| Author | Message | ||
| Jeff Green (Carguy)
Junior Member Username: Carguy Post Number: 156 Registered: 10-2002 |
Hi Scott. I live in a small town so my choices for any type if service or restoration work is extremely limited (actually non-existant). Looking at your picture I'm sure your leather can be restretched and glued. My dash piece is a bit worse. I've been around to the local shops and nobody wanted to try and recover my piece with the original leather. They wanted to just use something off the shelf, or worse, use a vinyl or other type of material! They all said they probably would not be able to match the color and texture of my original leather. So what to do? After speaking with a co-worker who has talent in practically all facets of life, he convinced me the orig. piece is fixable. He said to do this: 1.Soak the leather in warm water for about two or three hours. 2.Use a piece of wood and trace the area that needs to be covered onto it, and then go about an inch farther out each way and make new lines. This is the total size you will need to stretch the leather to fit. 3.Get some small trim pieces or other wood scraps and cut them to make a kind of picture frame around the pattern you have made. These pieces will be used to "tack" down the leather and hold it in place while it dries. 4.Take the leather out of the water, and GENTLY stretch it out, being careful not to gouge or scratch it, and place it onto the pattern and stretch to fit. 5.Now tack down the leather using the "frame" pieces, be CAREFUL and do not make any marks or impressions onto the leather...the only area to be touching is the one inch border area around the perimeter. The leather is very vulnerable in this state and any scratches or gouges made may be permanent! 6.Let the leather dry for 2 or 3 weeks....yep....that's a long time. 7.Before removing the leather, soak in some Neat's Foot Oil or Compound, really drench it good. Leave it this way for one to two weeks. 8.Now remove the leather, and oil up the border areas, this may again take a few days to totally penetrate the leather. 9.Clean the surfaces where the adhesive will go on the dash, and replace any bad foam or padding. 10.Use either rubber cement, or contact cement. Rubber cement will allow the piece to be shifted slightly or if necessary removed in the future. Contact cement is permanent....once contact is made that's all she wrote! If using contact cement, apply to both the perimeter of the leather and the corresponding area of the dash, and let dry. Most people use contact cement incorrectly and work with it while it is still wet. Then place the leather on the dash piece, going from the center outward in all directions, and attach at the adhesive points. This is how I'm going to try and fix my dash piece. I will try and post some pics and the results for all to see. I must stress...when wetting and stretching leather, do not touch the surfaces that will be visible if at all possible, as permanent marks or depressions could be the result. If any of this procedure is questionable, I ask that anyone with experience please post and advise me of the correct way. Thanks. Good Luck Scott...I'm sure your job will turn out fine. | ||
| Scott Stokes (Desert_trojan)
New member Username: Desert_trojan Post Number: 27 Registered: 11-2002 |
Steve: Thanks for the removal tip. I'm going to try restretch the leather at an upholstery shop. Has anyone had any experience with this? Will it work? | ||
| Steve Magnusson (91tr)
Intermediate Member Username: 91tr Post Number: 1339 Registered: 1-2001 |
Scott S -- If you can remove the ~3"x~12" leather panel just under the instrument pod (it's held on by a central nut/stud just above the steering column) then I think you can access the 2 nuts/studs in the lower corners of the instrument pod (my uncertainty is that my experience is based on a more complete disassembly -- i.e., steering column also dropped giving better access to get the 3x12 panel out). There are no upper threaded fasteners on the pod (it's sort of an adjustable, separable, open hinge arrangement so pivoting the front of the pod up releases the upper hinge joints). Personally (even though the parts cost for a pod is crazy), I still think it's always worth fixing something directly in the driver's view/use (I paid $900 for an NOS black pod about 2 years ago). Good luck with the repair... | ||
| Scott Stokes (Desert_trojan)
New member Username: Desert_trojan Post Number: 22 Registered: 11-2002 |
I have the same problem on my '90 TR. The dash is pulling up. Anyone know how to remove that piece?  | ||
| Frank Parker (Parkerfe)
Intermediate Member Username: Parkerfe Post Number: 1674 Registered: 9-2001 |
I had the dash on my TR recovered by John Dutton at The Mad Stichers (770.455.7505) for $350.00 I believe. He also recovered the front part of my Boxer dash. He replaced the padding as well. He does great work. You can bring him the dash or he will remove and replace it for you. If you want it done locally, just take the dash to the shop and don't tell them it is off a Ferrari. | ||
| Jeff Green (Carguy)
Junior Member Username: Carguy Post Number: 153 Registered: 10-2002 |
My TR's dash piece that covers the glove box needs recovered. The leather has shrunk away from the corners, and the previous owner tried what appears to be various unsuccessful repairs. As usual with my backwoods area, nobody wants to touch this piece (cuz it's a Ferrari). Has anyone recovered or repaired thier dash? Did you have to replace the padding underneath the leather? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. |