Dash covering question

[Khurram Darugar]

Hello all,
          I want to recover my very aged dash this time in black leather (MBTex originally).  Does anyone know how to remove the mbtex.  It very hard and appears to be cracking off inplaces.  I was thinking about steaming it.
Im having the leather put on proffesionally but wanted to know whether it is necessary to remove the original mbtex and how it hould be done if required.
Thanks
Kay

Kay
Euro 280sl LHD Auto.

[enochbell]

Kay,

I would leave the removal to the interior specialist.  They are going to have to remove all of the old adhesive anyway.  And while you are at it, make sure the shop has experience with this dash, it is very difficult to get right.  Typically the leather has to be shaved thin enough to get it to stretch properly around the curves in the corners.  Then a flap of leather needs to be left on to allow correct installation behind the air vents.

Best,

g

'64 230sl, fully sorted out...ooops, spoke too soon

[Vince Canepa]

It cannot be removed.  It is not M-B Tex even though the seats and door panels may be.  The covering is molded with the underlying energy absorbant base.  A good interior specialist can tell you how the redo them.. I'm going to guess that they make whatever repairs to fill the cracks and cover over the old piece.

The early interiors are different.  The dash pads are aluminum covered by foam (aerated plastic in Classic Center talk) and then M-B Tex or leather are stretched over them and glued to the aluminum base.

Vince Canepa
1967 250SL
113.043-10-001543
568H Signal Red
116 Caviar MB-Tex

[Khurram Darugar]

Thanks Vince,
             My dash pads are of the aluminium variety.  I will be getting them done professionally, and just wanted to know what the preferred method is, as its always better to have some insight.  In the case of aluminum dash pads, does this mean that the present covering is not to be removed and the new covering is to be stretched over?
Kay

Kay
Euro 280sl LHD Auto.

[Vince Canepa]

Your car should not have the early pads.  The changeover was during the 250SL model run.  Is the foam material under the textured cover a very firm material?  The early ones have soft foam that is cut from sheet material.

Vince Canepa
1967 250SL
113.043-10-001543
568H Signal Red
116 Caviar MB-Tex

[Khurram Darugar]

Vince,
      Looks like hard foam over aluminium.  Your saying just recover over the textured material... right?
Kay

Kay
Euro 280sl LHD Auto.

[waltklatt]

Kay,
Your 280Sl has the foam injected moulded dash pieces.  There is no way to remove the old covering and put a new one on top.  Simply best to re-cover it carefully and do trial fits to make sure it doesn't interfere with the snug fit-especially over the gauges and wood bows.  Or replce it with a better one.
Walter Klatt
1967 220SL-diesel
1963 230SL

[dreyer635]

Hi
I coverd the dash om mine 280 SL with new MBTex. I first removed all items to be coverd, then sandet the old tex /foam even with a 60 sandpaper to get rid of cracs etc + making good fix for the glue. (only sand it even - do not remove all old tex.) afterwards I glued the new tex directy on top of the old one, be patient and take your time with stretching it even in all corners. I also used heat to stretch it in the end, and the result was very good. It's possible it's easier with the tex vs leather, since it's stretches easier when heated.
I did have no problems with putting it back in place, even if it was a millimeter or two thicker
Kjell

[Vince Canepa]

It sounds like M-B continued to use aluminum as a base material, but changed what is above.

I was talking about this very issue earler this year with Bob Platz of Precision Autowerks.  He said he much prefered to work with the later parts.  He didn't say why.  My guess is that sanding the parts smooth, filling the cracks with expanding foam and glueing on Tex or leather is easier to get the right shape because the sanded part IS exactly the right shape.  The early pads are very difficult to get just right because you must use exactly the right foam and have just the right tension in the covering.  I know.  I redid the foam under my pads and reused the original Tex which was in excellent condition and already had the right shape.  Adjustments were easy with a little heat, but I did and awful lot of experimenting to get the right foam.

One caution.  Leather must be handled differently that TEX.  You can get Tex around some very sharp bends by using a heat gun.  I don't think leather will respond to that technique.

Vince Canepa
1967 250SL
113.043-10-001543
568H Signal Red
116 Caviar MB-Tex

[Mike]

I can tell you that I just went through this exercise with all of my dash parts and replaced them with vinyl from a local fabric store that was a dead ringer for the original product.  I chose this product because the samples of MB tex that I received from the usual sources really did not look anything like the original.  They contained far more texture than the original.  I did this work as part of my repaint in which I had the windshield out.  That made the job a lot easier.  I removed all the glue from the aluminum dash parts after carefully noting how the pieces were glued originally.  The glue came off fairly easily with MEK and I was able to fasten the new vinyl and achieved a pretty good result.  While my dash pieces did not look bad to start with they now look great.  The hardest part of all was the wooden curvy piece that sits atop the gauges.  I had to redo it 5-6 times before I was happy with the results.  If you are careful and take your time you should have no problem.

Michael L. Hund