Wrinkled Dash Repair

[mchristyuk]

Work on project "I must have been mad" 3200 continues apace..

My dash top was suffering from the dreaded wrinkles. Now I swear there was a guide on here about sorting it out but I couldn't find it anywhere.. plenty of topics on wrinkled airbags, but not the dash top. So for those that are interested...

1) Bit of trim and 8 screws and the dash top comes off dead easy. As you can see mine had a big horrible crease down the middle of it.


2) My leather had shrunk over the years so there was no way I could pull it back to it's original locations. Therefore I decided to pull it all up in the affected area. The main cause of my wrinkle was the foam backing had doubled over meaning I could never smooth it down.


3) I ripped out the foam padding and stuck the pieces back on sans-wrinkled section with liberal use of carpet glue


4) Finally I stuck it all back down with said glue.


Ok the end result is not concours factory original condition, it couldn't be without being retrimmed completely.. however for the princely sum of £0 I'm quite happy with the end result! Total time from start to finish was about 40 minutes.

Cheers

Mark

 

[highlander]

nice work and better than it was, result!

 

[Andyk]

Well done...great work....

 

[CatmanV2]

Looks jolly good

C

 

[zagatoes30]

Looks good for that pricely budget

 

[rs48635]

Nice work - will be doing that job myself in the next week.
Did you need to disturb or remove the covers on the windscreen A pillars?

 

[mchristyuk]

Hi Rob

Yes I did.

1) pull of the overhead trim panels each side
2) take the screw out securing the a pillar trim and remove trim.
3) remove screw at base of a pillars securing dash.
4) remove central air vent
5) pull dash top half out
6) disconnect sensor wire
7) done

Really easy.

Cheers

Mark

 

[Tubber273]

Job well done sir!!
I proud to say I fixed my steering wheel airbag wrinkles, but sad to say my passenger airbag is also wrinkled.
Cosmetically speaking, it's pretty much the last on my to-do list.
I've read that replacing the heater core is a daunting task of course, but I doubt I have to "dig that deep"
So....How easy is it to access the passenger airbag (so that I can remove it) once the dash is removed?

Thanks in advance for your answer!
Chers,
John

 

[Felonious Crud]

Great to see a job done well and so fast. Good work!

 

[Graham]

Well impressed Mark!

You should keep a running tally of the jobs you are doing and the total cost expended, as I am sure it would prove useful to others at some point....

 

[mchristyuk]

Hi Graham,

I think it's cost me about £1k so far.. but the majority of that was on low priority cosmetics (Dem's Grill, your wheels).

I've just done a coolant flush, air filters, thermostat and plugs today. Will be doing an oil change tomorrow. Those parts have cost me about £300 in total and I've done all the work myself to save the labour costs. Mostly what it's required has been fettling and cleaning.

John,

I'm afraid I have no idea how to get the passenger airbag out I'm afraid. The dash top was where I stopped! No doubt somebody on here will be able to help you if you post the question.

Cheers

Mark

 

[Bart3200GT]

Looking good

 

[Tubber273]

John,

I'm afraid I have no idea how to get the passenger airbag out I'm afraid. The dash top was where I stopped! No doubt somebody on here will be able to help you if you post the question.

Cheers

Mark

Thanks anyway Mark!
Being that the dash is fairly simple to remove, perhaps I'll give it a whirl! Cheers!

 

[tom27]

But you forgot one point : when repaired , always cover your dashboard by a sun-refector.
If you don't respect this point, your leather working again.