Dash Separated on Driver's Side. Fix?

[stash3630]

My dash has completely separated horizontally on the driver's side. Has anyone here ever encountered this and/or fixed it?



Whoever owned this car before me must've just let it sit in the south-facing sun baking for years. Much of the black plastic is fading and a lot of the rubber seals are chipping away like a chocolate bar on the front of the car.

Anyway, the dash looks to be made of two different materials. The more fore part of the dash closest to the windshield is a harder plastic, whereas the more aft part of the dash (where the instrument panel cowling is) is made of a more supple more faux leathery feeling material. I suspect the sun dried and shrunk the latter softer material and pulled it away from the harder plastic which wasn't affected by the sun. I tried using interior trim tools to get it to sit back underneath, but I think it has either pulled back too far or something underneath tore away.

Is this common? Easy fix? Expensive fix?

 

[Grsemky]

Bringing this back from the dead, my dash is starting to separate like this thanks to the desert sun, did you ever fix this? What did you use?

 

[Capri to ST]

I don't know how to fix this, but for people who want to keep their dash in good shape this is a good reason to use one of those windshield sunshades to keep the sun off your dashboard. People often think of using them just to keep the inside of the car from getting so hot, but for me protecting the dash from problems like the one reported in this thread is an equally good reason to have one. I put mine up whenever I park the car in the sun and after 10 years the dash looks as good as new.
Using a vinyl protectant like 303 Aerospace is also helpful, because it has some UV protection.