Dial faces peeling - 964,993

[domster]

David H suggested this become a thread in its right, which is a good idea. Some of the dials in my 964RS started to peel (sun damage apparently) and I had them redone by Julian Reap; he even offers a mobile service. Reap did the OEM speedo dials for RHD 993s, so he is not a cowboy; these aren't stickers. Cost for me IIRC was around 300-400 GBP.

Bernard (turbobloke) and David H have also experienced this problem, amongst others. Here is what David has to say from another thread:

"Some early 993s (and now I hear from Bernard) maybe 964s suffer from the black field flaking and or peeling off dail faces, as if someone had placed a blow torch on them for a moment.

All of mine were fine except the speedo, which worried me because I thought it may have been tampered with! Being a one owner car I was able to to check all history with Porsche GB and I got enough detail to verify its history.

I couldn`t live with the flaking after a few months, it's like the door check straps, that clonking is just not Porsche.

I spoke to Porsche GB and they said they had never experienced flaking paint on dials before. When I spoke to the people that rectified my dials, the story was a little different (off-line for details please)

All coloured OEM dial faces for Porsche are high quality silk-screened, including the then standard black.

They are not self adhesive stickers, although there are some problems with any coloured silk-screening (again off-line please)

There is more in the detail... "

[clubsport]

Dom,if the dials on your RS are peeling,maybe it makes sense to move it to another part of the workshop away from the window...good to see progress is being made and it is not under a tarpaulin

[david hype]

Thanks Dom

You beat me to it!

I would just add that with my 993 I had the then named AFN Chiswick remove the steering wheel, airbag and all of the dials which added IIRC £100 to the cost of refinishing the dials. The whole job was completed in only 3 days.

[cyberface]

That's good to hear - my 993 has an identical problem in that the dials are all fine apart from the speedo, which is flaking (like it's been in very hot sun too long). I too thought that maybe it had been tampered with or replaced with a speedo from a scrapper.

If this is a known problem then I'm much less worried! I'll get the speedo refinished later on...

[warmfuzzies]

This has been on Rennlist a few times, so I'm surprised the OPC's don't know of anything......


kevin

[domster]

Porsche GB has a very sensible (from a legal point of view) but very infuriating (from a practical point of view) policy of denying everything until someone, somewhere - probably in Germany - makes a decision about it. Is it a fault? Is it just wear and tear? Do we give a bavarian buggeration anyway?

The denied the 993 wiring loom manufacturing fault until they were blue in the face. Then one day it gets put on an official fault list and cars get recalled, people can claim back money they had to shell out to get the work done themselves etc.

It doesn't surprise me that OPCs claim not to know about it. Remember also that they immediately tend to trade-on anything over 4 years old so most won't know what a 964 or 993 actually is

[david hype]

domster said:

Porsche GB has a very sensible (from a legal point of view) but very infuriating (from a practical point of view) policy of denying everything until someone, somewhere - probably in Germany - makes a decision about it. Is it a fault? Is it just wear and tear? Do we give a bavarian buggeration anyway? The denied the 993 wiring loom manufacturing fault until they were blue in the face. Then one day it gets put on an official fault list and cars get recalled, people can claim back money they had to shell out to get the work done themselves etc. It doesn't surprise me that OPCs claim not to know about it. Remember also that they immediately tend to trade-on anything over 4 years old so most won't know what a 964 or 993 actually is

You are right Dom. When I asked them why the door check strap wasn`t man enough to prevent the door doing a 180 on the hinge. They said it was probably just my particular car!

Although they never admitted it was a design fault, they did cough up in the end!

[turbobloke]

domster said:

Some of the dials in my 964RS started to peel (sun damage apparently)

Probably so Dom, but two things make me suspect there may be other related reasons. First, there's almost always going to be two layers of UV blocker between the dial face and sunlight, namely a window and the dial cover. Second, mine has peeled only at one small site right in front of one of the most common dash warning lights - the handbrake 'on' light. These curious illuminations look old school and probably give off quite a bit of heat? Not sure. In my case the problem was likely made worse by heat soak since the car has been garaged virtually all its life and certainly for the five years before the peel, including after runs once the engine has been at tickover for a minute or two. I bet Porsche Cars know all about this with 964 and 993 cars but, for the reasons already stated, keep shtum.

>> Edited by turbobloke on Tuesday 19th October 19:57

[david hype]

Bernard, mine had gone all over and looked like that black crackle finish. When you switched on the lights the speedo looked like the surface of the moon! Its now over three years since they were re-done and I have had no problems since. Julian Reap did tell me at the time what caused the original problem, but I cant remember exactly what it was.

IIRC I think it was something to do with the base coat silk screeing ink which also blocks the light bleed not adhereing to the opal plexiglass back plate. Then the back lighting and warning lights heat up the whole lot and it gradually lifts the ink. Or something like that...

But I cant remember why it is more common with the speedo than other dials?