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944 cracked dash recover

Eldavo

Well-known member
Joined
21 Aug 2013
Messages
307
944 and 968 dashboards crack after years of sun and UV exposure. Mine has a couple of cracks but nothing too major - however I'd had my eye on the leather dash covers on eBay for a while. I couldn't find much online feedback about them (only a thread on here from a local 964-er) so just had to go for it!

First thing's first - I've had the dash out before, it's a slow and steady job with lots of hidden screws and trim tabs, it'd be much easier to do the dash swap in a one-er so I got hold of a replacement dash for the princely sum of £45 delivered :thumb:

It's black over linen rather than black over black but that doesn't matter as its all getting covered up!



The usual cracks:



It's the vinyl covering that cracks and the pulls apart the dense foam underneath, however after 20+ years the vinyl peels off quite easily:



Leaving the foam underneath:





The leather will cover this no problem but just to be sure I used some flexible filler in the cracks and sanded it back:



The kit as it arrived:



The important bit was to work out which parts needed fixing in place first as there's always a bit of stretching and twisting needed with something like this.

This was my start point as I worked out that if I started at an end I could end up with not enough material to pull into the edge of the instrument binnacle properly. So I pulled it all taut and into shape before clipping it in position:





Brushed on the high temperature fabric adhesive for the first panel area:



Then pulled into position and smoothed down:



Didn't take long to do the rest:



With that done, the bottom of the dash was next. I haven't trimmed any of the leather around any of the edges and openings yet - I'll wait until it's completely dry before doing that. Just in case anyone was worried they could see creases or rough edges :hand:



First corner in place and now the rest is straightforward:



And the finished article, I've done the glovebox cover as well but it's not pictured:



Last job was to get the heat gun out and cut the defroster vent holes:



Now to find a quiet day to swap it over!!!
 
That looks mint mate, going to look ace when you get it fitted :thumb:
 
I've been looking at these too as I have a couple of hairline cracks in mine but I didn't want a leather cover as I thought it may stand out too much, so I'll look forward to seeing your finished results.

Also I didn't realise you had to remove the exiting vinyl before fitting it, I guessed it would just be glued over the top.
 
There's no point gluing it over the damaged vinyl - plus removing it negates a little of the extra thickness of the leather.

I'm very happy with it, the fit and finish is great.

Anyway, buoyed on by a couple of beers and the fact that the Mrs went to bed early, things escalated quickly:

From this:



To this:



And then finally this:



It's going to take at least twice as long to put it back together though as there's lots of wiring to route!
 
I already have half my dash to pieces but whilst it's like this I may order one too, where from and how long did it take to come?

My project hasn't even turned a wheel in anger yet so I was hoping to get it done very soon but I keep seeing other things I need to spend my money on :pc:
 
TopGaiters on uk eBay - £130.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/350996982779

I requested it without the defroster vent holes so I could cut them myself - one less element to line up and it was still here within a week. They have lots of options of stitching colour in their other items and will do a different colour of leather if you contact them.

You'll need some of this too:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/330919950537
 
Nearly there:

 
Looks like a space ship in there! Well done :worship:
We once had a little Porsche party on my mates drive drinking bottled beer on a Sunday, my mate supplied the beer and me and my other two mates pulled his 944 dash and fitted a crack free replacement off eBay. When we had finished the blowers were stuck on full blast! Turned out someone unknown had put a screw through the wiring harness :dont know:

Don't drink beer!
 
All back together - for now.



I've taken the boost controller unit apart, the silver stood out too much so I've masked up the cover and primed it ready to paint it Matt Black. I've also ordered some more carbon fibre sheet as I'm going to recess the unit rather than having it stuck on.

The silver oil temp gauge's days are numbered too ;)
 

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