Dashboard re-covering

[bobhenry999]

Chaps,

Has anyone had a dashboard re-covered.

My Flavia Coupe needs doing, and i`m not confident of doing it myself without making a complete mess of it.

I was wondering if these guys who do whole car wraps on modern stuff might be able to help, what do you think.

Bob Dow

[fay66]

Bob,
I think any competent trimmers should be able to recover it for you, although cost might be another matter, I had one made for my 2c back in 2000 by a trimmers in Newport south Wales, I've also used Barton Brothers in Luton who took one of my seats apart and replaced all the rotten stitching, and did a nice job, so I don't really see it should be a big problem apart from the cost.

Brian
8227

[brian]

The problem often is the foam underneath goes brittle and trickles out as a nasty yellow dust and the edges curl in a most odd fashion. I have an OE aluminium dash top that came out of an 815 1500cc coupe and had no foam from new - the black vinyl was just glued on. I have not seen another car fitted with this type so assume it was a very early car! I always had the thought of making a mould and then fabricating in fibreglass and never have the problem again. I never got round to it and then sold my coupe.
You are welcome to borrow it if this is a route you wish to try.
Brian

[bobhenry999]

Brian,

My car is a 1963 one, and it does not have the vinyl over foam arrangement, which I have seen in many sedans, and fail as you mention. It sounds more like the one you describe.

It currently is just a matt black hard textured painted surface, but it has some odd looking cracks in it.

If it never had a vinyl covering, maybe I should go down the route of just having it resprayed with a textured coating sort of thing ?

Bob

[fay66]

Brian,

My car is a 1963 one, and it does not have the vinyl over foam arrangement, which I have seen in many sedans, and fail as you mention. It sounds more like the one you describe.

It currently is just a matt black hard textured painted surface, but it has some odd looking cracks in it.

If it never had a vinyl covering, maybe I should go down the route of just having it resprayed with a textured coating sort of thing ?

Bob

Any photos Bob? it sounds like it might be that the paint surface has shrunk, but what you suggest might well be the way to go.

Brian
8227

[brian]

very odd! Mine was definitely covered with elderly vinyl but perhaps it was a fix for a problem early on in the car's life. It could of course be the sprayed covering was a fix for the original vinyl going!.............
I would be tempted to sand it down and spray it/enamel paint it or whatever and see how it looks with the fall back of covering your experiments with vinyl if total failure.

[bobhenry999]

Guys,

Thanks for your thoughts/suggestions.

I will post a couple of photos at the weekend to see if that helps with any suggestions.

Thanks as always,

Bob