dash repair

[Fun_in_my_z]

I can get my gages out with my cap on. Just a little finigling

[hls30.com]

Speaking of having trouble removing gages, I replaced the speedo and tach in my restored '72 dash with 280Z gages after replacing the housings and the pointers. The gages were seemingly glued in-the new foam had shrunk too snug to budge with considerable force. I called Dash Restorations, and they advised me to use a heatgun to carefully heat up the area around the gages. Not wanting to risk damaging the parts, I took the dash outside and placed it in direct sunlight for an hour or two. The gages came out and were replaced after upgrading them with some effort, but no damage.

Will

[TomoHawk]

The old cover I had looked like leather-grained plastic, and was shiny. I will assume the newer ones are something like that, and so don't match the oem cover in terms of look & feel.

I have heard that "mousehair" material is no longer available, so what would you suggest covering the dash cover with to give it a more appropriate look & feel? Flocking can be applied to the surface, but would look furry and tacky. the only thing left is a layer of vinyl.

thx

[hls30.com]

The new ones are much closer, but the grain is not a prerfect match-the finish is more "matte" in texture though.

If you don't want to use an available full cover, try black headliner material-it is flocked on one side, grained on the other, and conforms to odd surfaces with heat.

Will

[TomoHawk]

I think I will try the headliner material then. I could have the uphostery guy put some on when he puts on the dash cap.

thx

[EScanlon]

A guy whose car I painted looked into having the dash re-covered in leather. One of the concerns was to be able to remove the interior, re-cover with thin leather and not have t0 worry about the fit of the dash to the car or instruments.

I discussed this with the proprietor of a leather goods shop in Guadalajara Mexico who does this. Since I'd been buying leather products from him for years we got to talking shop and I asked him how he dealt with the transition, essentially wrapping the outside and inside of a glass with a single piece of leather.

In a nutshell they s t r e t c h the leather very slowly and tediously, but they eventually have it stretched enough that they can then bond it to the inside of the "tunnel" and the outside part of the "cylinder". Sure it ends up paper thin, but it IS leather. (They also stitch, but that's not what my buddy wanted.)

They use a series of wooden "plugs" to stretch the leather with. They're basically shaped like the end of a bullet. The leather is soaked in a solution (he didn't say what it was, I presume that it was proprietary) and push the leather out slowly until it reaches the shape. The leather has the consistency of pickled pork rinds when he's working it.

Now before you skip this (if you haven't already), the relevance to this thread is a unique solution to the end process. I asked him how they dealt with different diameter sizes of "tunnels". The answer is something that I haven't yet had time to try, because the car that's getting the full face cap still isn't back from the mechanic.

The trick to doing this is to use a cylinder with a smooth CURVE transition out just like the tip of a bullet so that the leather is essentially slowly pushed into the cylinder while allowing the leather to stretch to it's maximum. The leather and mold are clamped in place and kept in solution.

His solution to the different diameters? Carbonated Drink bottles inserted into the opening then filled with hot water. The bottle cap had been modified by the addition of a bicycle tire cap. As the bottle got hotter, the plastic would soften and with the addition of the air pressure from a bicycle pump would then expand to fill the inside of the cylinder. This allowed them to continue stretching the leather until it would definitely fit the inside of the cylinder.

My thoughts are that that same process could be used to push out the EDGE of the cap on the inside of the cylinder which leads to the face of the speedo and tach.

Sorry for the convoluted path to tell this, but the uniqueness and value of this guy's process isn't in getting the leather to fit, it's that it does the job WITHOUT a seam. That's what we want in the car.

FWIW

Enrique

[TomoHawk]

If you don't want to use an available full cover, try black headliner material-it is flocked on one side, grained on the other, and conforms to odd surfaces with heat.

Nope. Obviously, you don't know any upholstery guys in my area.

I stopped by today to see if they could mount t he cap for me, and maybe cover it with the headliner material. Thgey guy showed me a sample. Airy foam backing with a thin cloth face. Obviously what the new cars are using, and not what you described. Plus, the guy says they use a "permanent" glue. I will ask for soft silicone blobs (dots) along the bottom edge only.

Sooo... I ordered a full cap from Too Intense. Good decision? About the same price as MSA, and VB didn't have it in the catalog.

thx

[agemeansnothing]

You can get a cap which is less than a dash but, usually if people are restoring a car they usually get a whole new dash. It's like a paint job people just paint over it or get a dash cap and cover it up. But it doesn't fix the problem your just covering it up.

[Fun_in_my_z]

Your right Ian. But allot of ppl cant afford or cand find a new dash

[Alfadog]

Get it recovered. If you can't afford it, save up. That's my view anyway

[mull]

I just restored my dash - well, sort of.

This is what I did;

1: Glued my half dash cap on - permanently (a full cap would've been best, but that didn't come with the car)

2: I ground down the worst of the difference in "height" between the original and the cap

3: Applied fibreglass bondo to the ground areas to smooth out the remaining differences in height

4: Applied a finer bondo to smooth out the smoothing

5: Ground the dash cap and the rest of the dash with 80 and 120 grit paper

6: A 3 layer base of "grind-primer" under coat was applied

7: Sanded that out with 500 grit

8: Dash smoother than a babys butt - ready for paint (or new vinyl, or whatever you prefer)

Process (Windows media);

+ http://www.voodoo-people.com/~daz/mull/mull@sce4.avi (89 mb)

+ http://www.racemovie.mine.nu/movies/mull/mull@sce4-lq.wmv (Streaming [slow server tho ]

There's some additional footage in that flick btw...

[zman525]

my 240z had a half cap and it was velcroed (sp?) on. it looked "ALRIGHT" even like that. i say anything looks better than cracks. however ill most likely buy a full cap just cuz there cheap and look much better IMO