Recommend someone to restick dash leather?
Discussion
This is very difficult to actually peel back and re-stick because the leather shrinks in the sun (which is why it's lifted in the first place).
I solved as follows:
With the dash removed, from underneath, I carefully drilled 5 holes in a line under the lifted leather. I then injected sikaflex into the void, put tank tape over the holes (to stop the sikaflex coming out) and then used a 'behind the radiator' paint roller to roll the leather onto the sikaflex and distribute the sikaflex evenly. If you don't get the leather all the way back to the GRP because it has shrunk, the sikaflex takes up the space.
If you don't want to DIY, any local trimmer should be able to do the job, but may be wary due to the shrinkage.
For a full retrim of this piece I was quoted £350 - £700!!!
I solved as follows:
With the dash removed, from underneath, I carefully drilled 5 holes in a line under the lifted leather. I then injected sikaflex into the void, put tank tape over the holes (to stop the sikaflex coming out) and then used a 'behind the radiator' paint roller to roll the leather onto the sikaflex and distribute the sikaflex evenly. If you don't get the leather all the way back to the GRP because it has shrunk, the sikaflex takes up the space.
If you don't want to DIY, any local trimmer should be able to do the job, but may be wary due to the shrinkage.
For a full retrim of this piece I was quoted £350 - £700!!!
That sounds expensive to re-cover, even more reason not to damage the leather then, especially as mine has contrasting reveals to the instruments!!!The leather is reasonably pliable and will hopefully stretch back into the recess, I think the glue used was just a bit naff? The leather seems quite well stuck on the rear edge of the dash, if I were to go the DIY route what's the best way of unsticking the leather, Is there a magic formula that will make life easier?
Griffit said:
if I were to go the DIY route what's the best way of unsticking the leather, Is there a magic formula that will make life easier?
I didn't unstick any - I just stuck back what had come unstuck - hence the solution I implemented.If you want to peel and restick I think you'll need a good contact adhesive, but I fear the chance of it being visible, either through contours in the leather moving and being restuck in a slightly different place, or through a shift in the grain being visible at the point you unstick to or something is too great. You might do it easily, but I chickened out. I ought to point out I did it on a 'spare' dash though!! (In case it all went wrong...).
There's quite a good article on the steps you need to take in re-sticking the leather in the Griffith Pages:
http://www.thegriffithpages.com/modifications/inte...
have to admit, I took one look at this and bottled out...
http://www.thegriffithpages.com/modifications/inte...
have to admit, I took one look at this and bottled out...
Mark_G said:
There's quite a good article on the steps you need to take in re-sticking the leather in the Griffith Pages:
http://www.thegriffithpages.com/modifications/inte...
have to admit, I took one look at this and bottled out...
I read that article too and ran away scared from the trimming job!http://www.thegriffithpages.com/modifications/inte...
have to admit, I took one look at this and bottled out...
Hello 118 - I'm looking for a car upholsterers in Gloucestershire...?Andy, try contacting Tony Stevens at L&A Cars in Cheltenham (01242 222898 - he's probably behind The Range on the Tewkesbury Road now as it was last year when he told me he would be moving there). He runs a body shop which is Bentley approved and if he doesn't do interior trimming (I just don't know), he's likely to know someone who can.
edited: Oh, and he likes V8s - he prepared his own concours Cobra which he sold to a bloke who shipped it to Oz!
edited: Oh, and he likes V8s - he prepared his own concours Cobra which he sold to a bloke who shipped it to Oz!
Edited by griff50tvr on Monday 21st January 16:53
griff50tvr said:
Andy, try contacting Tony Stevens at L&A Cars in Cheltenham (01242 222898 - he's probably behind The Range on the Tewkesbury Road now as it was last year when he told me he would be moving there). He runs a body shop which is Bentley approved and if he doesn't do interior trimming (I just don't know), he's likely to know someone who can.
edited: Oh, and he likes V8s - he prepared his own concours Cobra which he sold to a bloke who shipped it to Oz!
Fantastic suggestion Mike and very local too which is a massive bonus! I'll be popping round there tomorrow methinks, is he ex Broughtons per chance? edited: Oh, and he likes V8s - he prepared his own concours Cobra which he sold to a bloke who shipped it to Oz!
Edited by griff50tvr on Monday 21st January 16:53
Griffit said:
griff50tvr said:
Andy, try contacting Tony Stevens at L&A Cars in Cheltenham (01242 222898 - he's probably behind The Range on the Tewkesbury Road now as it was last year when he told me he would be moving there). He runs a body shop which is Bentley approved and if he doesn't do interior trimming (I just don't know), he's likely to know someone who can.
edited: Oh, and he likes V8s - he prepared his own concours Cobra which he sold to a bloke who shipped it to Oz!
Fantastic suggestion Mike and very local too which is a massive bonus! I'll be popping round there tomorrow methinks, is he ex Broughtons per chance? edited: Oh, and he likes V8s - he prepared his own concours Cobra which he sold to a bloke who shipped it to Oz!
Edited by griff50tvr on Monday 21st January 16:53
Problem solved 
Tony @ L&A Cars in Cheltenham (Cheers Mike)put me in touch with Paul @ Screentech in Upton Upon Severn (01684 592420) who took the dashboard off me a couple of weeks ago and said he knew a man who used to do this sort of thing for a Ferrari dealer in the Cotswolds who wasn't really into this sort of problem-job anymore but he'd see what he could do for me... Apparently this guy owed Paul a few favours so agreed to take it on and has done a fantastic job of lifting and resticking any leather that had come away from the dash, even bits around the clocks that were extemely minor!
Apparently the leather tends to shrink when it gets damp in the garage and then gets exposed to roasting hot sunshine, thus pulling away from the dash. Apparently mine was only stuck down with what looked like spray adhesive and nowhere near enough of it to stick properly. To stretch the leather back they saturate it with an extremely powerful steamer and then dry it out very slowly stretched into place before re-gluing it. Mine has stretched almost all the way back, there is only about 7mm maximum of the rear of the dash panel (where it bolts to the airbox) that hasn't been recovered, which they were extremely happy with.
Needless to say, I'm extremely happy with it as it was massively cheaper than a re-trim!
Hope the above helps anybody else looking for someone to do this job or daring enough to take it on themselves.
Tony @ L&A Cars in Cheltenham (Cheers Mike
)put me in touch with Paul @ Screentech in Upton Upon Severn (01684 592420) who took the dashboard off me a couple of weeks ago and said he knew a man who used to do this sort of thing for a Ferrari dealer in the Cotswolds who wasn't really into this sort of problem-job anymore but he'd see what he could do for me... Apparently this guy owed Paul a few favours so agreed to take it on and has done a fantastic job of lifting and resticking any leather that had come away from the dash, even bits around the clocks that were extemely minor!Apparently the leather tends to shrink when it gets damp in the garage and then gets exposed to roasting hot sunshine, thus pulling away from the dash. Apparently mine was only stuck down with what looked like spray adhesive and nowhere near enough of it to stick properly. To stretch the leather back they saturate it with an extremely powerful steamer and then dry it out very slowly stretched into place before re-gluing it. Mine has stretched almost all the way back, there is only about 7mm maximum of the rear of the dash panel (where it bolts to the airbox) that hasn't been recovered, which they were extremely happy with.
Needless to say, I'm extremely happy with it as it was massively cheaper than a re-trim!
Hope the above helps anybody else looking for someone to do this job or daring enough to take it on themselves.I did something similar to Griffter. I drilled some small holes with a thimble chuck drill (dash left in situ) and aerosol'd some extra strong carpet contact adhesive through the holes. I held the leather in place with a carrier bag filled with sand to take up the shape and then added weight to that. It was partially successful but I think I need to re-activate the adhesive once again with something Real Nasty like MEK.
Difficult one this because it has little to do with the material as erroneously implied. It is the OE adhesive which undoubtedly poor. The major problem is caused by massive ambient and humidity changes, temperatures typically in this country from -10 to + 50 Celsius; yes 50, taking into account solar loading.
Conventional contact adhesives (petrolium based) have not the ability to withstand the constant temperature cycles. The only sucessful adhesives are very difficult to use, Health and Safety nightmare and are generally two-pack. Even Porsche, Jaguar, RR et al will suffer eventually, but of course farther down the time-line than a car from Blackpool!
The motor industry spends a great deal of money in developing features such as this and it is refelcted in the price of your all leather interior trim.
Conventional contact adhesives (petrolium based) have not the ability to withstand the constant temperature cycles. The only sucessful adhesives are very difficult to use, Health and Safety nightmare and are generally two-pack. Even Porsche, Jaguar, RR et al will suffer eventually, but of course farther down the time-line than a car from Blackpool!
The motor industry spends a great deal of money in developing features such as this and it is refelcted in the price of your all leather interior trim.
Griffit said:
Problem solved
Tony @ L&A Cars in Cheltenham (Cheers Mike)put me in touch with Paul @ Screentech in Upton Upon Severn (01684 592420) who took the dashboard off me a couple of weeks ago and said he knew a man who used to do this sort of thing for a Ferrari dealer in the Cotswolds who wasn't really into this sort of problem-job anymore but he'd see what he could do for me... Apparently this guy owed Paul a few favours so agreed to take it on and has done a fantastic job of lifting and resticking any leather that had come away from the dash, even bits around the clocks that were extemely minor!
Apparently the leather tends to shrink when it gets damp in the garage and then gets exposed to roasting hot sunshine, thus pulling away from the dash. Apparently mine was only stuck down with what looked like spray adhesive and nowhere near enough of it to stick properly. To stretch the leather back they saturate it with an extremely powerful steamer and then dry it out very slowly stretched into place before re-gluing it. Mine has stretched almost all the way back, there is only about 7mm maximum of the rear of the dash panel (where it bolts to the airbox) that hasn't been recovered, which they were extremely happy with.
Needless to say, I'm extremely happy with it as it was massively cheaper than a re-trim! Hope the above helps anybody else looking for someone to do this job or daring enough to take it on themselves.
Great news, Andy. As they say, it's not what you know but who you know!Tony @ L&A Cars in Cheltenham (Cheers Mike
)put me in touch with Paul @ Screentech in Upton Upon Severn (01684 592420) who took the dashboard off me a couple of weeks ago and said he knew a man who used to do this sort of thing for a Ferrari dealer in the Cotswolds who wasn't really into this sort of problem-job anymore but he'd see what he could do for me... Apparently this guy owed Paul a few favours so agreed to take it on and has done a fantastic job of lifting and resticking any leather that had come away from the dash, even bits around the clocks that were extemely minor!Apparently the leather tends to shrink when it gets damp in the garage and then gets exposed to roasting hot sunshine, thus pulling away from the dash. Apparently mine was only stuck down with what looked like spray adhesive and nowhere near enough of it to stick properly. To stretch the leather back they saturate it with an extremely powerful steamer and then dry it out very slowly stretched into place before re-gluing it. Mine has stretched almost all the way back, there is only about 7mm maximum of the rear of the dash panel (where it bolts to the airbox) that hasn't been recovered, which they were extremely happy with.
Needless to say, I'm extremely happy with it as it was massively cheaper than a re-trim!
Hope the above helps anybody else looking for someone to do this job or daring enough to take it on themselves.sjwb said:
Difficult one this because it has little to do with the material as erroneously implied. It is the OE adhesive which undoubtedly poor. The major problem is caused by massive ambient and humidity changes, temperatures typically in this country from -10 to + 50 Celsius; yes 50, taking into account solar loading.
Conventional contact adhesives (petrolium based) have not the ability to withstand the constant temperature cycles. The only sucessful adhesives are very difficult to use, Health and Safety nightmare and are generally two-pack. Even Porsche, Jaguar, RR et al will suffer eventually, but of course farther down the time-line than a car from Blackpool!
The motor industry spends a great deal of money in developing features such as this and it is refelcted in the price of your all leather interior trim.
The original adhesive didn't penetrate the leather very much, which didn't help matters. It has been re-stuck with something that sounds as nasty as mentioned above, apparently the guy didn't have any left and some transport companies wouldn't carry the new stuff Conventional contact adhesives (petrolium based) have not the ability to withstand the constant temperature cycles. The only sucessful adhesives are very difficult to use, Health and Safety nightmare and are generally two-pack. Even Porsche, Jaguar, RR et al will suffer eventually, but of course farther down the time-line than a car from Blackpool!
The motor industry spends a great deal of money in developing features such as this and it is refelcted in the price of your all leather interior trim.
I'd post some before and after pics if I had any online album facilities, which I don't - sorry.
Edited by Griffit on Sunday 17th February 15:49
Ballistic Banana said:
Andy if you want to mail me teh pics I can host them on Thegriffithpages?
BB
Thanks to BB and TGP BB
I can post some before & after pics of my re-stuck dash leather.1. Drumskin dash top before:
2. Second view of the same:
3. After re-sticking (shiny due to just having been cleaned and fed):
4. Second view of the same:
5. Rear of dash showing re-stuck leather and overall shrinkage of hide - leather was originally glued to the very bottom of the glass fibre section as seen at far left.
Makes a massive difference to the interior so I'm very happy
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