Glare reduction for 308 dash

I had one of these back in the 80's, but left it at a track meet (sigh). Got it from F.A.F., I think.
There is one for sale on ebay at the moment; look under 308 dash cover. Like the one I had, the top surface looks like carpeting. Ad says it is new, so if it sells, you still might learn the source from the seller.

 

www.dashmat.com

But polarized sunglasses do just as good a job!

 

http://www.italiancarparts.com/covers/carcovers.html#shields sells some nice ones too. I put one on my car to reduce the glare and cover up the beat up dash.

 

They do for me and several other folks on the board. But the mat does it for sure... I've got one of those too. You don't have to use the supplied velcro to keep it in place, though. What I do is remove the three round dash vents (the oblong ones don't come out easily) and then put them back in through the OUTSIDE of the dash mat vent holes. Holds it in place wonderfully.

Mike

 

Good tip Mike.

I love my 308 dashmat!

Greg

 

I keep a piece of black felt material in the car. I place it atop the instrument pod during sun glare conditions. It works well.

Barry

 

Me too. I have had a cover for a couple of years and it works great. My only complaint is that it looks just a little tacky, but from a safety and eye-strain standpoint it makes alot of sense...

 

I use one in my Boxer and it works great. My fits great and stays in place without the velcro. It also protects the dash leather from the sun.

 

My 308 from Montana came with the instrument pod covered in mousehair.

It's stitched to match the rest of the dash........works OK......

The MAIN thing is to avoid swabbing a greasy Armorall treatment on the dash, in the first place!

 

I bought a dashmat but haven't velcrowed it because i was less than happy with the fit & thought it might lay out a bit better after a few weeks in the sun but it still fits poorly.

Before i send it back for another try, i thught i'd ask how well others "mats" have fit.

?
chris

 

Chris,
Funny you mentioned poor fit.
The left part of my DashMat doesn't contour properly with the dash that's to the left of the instrument binnacle. I had to tuck a flap under, but it's close enough.
I figured they're all cut to same, wrong template, so I didn't exchange it.

The vent holes all line up nicely. All in all I'm satisfied..

Greg

 

I *did* send mine back and got another one, and it had the identical issue. But as you say, it's "close enough".

 

I disagree, Mike; I have polarized sunglasses and still get a bad glare off the central raised binnacle that holds the speedo and the tach. (The rest of the dash is not a significant problem.)

I may get a dashmat and just use the central portion.

 

Maybe since i'm a bit shorter and fatter, i get a lot of dash glare reflected up onto the windshield from the whole dash.

The dashmat really cuts down on the reflected light and since the fit seems to be fairly "standard", i will go ahead and velcrow it in.

best,
chris

 

Personally I use a £25 pair of Polorised sun-glasses and they work fine for sun, glare and reflections. However Poloroid does not work quite so well for overcast skies when the difuse light is not clearly polorised.

Different sunglass manufacturers use all sorts of terminology, so a quick test for good poloroid... Take two pairs of the glasses to be tested and put one in front of the other so you are looking through both lenses. Then turn one of the glasses to 90 degrees and the view should blacken entirely. If there is no change in the tint level, they are not proper polorising filters. (You can also check against camera poloriod filters and LCD displays that rely on poloroid technology - say calculator display).

My bug-bear is night time street lighting, I wound up re-shaping and altering the park position of my wipers (down the screen) as the combination of glare and wipers were hiding the kerbline at night. Not fun.


David.

 

Using this old thread I found for a little help please from over the pond.

I'm suffering very badly in the UK when we do get the sun, it's very dangerous, I can hardly see at times due to the GLARE off the binnacle.none of my sun glasses totally eliminate it, so I need a cover of some sort.

Has anyone got a picture of one of these dash covers on there 308/328 I can see in place, to get an idea what they look like before I order one.
Ideally I would like to find a place in the UK or Europe to save on taxes.

 

I don't have a picture of a cover. They are very unattractive in my opinion but they do work. You can also just put a black towel down on the dash in front of you. I just learned to up with the glare. It's part of the charm of being "old school".

 

Thanks for reply George,
As above anyone got one on there car and can post a pic
Cheers

 

I found having the binnacle recovered in leather made a very big improvement. I also have the Dash- mat for really bright conditions.


Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app

 

Makes you wonder why Ferrari ceased using the suede type of material on the older 60's and 70's car dash and instrument binnacles, other than on the 288GTO. Made most sense to avoid this glare issue in the first instance. If my leather ever cracks or shrinks I might redo in the vintage material, mind of like modern alcantera fabric.