Stiletto dashboard repair

[Gary Whitaker]

Hi all my dash which came with the car was really bad,too bad to repair,cracks and vinyl missing everywhere,so I contacted Graham Anderson who supplied a replacement the best he had ,even so it was damaged but it was all I had to work with.
I looked for someone to repair but only got offers to recover and was sent some pics but due to the nature of the dashboard with it's deep pockets there was a lot of stitches to get the vinyl to cover and I wanted it as original as possible .
Wind on a few days and some YouTube tutorials on how to repair leather and vinyl I decided to have a go if it all went south I could have it recovered .
Some pics of the damage

[Gary Whitaker]

There were also many random holes on the underside

[Gary Whitaker]

Bought a repair kit,some deep hole repair paste and a black dye from eBay.
I'm not recommending any brands there's lots online they all seem similar to me

[Gary Whitaker]

The kit contains glue, coloured compound,heat transfer tool, backing fabric and grain papers

[Gary Whitaker]

Tried filling the holes underneath first just smooth in with a spatula then heat with a hairdryer to dry ,it sands and is completely flexible

[Gary Whitaker]

Started to fill the main repair a layer at a time

[Gary Whitaker]

When id built the height a bit I tried to put some masking tape on top of wet filler to form the curve but once dry it pulled of in places

[Gary Whitaker]

I used a flat wooden stick to smooth the filler out along the complete edge,this worked a lot better sanding with 600 and then filling the low spots .
I never thought it would be invisible but was a little surprised at how well in built up

[Gary Whitaker]

Next you have to put the compound on in the little paint pots there's not much in the pots but if you remember from school it's easy to mix the other pots to get more black
This compound is ment to brush over the filler and then you place a grain papers over the top and place a heat transfer tool you get in the kit over the paper it activities the compound and the grain on the paper is transferred to the compound this is what gives you the grain effect on the dashboard

[Gary Whitaker]

This was ok for a flat surface but this method was used on the deeper filler it pulled the filler of when removing the grain paper plus the grain paper is not a perfect match so ended up from trial and error brushing and compound on in dabs and some scrunched up foil which worked really well now the dye is over the top from about a foot away you really can't tell I don't even think you would notice sitting in the car unless you were looking for it .

Now I've had a bit of practice I'm going to have a go at the large hole on the other side which some past owner has cut out for a gauge plus two of the lugs that the gauge board screws to pr broken of so will repair those too
More to follow
Best regards Gary