TR Dashes

Why do so many TR's come with brown dashes? Was this the default color? Could you order a different color if you wanted to? If so, why didn't more people do it? Many of the dashes that I look at (regardless of color) are pulling away from the vents. How big a job is it to pull the dash & replace the leather? Thanks for the info, Jerry.

 

It's a fairly big job IMO -- not something you could do (well) in less than 2 man-days + the cost of the actual leather repair so maybe ~$2K minimum (and it's the kind of thing where it's nice to give all the pieces some care/treatment while disassembled so I put in way more labor than that including some repair to the dash carcass itself and fixing the abuse from a previous disassembly/reassembly). If I was a buyer, I'd put a $4~5K discount on TR with such a need -- JMO...

 

PS mine's black...

 

I think I have a black dash for a 92 512TR

 

That looks awesome Steve, great job!!

 

Mine is black! Best repair and least expensive is to have the windshield removed and repairs done. A competant upholstry shop can do very easily.

 

LOL! And just *how* do you propose to remove the WS and trim without breaking it? Even Shelton wouldn't guarantee a removal without breakage = $1500 + cost of new trim + installlation cost at $96.50 per hour for well over $2000 extra to the cost.

Having almost the same problem, I removed my entire dash, ordered the Connely leather, and had the pieces recovered all for under $500, but as Steve stated, it's not an easy R&R at all, (you had best hurry if you want Connely leather).

The dash part under the window is a piece of corrugated plastic crap covered with leather.

This shoddy construction contributes to the problem you have, and I replaced mine with a thin piece of veneer that I covered with one layer of fiberglass cloth and cut to fit.

I'll post images of my install when I return.

 

The dash on my BB512i is brown too.

 

>Many of the dashes that I look at (regardless of color) are pulling away from the vents.

Okay, the reason is mainly that the construction of the interior upholstery is anything but "exotic." I was shocked.

When I replaced mine, I had the guy upgrage the vent area by sewing in a "patch" in each vent area that could be properly secured, and looks good, as well.

These were taken with a web cam so I couldn't post an image of the entire area.

Front and back:

 

Well, I can't seem to make the image appear, but the link is there.
This would be underneath:


Also, a thin piece of fabric backed foam was glued to the back of the leather to stabilize it, and add a little padding. The white color you see in the second image is that backing.

My advise when you take out the dash - tell the guy that it's to a project that your'e working on - Don't use the F word, unless you want to pay 2-3x as much.

 

here they are:

This solves the problem of shrinkage around the vents.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

rear view:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I had the leather on the dash of my TR replaced last year because the leather had pulled away from the vents. I took it to a upholstery shop in New Jersey that did a superb job of matching and replacing the leather. I also had them custom make a black dash cover to protect the leather dash when she is parked in the sun. The whole deal cost be $1200.00 -- I could not be happier! pd

 

PD: Do you have any pics of the end result?