Hey fellas,
Got a 3 inch split on my dash, want to fix it before it gets worse.. I did see a good write up on here but for the life of me I can't find it.!
Anyone remember who did it? Or what products were used?
Cheers
-Mcb
cracked dash diy
Moderator: martauto
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capri_rob
- Married to the E30 Zone
- Posts: 9678
- Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:00 pm
- Location: South Staffordshire
Find an un-cracked replacement ( £40-£60 or so ) and set aside the best part of a day to swap them over if youve never done it before
e30topless said : Proper BMW's have 4 headlights, last of the run was the E30 and E34/E32 anything after that is just complete shite
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Brianmoooore
- E30 Zone Team Member
- Posts: 49360
- Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:00 pm
Unless you're in some obscure part of the world, just change it complete. Fairly easy job, and plenty of uncracked dashboards around.
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Billwill
- E30 Zone Regular
- Posts: 363
- Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2011 11:00 pm
- Location: South Africa
I agree with the comments on replacing the dash with a good one if that is available.
Here in SA good, uncracked dashes are impossible to come by and new ones are totaly out of reach price-wise.
Here in SA we have a product made by Pratley called Wonda Fix which is an epoxy mix that comes in black or clear. Maybe you can get it in the UK...Pratley products have been used in the USA Space program!
Whatever product you do use if you choose to try a repair rather than a replace...I worked out a good way to get the fixed section to blend into the background rather nicely.
The existng dash has a "grained" pattern to look like it is leather and when filling gaps you need to try reproduce this grained effect.
Get some of the white putty-like product that you use to stick things up on your fridge or bulletin board, know as "Press Stick" here...or you can use "Plastascin"
On a section of the dash next to where you are going to be doing your repair...smear a bit of Vasaline or silicone in a very thing layer on a section of the dash. Now press the Press Stick onto this section so as to pick up the impression of the "grain" on the Press Stick and carefully peel it off.
Once you have filled the crack in the dash with black silicon or whatever....place the "grained" bit of Press Stick over the still-wet fill..making sure the grain goes in the correct direction and leave until the filled crack has dried. Hopefully when you lift off the Press Stick the filled section now will have a grain pattern on it that merges reasonably well with the original dash.
Here in SA good, uncracked dashes are impossible to come by and new ones are totaly out of reach price-wise.
Here in SA we have a product made by Pratley called Wonda Fix which is an epoxy mix that comes in black or clear. Maybe you can get it in the UK...Pratley products have been used in the USA Space program!
Whatever product you do use if you choose to try a repair rather than a replace...I worked out a good way to get the fixed section to blend into the background rather nicely.
The existng dash has a "grained" pattern to look like it is leather and when filling gaps you need to try reproduce this grained effect.
Get some of the white putty-like product that you use to stick things up on your fridge or bulletin board, know as "Press Stick" here...or you can use "Plastascin"
On a section of the dash next to where you are going to be doing your repair...smear a bit of Vasaline or silicone in a very thing layer on a section of the dash. Now press the Press Stick onto this section so as to pick up the impression of the "grain" on the Press Stick and carefully peel it off.
Once you have filled the crack in the dash with black silicon or whatever....place the "grained" bit of Press Stick over the still-wet fill..making sure the grain goes in the correct direction and leave until the filled crack has dried. Hopefully when you lift off the Press Stick the filled section now will have a grain pattern on it that merges reasonably well with the original dash.
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mcbonio
- E30 Zone Squatter
- Posts: 1868
- Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:00 pm
Yeah its a small thin crack, I'd rather have a go fixing it that stripping the entire dash out.. I'm time poor at the moment.
Cheers guys.!
Cheers guys.!