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W116 blue interior dashboard material.

Started by Engineerd3d, 25 May 2021, 04:36 PM

Engineerd3d

The interior on my 1980 300sd is fairly decent. However the dashboard is cracked. I was contemplating getting a dash cap, however I doubt i would be very happy with it. Also the sides of the center dash are noticably faded. I will also have to pull the dash to replace the diaphragms on my center vents, or at least cap the line and wire the center permanently opened. I am tired of the perpetual vacuum leak.

Now the real idea is to repair the dash cracks using expanding foam and shaping it. Then gluing a brand new layer of vinyl on top with 3m adhesive. Then comes the question to getting a matching vinil color with the proper finish. Anyone. Have an online source for it? I have tried to look but it's confusing.

floyd111

A new layer of vinyl, on top of the old vinyl? Not sure that's the way to go. Also, what about the corners and angles? Without the whole thing in a vacuum bag/with vacuum pump, you may end up creating more drama.
Vinyl can be ordered from several sources. Auto-Cabrio.de, GAHH, UPH, and a few more.

ptashek

I guess it could be done with some heat and lots of patience. Never tried it though.

Stan listed some sources, all should have the material in blue as it was the most popular interior colour.

Your problem will be that at least two of these sources, cabrio.de and UPH, supply fabric backed/reinforced vinyl, and what you need is the plain article. The fabric reinforcement prevents any stretching and shaping.
1993 "Pearl Blue" W124 280TE
1988 "Arctic White" W124 200T
1979 "Icon Gold" W116 450SE

rumb

The expensive dash rebuilders strip all the vinyl and foam off and then apply new foam, shape it and then vac form the vinyl on.  One could presumably make the foam layer all nice and then have a good auto upholstery company sew a new cover.  There is a certain kind of stitching they can do that runs along the sharp edges that looks very nice.   
'68 250S
'77 6.9 Euro
'91 300SE,
'98 SL500
'14 CLS550,
'16 AMG GTS
'21 E450 Cabrio

daantjie

Honestly the only repair you will likely be happy with is a replacement dash. It is very much like leather seat repair, it will never be quite right, and the best way is to replace it completely with a NOS dash, or in the case of seat leather to use a good outfit such as GAHH.
Daniel
1977 450 SEL 6.9 - Astralsilber

nathan

As noted, nothing like a replacement dash but new no longer available, and finding an intact one one and getting it out of a wreck is not easy.  I had a 126 previously and someone had done a vinyl cover on it. it actually looked really good and the other positive, is that it felt slightly soft/rubbery like an original.  not my first choice and I dont know how they did it?  as I often note, the thing I dont like about dash caps is it makes it harder to close glove boxes and speedo clusters.
1979 116 6.9 #6436
2018 213 e63
2011 212 e63
2011 463 g55
2007 211 e500 wagen
1995 124 e320 cabriolet
1983 460 300gd
1981 123 280te

floyd111

I second all of that.
Brief, your way to go is probably to remove the dash and send it out to have it recovered. Depending on location, there may be good deals out there. I just bought a NOS dash in blue last week, and it set me back 1550 euros, before shipping to Taiwan from Germany. With that number in mind, could you not do it for less by having it refurbished? A similar job here costs between 700 and 1000 usd.

Engineerd3d

I have seen a few people recover old dashes with vinyl using super 44 adhesive and a heat gun and obviously lots of patience. I had not thought about the vinyl types, thank you for steering me in the right direction and suppliers.

While I do commend people steering me in the used/nos dash side saying those would be close to close/perfect, my car is a project car that I wrench on and prefer to do the work myself.

I am in the process of cleaning up and fixing a bunch of the cracked zebrano wood at this time as well. (Pictures incoming at some point) While it won't be perfect, it will be original to the car and the story of the car. I would prefer the dash have a similar look and feel, this car was only new once, it wears its age with grace and helping it along a bit is all it needs to be perfect in my eyes. After all erasing 40+ years of age is not befitting to it IMHO.

Mattr

I had my dash wrapped in black material, and it's honestly not great. I mean, it isn't cracked, anymore, and it's the stock dashboard (so someone could feasibly remove it if they want to go back to a blue interior, when I sell the car), but it looks a little funny, and there's fitment issues I didn't discover until 6+ months down the line (and the shop that did it was fairly unresponsive in asking them to check their work/try to correct it).
1976 450SE 6.9 FrankenBenz (#2288?)
1977 450SEL 6.9 #2333