Replacing the mousehair on the dashboard

Simon,
I can give you only one piece of advice, DO NOT attemp this job unless you are a very skilled upholsterer.......there are parts of this dash which are very difficult to get the material to fit snugly round, particularly the glove box area.
In fact the guy who did mine had to heat the material slightly and it took him a day to do!
And no the material goes straight on with no extra padding.
Graham.

 

it has pirelli rubber, the right corner is the most difficult part, i have done a few, and swear every time on that corner. it is fun doing but it is very difficult to do
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Where is your material from?

 

ditto, hard to do

 

it was made over 15 years ago, identical to the original fabric. this fabric is no longer available i am thinking to have some made if there is any interest to have the original fabric

 

does it fade away like the original?

 

there are others here that know for sure, but my understanding is that the covering material was not fabric (cloth) at all but the same Dino vinyl as seen elsewhere in the interior which had been "flocked" to make it non-reflective

I'm sure if you can have that made so it looks identical to the original stuff you'll have plenty of buyers for it.

 

only time will tell that, but it was said to be more resistant to sun

 

it is fabric!!!!! not vinyl
would not make it if i can not have identical to original exept for better resistant to sun
i have several old sample so i can have identical color

 

This is the original material and color. It is fabric, soaks up water like a sponge! looses color and hair with the blink of an eye. I wonder if a suede covering would look right? or would it be just as bad.
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Well put me down for a couple of metres should you decide to have it manufactured.

I suppose that we where assuming that it was flocked vinyl due to the similarity in the grain

Thanks
Jamie

 

It is flocked Dino vinyl not a woven material at least on my late GTS.

 

Surely, if it was vinyl, water would run off it, not soak right through. has yours been recovered with some other material?

 

I would be interested in enough material to redo one car.
Please consider having some remade!!

 

Same here...

Regards, Alberto

 

All this mouse-fur dash material is flocked Dino vinyl. I checked a spare Dino dash that hasn't been recovered as well as an original Stratos dash that hasn't been recovered and they are both flocked vinyl. The material I bought at FAF (Ferrari dealer) in Atlanta back in 1985 was flocked vinyl. It is not a woven fabric. We visited Trincera in Italy (big upholstery supplier) and talked to the head of the company and he admitted it turned out to be a flawed product that faded. The new stuff is too black. Wish we could find a way to fade it a bit. UV light? Light bleaching? I have a whole roll of the new stuff and will try a mild bleach solution on a piece just for fun.

 

I think Henk van Lith is working on a mousehair reproduction. That is what he told me a few month ago...
Maybe he needs a push from other customers too.
If he finally had done it, you can be 100% sure it`s like the original material.
Regards Matthias

 

your evidence seems to be more compelling than mine!, I guess I have to rethink it

 

Some of the original dashes, when the flocking wears off, are down to the original vinyl with no fuzz left. If someone does a faithful reproduction then solving the fading issue is crucial as the original stuff started going bad after a year or so. I have a spare dash I covered in the original material and it is already changing from charcoal to brownish looking and it has never been outside its entire life!

 

As I believe I mentioned in a post months ago on this issue, I have had my factory-original mousehair spray-dyed (about eight years ago), and it has not faded at all in the ensuing period. I drive my car on hot, sunny days most often, and have been extremely pleased with the way the dye has held up. I would never consider the expense and disruption of recovering the dash in the original fade-prone material. It would be an exercise in futility, in my opinion. Fred

 

I could not understand why, even dyeing it with suede dye, it still turned brown after a few months it stand then the hair falls out!
It makes you wonder if its worth doing. You restore an interior and a year later its brown again.

 

I used VHT black fabric spray on one dash that was faded but still had good fuzz and it lasted a long time and looked pretty good. Though nothing beats the look of the original material when it is freshly installed.

 

agreed on the new one, I just have to look inside the glove box and its right there. Flat black VHT I guess?

 

might as well take a close up
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