind of agree that if the fake leather wrap used is weak enough to be punctured with a human hand it should easily be ripped when a 150-200 mph airbag pushes on it.
Unfortunately any solution to this has its downsides, the OEM is expensive and will suffer a similar fate after a few years, carbon fiber wrap doesn't match the dash behind the steering wheel and theoretically could very slightly impede the airbag, but likely not to any significant level.
I'm probably going to settle for the solution in this video with the back of the material slightly scored with an exacto-knife or with the carbon fiber wrap. Has anyone ever removed the dash piece behind the steering wheel if I wanted to keep it consistent by wrapping both sides.
03-13-2020, 10:08 AM
