dash repair

[mart010]

Does anybody have good pictures or drawings of the metal parts of the series 3 dash? I want to repair my dash parts. First I need a good view on how the metal parts are constructed. Because of the rust I miss a good portion ;). Mostly on the bottom side as you can well imagine.

[FridgeFreezer]

I've never seen anyone strip/repair them, usually you'd just go to Newbury sortout and rummage around for a replacement although they're getting rarer and rarer - very hard to find dashboards that haven't been messed about with / had holes drilled in them.

The covering is held on by those little clips around the edges, but it's also stuck on (or it will have stuck itself to the metal by now) so removing that is going to be destructive to the vinyl/foam - the vinyl will have taken its shape and be very brittle / easily split now. The metalwork is fairly simple I think.

[mart010]

32 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

I've never seen anyone strip/repair them, usually you'd just go to Newbury sortout and rummage around for a replacement although they're getting rarer and rarer - very hard to find dashboards that haven't been messed about with / had holes drilled in them.

The covering is held on by those little clips around the edges, but it's also stuck on (or it will have stuck itself to the metal by now) so removing that is going to be destructive to the vinyl/foam - the vinyl will have taken its shape and be very brittle / easily split now. The metalwork is fairly simple I think.

thanks for your reply FridgeFreezer. Appreciatie it. Found some nice reference pictures online. I'll start with the metal and continue with the foam and vinyl. Think must be possible to do in 2 weeks time.

[Arjan]

Please do a write up - this is goint to be a thing that will need to be done in the future..

Succes !!!

[FridgeFreezer]

I had a Defender dash apart for my 109, cut the end off to make it removable for a fuse panel, here's photos if they're any help;

Cutting metal behind the foam to leave enough to "tuck over":

 

[Gazzar]

I believe you can get leather covers to replace tired vinyl, perhaps an option?

[FridgeFreezer]

34 minutes ago, Gazzar said:

I believe you can get leather covers to replace tired vinyl, perhaps an option?

TBH the vinyl lasts pretty well - 40+ years - it's just the moment you try and dismantle it you're stressing it, so it will crack/split because it's lost whatever softness it ever had.

[Wytze]

Looking at his first picture, it's a left hand drive dash.  Here in NL, they do ask silly money for that.  I can imagine, he's having a go at restoring it.   What John did was allready going that way..     I would say, thin cardboard and a few night's at the kitchen table will make nice templates and after that, out with the tinsnip's.  Good luck Mart! 

[mart010]

Small update. I've stripped both top and bottom dash. Stripped the vinyl off with a heating gun. After that gently stripped the foam so I can re-use it. 

I repaired the metal parts and made some new ones. Glued the foam back. For the missing faam parts I used polyurethane foam. And finished it off with some Putty bumper repair. This to make it smooth and stronger. The Putty bumper repair stays flexible. I did not yet finish both parts with the new vinyl. I want to make sure that I can put new switches or other stuff into the dash, before final finish.

So far, looking good.

I'll post some more pictures of the parts with foam back on. The pictures shown below are only the metal fabrication.