Dash upholstery

[n/a]

I now have completely disassembled my dash to refinish everything. The actual dash pads (9 or so individual pieces) are in need of recovering. My interior is MBTex, and I am told that leather interiors used the same base pads with a leather skin. So my plan is to have my pads covered in MBTex.

Anybody done this? The shapes (especially around instrument cluster) are
pretty complex, so I definitely want a pro to do this work. Can somebody recommend a place to send my pads to be MBTex'ed?

Mike McMahon, Baltimore MD
1970 280SL 4-speed manual
olive green ext, bamboo int

[tuultyme]

If you are recovering it anyway why not go with leather?  Send the dash pieces to someone like Ron's restoration in Georga; 770-438-6102.  With the extra material it becomes a little extra work to get things pushed back into place but looks great when done.  I had to do some extra triming of the leather from the attachment side of each of the pieces to get them to fit better.  Also I did use a few longer screws in some places.  Try to remember how the dash pieces fit around the door posts and side air vents and look at other cars when refitting.

Bruce; 268Blaugrun(green) 1970 280SL; IL

[mdsalemi]

Mike,

You are absolutely correct; there are some compound curves, and fitting leather to these dash panels is an art in which experience is the key.  One of the tricks is a leatherworking process called "skiving" in which they shave the back of the leather to allow them to stretch it and fold and tuck these complex curves and finally finish it on the backside.

Bruce recommended Ron's Restorations; I have no experience with them but the interior of my car was done by GAHH http://www.gahhinc.com/ in California.  They did a superior job.  Not only did they do the dash panels and all the padded pieces, but the door panels, headrests seats and carpet as well--basically the entire interior.

If I am not mistaken, even "factory" leather had MB-tex under the padded panels.

Michael Salemi

Mike Salemi

[n/a]

I agree with mdsalemi. I am now having my complete interior redone in leather, and two shops did not want to handle the compound curves (not a dyi project). My shop is very experienced, and therefore can easily handle it, but I have seen work from GAHH and highly recommend them as well. Just box up all the pieces and send it to them in L.A., and they will return them recovered in whatever material color you like. Leather is laid over the base material, whether it is aluminum, foam or fiberboard, except for the dash, where it is laid over the existing M/BTex.