Dash Upholstery

[sfox]

I am also in the process of replacing my interior. I have ordered and received the upholstery and trim kits from World Upholstery. I have been very happy with the quality of the material, but my upholster is having some problems molding the M-B Tex vinyl material around the dash pieces. The wood piece over the gauges is causing them a lot of grief. They tell me that the material has too thick of a backing to mold it to the wood form.

Has anyone else had this problem? I have called World and they tell me that there is no other material available. Even leather would have to be scribed to thin it down.

Let me know if anyone has any suggestions.

Thanks,

sfox

[graphic66]

I sent the dash pieces to Buds Benz and had them do them. They came back perfect using MB Tex. I did the part over the windshield and the glove box myself.

[Garry]

Had a similar problem also using leather.  I had to shave back the wood around the rear top of the Gauges a small bit to get it to all to fit.  Also had some difficulty in fitting it into the corners at the front right and left which took several tries to get it to form and stretch properly.

[bpossel]

sfox,

I also had a lot of problems with the "fit" of the dash pieces and wood after being redone.  I had to have the small left piece redone 2x's to fit correctly.  Not sure about the earlier models, but on the later ones there is a foam layer glued onto the metal of the dash pieces.  When you start to remove the dash material, it can tear and remove parts of the foam stuff and this will slightly change the shape of the dash piece.  This slight change has an impact on the fit of the dash pieces and also how the wood lays on the dash  .

I worked on the wood fit afterwoods...  lots of trial and error and some sanding of the underside of the wood.  In general, I think one can consider themselves fortunate if all the pieces look and fit perfectly in the end. 
Good Luck,
Bob

[hill]

Has anyone tried a hair drier on a low setting? Before placing the piece.

[Anfinn]

I tried a hot air blower, when I redid the interior with MB-tex.

The plastic becomes more pliable, but the material has a "gauze" backing which I found didn't stretch very much.

On some spots it helped to lift or remove this backing, but I felt the MB-tex then would tear much easier.

Generally, the technique I used was to glue the curved pieces in stages, so that I could clamp it down without any wrinkles.
(Put something flat under the clamps, otherwise they leave a permanent imprint of the clamp in the material.)

The corner pieces at each end of the dashboard were very difficult. The MB-tex would not stretch enough to follow the double (saddle) curvature of these pieces. I ended up inserting a v-shaped piece on the underside of this item.

The result isn't 100%, but good enough for me. Were I to do it again I feel I could do a better job the next time.

[zoegrlh]

Did mine in leather.  Was really no problem.  Once new leather was glued, all pieces fit Back together like a glove.  Guess I was the lucky one.  FYI, I will be giving a talk at Blacklick this summer on leather replacement for the do - it - yourself-er.  My leather (from GAHH) stretched easily with hair dryer heating it up first.  I can understand with the MB-TEX cotton backing the it will not stretch at all.  I wonder if with Graphic 66 having Buds Benz do it that they did not pull backing off to have it stretch???  I suggest that you send to Bud's Benz for them to do that piece.

[Allenh]

I did my dash in leather, 230SL with the flats at the outside radius of both ends of the dash. I spent days stretching it.  I think is was the most difficult job I had to do. 

Going to Blacklick if only to learn leather techniques would just about be worth it alone. 

I think leather is the best way to go, It also smells awesome.