When they are finished with the pad it will appear as new. I have let them do the dye job and also get extra matching dye to re-do other interior components. You have a choice of letting them dye the dash to the correct color or you may do it yourself. Send them your original 63 dash pad and they will recover the dash. Another alternative I have several times is to use the services of 'Just Dashes'. Thunderbird parts vendors sell 61-62 dash pads but you will also have to purchase the combo door panels if you wish to replace the bad dash pad. Also the metal dash end caps are different between the 61-62 and the 63. And just replacing the dash pad with the 61-62 pad will cause a fit problem with the door panels unless you also purchase the special combo door panels along with the dash pad. The width of the 61-62 dash pad which is reproduced is wider than the 63 dash pad. It is true than the 1963 dash pad is not reproduced. I have replaced many dash pads on the vintage Thunderbirds. Seems like there is an open market here for some enterprising small manufacturer to build and sell a decent replacement dash pad for the 1963 Thunderbird. They can also do this for original door panels, but I wouldn't hesitate to get the reproductions with plastic backing: I have a set of repros in my car and am happy with them." To do this you'll need to set aside around $800 or so. The high-end alternative is to send the pad to get it recovered with new foam and vacuum-form vinyl over the pad: this is what "Just Dashes" does. There aren't a lot of low-cost options other than a plastic cap that's molded to fit over the dash, which isn't as pliable as original vinyl, or sewing a vinyl cover to go over the dash. Good condition used late '62-'63 dashes are few and far between: I was fortunate enough to score one for my car, but that was in 1985! Repairing the vinyl is only a band-aid cure as you still have 45+ year old vinyl that has lost its plasticity, is brittle to the touch and prone to crack again if exposed to extreme temperature fluctuations. Look at a '61-mid '62 and you'll see the upper front corner pushes out to meet the dash pad corner, while your car doesn't. End of dash is different between this and the late '62-'63 pad in that the ends splay out further. "Replacement pads from the original tooling have only been available for '61-'62 through mid-April '62 build date. I also found a bit more info in the archives on the difference between the 63 and 61-62 dash pads: Bummer, as I'll need one myself within the next year. which may the only way to go, since from what I've found so far there actually are not any good new replacement dash pads being made for the 1963 model. I found a recommendation NOT to buy from some seller called AZBob on ebay and lots of complaints about how tricky a quality replacement is to do on Bullet Birds, but only found one recommendation that applied to the specific case of the 1963 dash, and that was to pull the original and send it to Just Dashes for restoration: So if anyone has any recommendations for a '63 that isn't summarized below, please do speak up. I'm all in favor of searching the archives for past info/knowledge on a question, as suggested - but I just did a search for "dash pad" and while I got 3 pages of results there was precious little info about a best supplier for a replacement, particularly for a '63 (which is different from a 61-62 dash pad). You might want to check with the used parts vendors to see what they have both Pat Wilson and Bob Mench frequently have good used pads in stock. I also have a mint '63 blue pad in my parts car, already installed on the frame of course, but I'm not sure I want to part with that one, and like any used pad, it is faded and would need to be re-dyed. I have an extra NOS '63 pad in red, so it would of course need to be dyed. The only other option is to find an NOS '63 pad and they are hard to come by. The radio speaker grill will also no longer fit as it did originally, and will have to be secured to the pad instead of the frame. Be aware that the new pads are much thicker than the original, and a bit difficult to install on the dash frame. As far as I know, all the vendors use the same source for their reproduction pads. The pads are only available in black or white, so you will need to dye it before installation. You will need to order the available '61-early '62 style pad and order new combo door panels ($$$$) so the ends will match up. I'll keep an eye on this post, or if you want to call, my number's 61. I'd like to know who sells the HIGHEST quality pad out there and can it be orderd in blue? I need input from anyone else that's gone through this before. I'm about to order a new (blue) dash pad for my 63.
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