Vanquish Binnacle leather panel removal

[Astontony]

Hi All,
whilst driving on the weekend i noticed that the leather on the LHS of part number 1 in this photo is starting to come unstuck. It doesn't seem to have shrunk it looks as though it just needs a spot of glue.
Has anyone removed the binnacle from a 2014 vanquish. I did it in the DB9 and it was a cinch in the Vanquish it looks like the rear of the part numbered 1 in the photo is press clips while the front is a hex boltx2.

Does the plastic binnacle cover just clip off like the db9 and am i correct in saying the v section of the leather piece has 2 hex bolts and the rest has clips. happy to do some slides of the process.
I would like to remove this piece re glue and re install and any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

[Astontony]

Can anyone assist with this query? As we are in lockdown for who knows how long I thought it a good opportunity to rectify a few things and the dash leather is one of them.

[HDPete]

I had a similar issue and AM works corrected it without removal, by injecting glue and smoothing. - it was a great job.

[Astontony]

Thanks Pete however I would like to also treat the leather at the same time. The DB9 was easy removal just checking with the Vanquish if it is a similar process. There must be a diy er on here who has had his dash top pieces apart for repair.
Plus you dont know what you may find when its out.

[dpath]

I’ve taken this piece off to re-glue a portion of the leather. I can confirm that it’s held on with the usual screws and clips. The pieces in front of it need to be removed for access to the screws. It’s not a hard job if you take your time and are careful.

[Astontony]

dpath said:

I’ve taken this piece off to re-glue a portion of the leather. I can confirm that it’s held on with the usual screws and clips. The pieces in front of it need to be removed for access to the screws. It’s not a hard job if you take your time and are careful.

Thanks Dpath, can you expand a little for me. Are the pieces in the front just anchored by clips and then I can get at the screws for the rear leather piece?

[dpath]

It’s been a few months since I did this project but my recollection is that the other trim pieces were held on by clips. Any screws will be visible when the individual trim pieces are removed. Sorry I can’t be of more help but I rushed through this project. Let me know if you run into problems and I’ll try to jog my memory.

[Astontony]

Thanks Dpath,
well I have done the job so I will post some photos and give you the run down.

Firstly I noticed that a leather edge on the rear leather piece that houses the Speaker was lifting on one side as it runs up towards the binnacle. I decided to see if I could fix this myself as I did some minor leather gluing on my DB( and it was easy to pull apart.
Here is what you need.
Get some plastic trim levers as they help a bit with removal, you need a 2mm torq wrench a small one as the space is limited.
1st step lever off the plastic surround at the top of the binnacle near the steering wheel. This will come off reasonably easily with the help of the trim tools.
Once this is off you will see 2 torq screws on the leading edge at the top near the steering wheel.
Next you need to go to the under side of the steering wheel and lever off the whole panel on the right it houses the headlight switch. The panel is held by clips and it comes down in a motion towards the seat and down. Be firm but careful as you don't want to harm any wires to the light this piece is happy just hanging there.
Step 3 is to remove the leather pieces on either side of the steering wheel. The piece on the right has 1 torq screw up near the speaker. Remove this and pull up and out. It comes out quite easily set aside. Next is the lhs piece which is only held in with clips. It is a tight squeeze so be careful not to bend it too much as it is a narrow piece. It is easier to get back in than removing.

Once you have these pieces set aside you will be able to see 4 torq screws. 2 top of binnacle and one each side of the binnacle at the back. Careful not to drop these when removing as you don't want any rattles at a later date.

Once these are removed, i put them in my cup holder for safe keeping. You should now have 5 torq screws in total.
Now comes the harder part.
Lift up the leather piece and the clip that run along the edges will unclip with a little force. The hard part I found was getting the rhs out where it touches the a pillar as it is a tight squeeze to get it out and you need to twist and pull. There is a clipfor the wiring to the band o speaker is easy to pull apart, it has a little black slide button that you push down at the same time as pulling apart from the plug.
Now you need to wiggle and semi rotate the whole piece to get it out. You do have to be quite firm to get it away from the a pillar area.

assembly is the reverse of the above but I found it very hard to get the rhs of this piece back in its correct position, you need to see if you can line up the clips as you put it in place and rotate it and push hard on the a pillar area but firstly plug in your speaker wires until they click into place and make sure the plug is down the hole and not squashed under the leather piece as otherwise it wont clip into place.
Once you persuade this bit back in the rest is pretty straight forward. Make sure you have no screws left.

I glued the leather back down last night gave the leather a good treatment this morning, left it for 8 hrs to soak in and then wiped it down and re assembled.
All up time being very careful was 45 mins out and 45 mins in so 1.5 hrs plus the gluing etc.
step