Cognac dye of dashboard

[racefaith]

Hello all.

Winding down restoration and interior is last speed bump. Nearly everything is being replaced: carpet, door panels, seats and a few more bits. What I don't want to touch is the dashboard.

Most of the re wrapped dashboards I've seen look "loose" in that no one seems to be able to really finish the rounded edges, especially the corners well.....they seem obviously reskinned.

Windshield is still out so I really want to try dying the dashboard. Data card confirms the interior as "cognac" #250. For those not familiar, this color is pebbled in its look rather than a solid color.....it's has high points of lightness with the low valleys being darker, tan high, brown low if you will.

I've been told (and now I can visualize why it makes sense) that this color doesn't exist in a bottle, you can't reproduce a 2 tone theme, that any chance of replication would be application based.

So with all that said, am I making any sense in my description and if so, do my fellow owners have insight or advice as to how to tackle and solve for this dash refreshing?

Thanks in advance!

[badali]

We remade a cognac heal pad by spraying a grey mat with a base color then misting it with a speckle to look like the spots.  here are some pictures.  You could try this method.  It took quite a few attempts to get the proper look on practice pieces.  It should work with a dash also.

[wwheeler]

If this is leather, the trick to the dash parts is to have the leather skivved. In other words you face it to about half the width. It is then very flexible and easy to work with. GAHH will do this to their leather for a very reasonable amount.

The other trick is to make sure the leather is of good quality. In every hide, there will be soft spots. Those are the areas that will turn out wrinkled and ugly. Avoid that, and you should be good to go.

[rutger kohler]

Hi, I live not far away from Andy Burns (NZ), he did a superb job on re-skinning his dashboard (leather) and you can follow it on his posts step by step. My wife did our 280SL dashboard (MBTex) after this with help from him and we are very happy with the results. You are in a very good position with the window still out.  Just be sure to put the wood in too before you put the window in, it is very easy to scratch the new dashboard surface with the wood fixing screws, on the corner bits, if the window is in place.  I would definitely re-skin.

[RobSirg]

When you re-skinned with MBTex did you go over the old MBTex or remove it first? The reason I ask is that when I removed the non-original leather on my blue car the glue took chunks of foam padding from the dashboard sections which had to be filled ( was quite a job) before I could get it recovered in new leather.
The car I'm restoring now has MBTex which I think is beyond repair. If I do remove the old MB Tex I fear taking off chunks of foam padding again - if I don't remove it, it will be too thick making it a tight fit especially around the instrument cluster.

I have not gone over Andy's posts yet to see what he did ( I will) but I'm interested in what you ( your wife ) did with the MB Tex on your 280SL.

Thanks

Rob

[racefaith]

thanks all folks for advice.
After visiting with a few shops today, i feel the best approach for my project is a thorough cleaning and deep conditioning to bring as much of the depth and luster back. I feel this will prove better from a value standpoint if the car ever goes to market.

[rutger kohler]

In reply to Rob, we left the old MBtex on in fact where it had cracked we reglued it before putting the new stuff on. The hardest part was the binnacle from memory, Andy told us this so my wife started on that.  The ends of the dashboard where the MBTex has to stretch in 3 directions is also tricky.  Andy suggested we heat the MBTex first on tricky bits and this helped. The MBTex is cheap enough, get plenty spare and give it a go.

[RobSirg]

Thanks for that.
I was mostly interested if the old MBTex was left on or not. By leaving it on would give the best finish but my interior guy claims it will be too tight to fit the dash sections if we do that ( he's done a few). I read Andy's posts and see that he removed the old material which also caused sections of foam to fall off - which he replaced with another foam material.
I still have my concern about the pro's and cons of leaving the old material on. I intend using a vendor called "The Dashboard Doctor" and they professionally heat shrink vinyl so I might consult them. Cost is not great and they are very skilled. I do have plenty of spare MBTex thanks. I might take an under panel section and try that out first.

I even noticed that a member is selling Bamboo colour MBTex at a very reasonable price - if only he listed it 3 months ago