I bought a vinyl repair kit that included all sorts of colors to match your vinyl as well as an adhesive that when cured can be textured. The kit has three different texture squares. You place the texture square on the patch and apply heat with a branding iron type tool.
Here you can see the tan dash with the repair. I didn't bother matching the color since I am going to dye the entire dash anyway.
The adhesive patch worked GREAT. The texture turned out ok. Not as perfect as I wanted, but I'm hoping good enough.
The dye on the other hand is amazing. You would never know the dash was not originally black.
The used dash did come with speakers but they were completely shot. Most '60s and '70s General Motors cars used 10 ohm speakers. An 8 ohm speaker will work fine. Most speakers available today are 4 ohm which will NOT work. I haven't solved this problem yet, but my choices are 8 ohm generic 3 1/2" speakers or refurbished 10 ohm speakers.
Before the dash goes in I want to address any other issues behind the instrument cluster. There may be a few lights out and the clock doesn't work, for starters. And I could take this opportunity to install the Twilight Sentinel amplifier and power door lock vacuum distribution block. I should also check the integrity of any other vacuum lines back there. They are easy and cheap to replace if cracked or brittle.
It would be so much easier to work from the top and bottom on these things, instead of just from the bottom at a future date. Although, remember this car is front wheel drive and the floor is COMPLETELY flat. Even the exhaust pipes are run down the side of the car next to the frame rails. So you can lie on your back on the floor in front of the seat and easily reach up under the dash.
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