As I prepare the car for my bucket list trip to the Swiss Alpine passes, I noticed that the vinyl on the lower half of the dashboard has split and is going hard. Is this repairable and if soo how? Picture below:
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Try this link on similar topic previously posted by mole42 -
Or have a look at my input in this thread
I have since tried out my repair method on a stag centre console that I bought in a project job lot.
Before pictures
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After pictures, not 100% perfect but a whole lot better
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Will be up for sale soon. Just refurbing the wood that goes with this.Comment
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Thanks RamJam and APS. Will initially try superglue, but suspect it will be the filler route.Comment
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I had a spare carefully stored unspilit dash vinyl surround.
However I realised that it was as hard and brittle as most others…. Just passed it on …. Only a matter of time before it got split.
My dash is split in a few places …. The fix is to remove the skin, cut back the hard foam, replace with soft and then recover with stretch grain vinyl or leather…. Big job.
there are great you tube videos about this.
Filling splits is ok for a temporary fix.
Quite fancy a black leather dash cover with red stitching…together with a matching centre console.
Leather covers are available…. But have tripled in price over the last few years.
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The splits I repaired in the dash of my 36 year old Mercedes, over two years ago are still good. If they do reappear I will repair them again, and at a rate of every two or three years I will be happy.
The splits in the mercedes dash are a little bit different from those in the Stag.
Most northern European, especially UK, 30+ year old Mercedes don't suffer with split dashes. Where nearly all USA Mercedes do. UV Sun, heat and age are the contributors. They split without any other influence, ie trauma. My Mercedes was imported from the USA, hence why I have splits in my dash.
The Stag dash also gets hard and brittle with sun and age. But they do not seem to split because of it. They split mostly because of trauma. Nearly all the split Stag dashes I have seen are split on the high points. On the curved edges of the dash or centre console and near where the hand brake comes down. These trauma points where they split are caused by being hit, whether a lump of wood, a box, a piece of luggage, a big knee or repeated knuckles when releasing the handbrake.
I think being careful in the car then even the hard brittle dashes can still look good and last.
The leather covers can look really good, expensive and it takes a lot of skill to fit them well and for them to last.
Most leather covered dashes, and seats, I have seen in stags do not look so good after a few years. The leather stretches, sags and often have wrinkles around the corners.
The leather in stags is not for me, but that is only my personal opinion of course.Comment
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