Leather Shrinkage and Dash Warpage Remedy?

I had both my Boxer and TR dash recovered by a local auto upholstery shop for a couple hundred bucks...I took out the dash and carried it to them...as I recall the dash panel itself is made out of aluminum...

 

Good day Rick,

I, too, had this same problem. I tried using Leatherique's Rejuvenator for almost a month (applied every day, etc) before I gave up and had it replaced at an upholstery shop. I found that the product helped very little, as once the leather pulls away, it is very dry and not very supple.

Fortunately, removal of the BB's dash is quite straightforward and it only takes about 2-3 hours to complete.

Cheers,

Sam

 

Mine has the smae issue at the passenger front corner by the glass. Its minor and is aluminum under the leather flat panel. Ill deal with it some day but not yet, its pretty minor.

 

The instrument pod and dash is made of fiberglass and the dash top is made of corrogated plastic. Once that is shrunk and warped it is through. I have made several out of masonite and padded and recovered them.

 

The flat panel where the registers are looks like aluminum where the leather it pulled away from the corner. I figured the rest would be fiberglass like the 308's and daytonas, etc...

 

The leather has shrunk and is pulling away on the instrument cluster pod of both my TR and 355.

I plan of reupholstering both in the near future, but I'm afraid of touching the TR cluster. Any of you know how difficult it is to remove. I have heard horrible stories of others who have tried to mess with TR dashboards, so I have been too afraid to try.

Rifledriver,
You have any special secrets to removing the pod on a '91 TR??? Would be greatly appreciated before I start messing with it break something. Thanks

 

Entire dash on a TR is a pretty big job especially on a passive restraint car.

Inst pod on TR and 355 come off almost the same.

On TR there is a leather covered finisher covering the area above the steering col and below the inst pod. It is held in with one 4 or 5 mm nut in the middle over the column. Remove it. Look under dash right above speaker box and find wire bundle from instruments. Pull out from behind speaker far enought to undo 3 large plugs. When you removed that finisher it exposed 1 screw on each side. Remove both lever pod out at bottom and unhook at top. Pull wires out as you remove pod. It can be done with wheel in place but on the first time it is prob easier to take wheel off.


On 355 just pull out the 2 screws at the bottom on each side of column and lever pod up and out just far enough to expose back. Un plug all plugs on back of instruments.

 

Wasn't shrinkage an episode on Seinfeld?

 

Can you give details of how to pull the dash out?

 

Interesting topic - we have been working on the dash / interior on my resto lately.

We removed the dash (pretty easy), stripped down the metal base and recovered with a heat insulator material. I liked it so much we're doing the entire interior - ripped it all out - to heat / sound insulate.

I'm going to get this thing running cool inside if it kills me.
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If you are going to re-upholster your dash, have a look at the vinyl that is available that looks identical to leather. It will not shrink. The problem is that on BB dash there are lots of compound curves and vinyl streches in 90 degree angles while leather streches in every direction. I just bought a car that I re-uphlostered the dash in this vinyl and it looks terrific.
I will post photos on my blog, www.rpmvt.com

 

Good day PWehmer,

The procedure is quite straightforward:
1. Disconnect Battery
2. Remove Stereo and A/C Ducts
3. Remove the steering wheel and hub (necessary for speedo and/or tach removal)
4. Remove gauges and label cables
5. Locate the 4 or 5 (I can't remember the exact number) - 6mm nuts that hold the dash to the frame
6. Remove the door rubber molding to expose the rivets that hold the leather pillar pieces.
7. Drilling out these rivets will allow this pillar pieces to be removed so that the dash can be removed. Be careful as these leather pillar covers are quite thin where they meet the dash and the front windscreen... also, the glass putty acts an adhesive too. Take your time here.

That's about it. I would have taken some pics, but I did not think of it until after ... Anyway, it took me about 2-3 hours at first, as I was taking my time. I suspect that if I were to do it again I could do it in about an hour.

Cheers,

Sam