Glueing Dashboard Cover

[GSR 54D]

Had a look in forum search and nothing I noticed comes up with glueing a new dashboard vinyl to the metal cover.

Has anyone tried this? The new dashboard cover from sng comes with basic instructions. To get the vinyl to fit nicely around the metal front it talks about cuttting then heating (lightly), using a hair dryer I presume, to get the vinyl to flex/shape around metal then glueing. Slight concern about heating and glueing at the same time using impact/contact adhesive.
Can one heat the vinyl with the glue already pasted on ready to fix immediately?
Or maybe heat, try and shape, then apply glue, wait for it to go tacky (10mins etc) fix. However I presume whilst waiting for the glue to go tacky the vinyl will cool down and not be so pliable when you need it to be!

Any guidance please....

John H.

[Dave K]

I got my dash cover from BAS, the cover is ABS plastic and Jack also suggested heating the cover with a heat gun not a hair a drier because you can't get enough heat into it to keep it pliable.

I heated it first to get the basic shape and then used heat resistant contact adhesive.

It's not an easy job I can say that, the heat gun constantly burned my hands and almost as soon as the heat comes off the plastic goes hard again.
I did use the heat again as I put the cover on here and there.

Dave

[GSR 54D]

Thanks Dave, heat gun it is then. I may glue the of majority of cover first, allow to dry, then cut and stick all edges afterwards using heat gun.

John H.

[1954Etype]

Only use the heat resistant glue as anything else will come unstuck in the sun. I did mine on a hot day and left the cover to warm up before sticking. And yes, a heat gun is essential!

[GSR 54D]

Thanks Angus

Just preparing now and realised that the front edge that goes underneath is stuck down only and not the whole lot + clipped at back.

And yes I have some heat resistant glue left over from my Koolmat fit.

[1954Etype]

Good luck. Worth trying to keep the old one intact so you can see where the original cuts were made by the original trimmers

[osgii]

So it is possible to remove the old vinyl without damaging it right? I suppose the trick is to warm it up before trying to remove it... i'm I correct?
Cause I would love to repaint my to main metal board as all the dash is actually out of the car... But if I have to choose between original vinyl vs painted metal, i'll go for original vinyl...

[rfs1957]

Could someone update me on this ?



My dash-board cover is fine except that the area just above the centre gauges is not straight, rather a bit lumpy, and it looks naff. The vinyl in the L and R corners is not terribly elegant either. It's an original base that's already been recovered, I reckon, since there are a couple of flat steel reinforcing strips that have been spot-welded to the underneath to correct some perceived weakness or distorsion.

Would it be worth stripping it to sort this out, what am I going to find underneath, and how do I correct the profile before re-covering, please ?

Or should I just get out more often ?

[JagWaugh]

Rory,

You need to get out more.

Winter is the time for this kind of stuff.

[rfs1957]

But throughout the 1.900 km I did last week my eye kept seeing this FAULT !!!

Okay, let's just say I'm just getting ready for work in October ?

[rfs1957]

BAS in Wales sell the shaped foam overlay plus the vinyl covering for £68.57 + VAT, and you fit these to your own tray.

SNGB sell what appears to be the whole lot - BD35691 steel tray / foam overlay / vinyl - for £75.60 + VAT.

http://www.sngbarratt.com/ProductDetail ... 5975e5&l=7

If it's complete, how do you get your demister-plenums into place ?

Anyone been down either of those roads ?

[ralphr1780]

Rory, there is no steel tray provided just the foam and the rigid vinyl together. You strip your dashboard to the metal panel, then glue this one and finally cut the demister openings and fix the vents.

[rfs1957]

Thanks Ralph, that makes more sense.

Jack at BAS says that the very early flat-floor / straight-behind-the-seats cars had a "flat" dash cover with no foam, but that's not the case for my 1962 car where he says the vinyl would have been attached to the foam, which is indeed how BAS supply it.



This was re-trimmed by one of the usual UK trimmers for the PO in the late 1980's so it is not original.





However, perhaps someone could throw some light on where my dash originated since it seems to have been modified, albeit perhaps professionally, viz the traces of earlier outlet vent positions that have been blanked off ?









Anybody ever come across modifications like this before ?

The kink in the lower edge came from the fact that the steel was buckled and just 5 minutes with a mallet and a curved dolly were all it took to get it into a much better shape, and it fits the whole windscreen area more uniformly too.



I'm going to change the way it's held into the car to make it much easier to get on and off, probably with captive rivet nuts in the steel stamping and then knurled pillar-bolts coming up through the brackets.



Maybe mine's been tinkered with but it's a swine to remove and re-fit because of the studs poking down - the two in the L and R corners make the trimming a nightmare, and socket access is a b---h for no reason whatosever.



I'll make new supports on the shell for those two and move them an inch or so inwards and forwards to make trimming and subsequent fitting of the whole dash easier.



Is this bracket in the fuse area original and held in correctly ? There's only 1 screw holding it to the cheekplates, so it can conceivably be meant to pivot ? Maybe it was indeed meant to for the reasons of fitting mentioned above ?

I need to make the RH one and would like it to be right (sic).

[skiday]

I have just done mine and, as ever, it was not straightforward.

I had a cover from BAS (who supply SNG Barratts) and it just did not sit right. The car as I acquired it had a vinyl dash top that wrinkled at the complex curves at either end. I discovered that this was due to a layer of normal backed vinyl glued over the normal foam & plastic (unbacked) top. I stripped this off and found the plastic underneath was hardly damaged at all, just one very small blemish, but the metal of the dash had cut through the plastic covering at either end of the thick part of the crash-roll just where it thins out over the speedo/rev & glove compartment.


It is essential that you ensure that the metal will not be pressing against the plastic covering or it will cut through. If you think there is a risk then trim down the metal, as I did.

I thought the foam/plastic top was original, but BAS chap identified it as one of theirs. I stripped everything off, de-rusted and painted the metal and then offered up the new top to find that it did not sit well just in front of the two curved vents where my dash had a very different profile to the inside of the new foam. I consulted BAS and was told to just stick it on and fitting the vent will pull it to shape. I didn't like the sound of that at all as it would create tension, which could result in the top trying to get to its original shape and creeping back from the vent. So I cut out two triangles of metal from the dash-top and hammered the area by the vent flat. This allowed the foam/plastic to sit well.



Only now, seeing a photo of the dash-top from Rory do I see there was more than one dash-top. You can also see my dash-top has vent holes where Rory's had been but have been moved. Look at the area by the curved vent & notice how much closer the bulge is to the vent hole. This must be a different pressing. Mine is a S1.5 2+2 1968 with the upright windscreen (3 wipers)



Also the foam needed a bit of tidying up by carefully trimming the mould joint mark. Just make sure no shavings of rubbing fall between the foam and the plastic.

I applied heat resistant contact glue and when that was ready heated the plastic with a hot air gun. The plastic cannot go through endless cycles of heating/cooling, each time is gets a bit less soft on heating if you do it more than once. Once cooled it goes very hard so it stays in place very well where leather or backed vinyl would be trying to relax back to its unstretched form.

It's not back on the car yet as I'm having trouble getting the paint on the vent trims right. I tried satin Hammerite over zinc primer, but it didn't go as hard as usual, so I'm going to try with POR15 top Coat Chassis black aerosol. I'll post a pic when it's all back together. Now I'm trying to get the glove compartment off to replace, but that's a different thread.

[rfs1957]

That sounds like a lot of hard work indeed Andrew, and I'm glad I sent it all to BAS to have Jack do it.

I'm quite good at making a delicate wooden case to pack odd bits of sheet steel pressings in and ship them to Wales, but heat-guns and contact adhesives bring me out in a rash.

I'm sure someone else must be able to enlighten us regarding the dash-top pressings since there must surely have been loads of variants between 1961 and 1968 ?

[skiday]

No disrespect to Jack, but pros don't always have the time to attend to the little tiny details, especially when they are under the skin and not seen by the customer. But then I'm a bit of a control freak perfectionist. Plus I can't stand shelling out for something I can do myself. People think I must be rich because I have an E-type, an Aston Martin and a Ferrari. No. I am poor because I have an E-type, an Aston Martin and a Ferrari. Necessity is the mother of invention and DIY. BTW - I plan to retire to the south of France eventually . My wife is Belgian so stuff Brexit!

[mark10337]

There are at least 3 different types of defroster vent grills on the eType according to the originality guide. That may go some way to explaining some of the differences.

[skiday]

Which originality guide is that?

[mark10337]

Jaguar E-Type Six-Cylinder Originality Guide, Dr. Thomas F. Haddock & Dr. Michael C. Mueller. Forthcoming in Spring 2017.