How difficult is it to replace a part of the dash? I used rubbing alcohol to clean it, and the part of the dash that covers the driver's leftmost vent and the top of the tachometer has a whitish streaking now that doesn't seem to come off.

Is this something that I could do myself or have someone I know do? Or is it very difficult?

 

pix?

 

http://www.armorall.com/prod_protectantwipes.html



best thing for the SI dash/plastic interior...

 

Here are two pics of the white junk that showed up when I sprayed isopropyl alcohol on the dash. I originally used the alcohol to clean it because I was trying to get this junk off that a body shop had "cleaned" the inside of my car with after replacing a bumper. It stunk and was shiny and I was really upset about it, so I tried water and it didn't get rid of it well, used alcohol and had some problems with this part of the dash.




Here's another part that has a whitish look to it now (the little area on the passengers side that blows on the piece of glass in front of the side view mirror.

 

i am a little confused... why did u clean it with alcohol unless u were putting something adhesive on it? and why such a large area? i am not bashin on u at all, i am just wondering what was the intial reasoning behind it? have u tried armorall? or mcguires (sp?)? what was the original reason behind doing this?

also, that piece of the dash is probably going to cost more than the cd player dash kit. as for difficulty, im guessing its not that easy, but is still do-able. good luck with it either way

 

Looks like the rubbing alcohol dissolved some of the paint from the factory or possibly a reaction to other chemicals on the dash. Have a good body shop match the color and have them respray it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 24boosted &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks like the rubbing alcohol dissolved some of the paint from the factory or possibly a reaction to other chemicals on the dash. Have a good body shop match the color and have them respray it. </TD></TR></TABLE>



or if you use the satin finish krylon clear coat you can buy at home depot, it will do the trick

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 24boosted &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks like the rubbing alcohol dissolved some of the paint from the factory or possibly a reaction to other chemicals on the dash. Have a good body shop match the color and have them respray it. </TD></TR></TABLE>

What he said....that's paint that's come off.

 

alcohol is not a stong cleaner, it's basically one step above water. That is most likely because Honda uses cheap *** material for their interior, & that really sucks. I guess you can try something like armor all to hopefully shine it up so it's not as noticeable, hell -- i'd go back to honda and yell at them for using a basic cleaner and ruining your interior! Sorry man.

 

Normally I clean the interior with water, just in case alcohol does wreck something. But I had to take my car to a body shop after someone hit my car, they fixed the outside up, then “cleaned” the dash (which was already immaculate because that's the way I keep it) with some type of cleaner that smelled really bad. I'm super sensitive to most perfume smells, they make my head ache and sometimes even make me nauseas. I tried to get whatever they cleaned it with off the dash with water, but the next day it still smelled. So I tried alcohol, and when I was cleaning it, some color did come off on the towel.

Thanks for the advice (and sympathy -- I'm pretty mad at myself, the auto body shop, and the taxi that hit me and took off, and the person that slammed into the back of my car for no reason), I can't use ArmorAll though, because of the whole scent thing. I did look up how much the parts cost, and I guess it's really not that bad for most of them. That piece that's on the driver's side that has white streaks has a list price of $43.25. I'm almost thinking of just replacing every visible part of the dash that I think some color came off of. It WOULD cost a hefty amount, but after all the stress and money blown because of the accident, I almost want to just throw money at the problem to make it go away so I can feel that my car doesn't look ruined inside and just feel back to normal. I don’t want to even get in my car because as soon as I do I stare at the white streaks and get mad at myself and obsess about it.

Is it super difficult to disassemble the whole dash and put in the parts? I wouldn't do it, but my dad is actually going to be around in a few weeks (he used to be an auto mechanic and is really into taking things apart and putting them together), and if I just got the parts do you think he'd be able to? Otherwise how many man hours do you think a shop would charge me to disassemble the dash and put the new one in? I can't see how it could take longer than three hours, and that would only cost ~$200, right? The labor charges for the body work I had done were $54/hr.

 

If you are going to use alcohol to clean the dirt off of the dash (which I wouldn't anyway, use diluted Simple Green) use ETHYL alchol--isopropyl alcohol WILL melt alot of plastics. Many years ago I was cleaning the steering wheel in my mother's Chrysler Cirrus, I was using isopropyl alchol and it started to melt and deform the vinyl on the steering wheel--it was permantly deformed after that. That is the reason your dash looks like that, its a permanent blemish. I prefer Simple Green but ethyl alchol (drinking alcohol) is fine and won't harm the vinyl.

 

all thats holding it on is 1 screw and a bunch of clips but you have to take some othe panels out to get to it if you want to replace it.

Link gives you an idea on how to remove it. Shouldnt be hard to do.

http://www.collegehillshonda.c...o.pdf

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by d16dcoe45 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you are going to use alcohol to clean the dirt off of the dash (which I wouldn't anyway, use diluted Simple Green) use ETHYL alchol--isopropyl alcohol WILL melt alot of plastics. Many years ago I was cleaning the steering wheel in my mother's Chrysler Cirrus, I was using isopropyl alchol and it started to melt and deform the vinyl on the steering wheel--it was permantly deformed after that. That is the reason your dash looks like that, its a permanent blemish. I prefer Simple Green but ethyl alchol (drinking alcohol) is fine and won't harm the vinyl.</TD></TR></TABLE>

wd 40 works wonders on sticky stuff

 

Any chance the Honda warranty will cover replacing parts of the dash? It's just kind of crazy to me that isopropyl alcohol will wreck the dash, because a lot of "car cleaners" for the dash contain isopropyl alcohol anyway. So basically most of them would wreck it too.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jeff716a &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Any chance the Honda warranty will cover replacing parts of the dash? It's just kind of crazy to me that isopropyl alcohol will wreck the dash, because a lot of "car cleaners" for the dash contain isopropyl alcohol anyway. So basically most of them would wreck it too.</TD></TR></TABLE>

not to be a dick but they shouldnt warranty anything. its somthing you did not the car...

i worked at subaru and we would warranty everything wipers down to brakes...(subaru does this on all cars) but there were always the kids who would break somthin and bitch... i never did get them. if its somthing you did to cause a problem how is it the warranty??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jeff716a &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Any chance the Honda warranty will cover replacing parts of the dash? It's just kind of crazy to me that isopropyl alcohol will wreck the dash, because a lot of "car cleaners" for the dash contain isopropyl alcohol anyway. So basically most of them would wreck it too.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Honda won't warranty it. Alot of car cleaners might use isopropyl alcohol, but the amount is soo small that it won't cause any damage. But a pure solution, unmixed, will definitely screw up your dash.

Kind of like chlorine in a pool. The percentage is soo small you'd have to swallow a crap load of pool water to actually get sick. But chlorine in it's pure form can kill you very fast.