I had a professional repair my A-body pad. It had the usual characteristic cracks on the ends (very minor). He warned me that repairing the old stuff is only temporary and I'll be chasing my tail. I had him do it anyway.

About 1 year later, turned out he was right. Even though the car only saw limited sunlight during that time, they came back, as well as a new horseshoe shaped one. I just picked up an NOS pad from the bag. Should've done that the first time.