Split in Vinyl Covering - Glove Comparment Door

neon

neon

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Hello e9 friends - I am attempting a DIY interior refresh on my e9. No hope of a professional or original look just making it clean and presentable. I have redone some wood trim, restored the console and repainted the seat mounts. Now looking at a glaring cosmetic issue, a complex split in the glove compartment vinyl, shown in the picture below. I have no knowledge of how to approach this. I am located near Hartford CT. What do you think on how to repair this ?

Dana
Hartford, CT
 

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eriknetherlands

eriknetherlands

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Difficult to get really good results.

Re-skining it in new vinyl is beyond most gifted DIY-ers as the corners are pulled around the edges,making it true 3D; It's hard to get that accurate. A new vinyl will also be a mismatch to the other vinyl.
Quick & dirty is to fill with a black silicone; it hides the crack but shows as a shiny line. you can try and dull the silicon but letting it air dry for a while then pressing some structire into it with a 240 grain sandpaper. Do a trial with the silicone first on a scrap metal or wooden plate to get the air-dry timing right.

I did my dash like that, it improved, but mostly it helped me to accept it. I'm also having some scars, and I'm 5 years younger then the car.

A better one will be around 150 USD I think?
 
Fritzie

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neon said:
Hello e9 friends - I am attempting a DIY interior refresh on my e9. No hope of a professional or original look just making it clean and presentable. I have redone some wood trim, restored the console and repainted the seat mounts. Now looking at a glaring cosmetic issue, a complex split in the glove compartment vinyl, shown in the picture below. I have no knowledge of how to approach this. I am located near Hartford CT. What do you think on how to repair this ?

Dana
Hartford, CT
Click to expand...
Hello, you could try to glue it with a one component adhesive

Sikaflex®-252

Sikaflex ®-252 is a 1-component, moisture cured, polyurethane adhesive with extremely high thixotropy and high strength. Sikaflex®-252 is particularly suited to bonding applications in the manufacture of transportation and other industrial markets.
usa.sika.com usa.sika.com

After you filled it, you carefully tape it together and keep the the edges as close as possible together. After it is cured, you remove the tape.
 
H

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Fritzie, I think the brittleness of the vinyl and strong tension caused by age caused the vinyl to shrink, and crack. The amount of force needed to stretch the vinyl and hold it in place while the adhesive sets, not to mention the small bond area between the adhesive and vinyl, likely rule out this approach.

But do let us know if you've successfully used the technique you suggest. Lots of us, myself included, have suffered cracked this-or-that vinyl on the dash, instrument cluster binnacle, or other locations.
 
eriknetherlands

eriknetherlands

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Heating it up may help you to get the edges back to their flat surface, instead of them buldging out a bit.

The vinyl will soften if heated, so you can try to heat it gently in an house hold oven, raising the temperature in small 10 degree celsius increments (not all ovens have accurate temp settings!). Around 80 degrees C or so the vinyl (which is PVC) will start to transition from it's solid state into a softer material. Around a 160 to 180 degrees C it's liquid, so do not go over 120 Celsius for it to retain it's shape.
It has been tried by other members who had splits and tears in their under steering column cover,, fuse box door and glovebox.
 
damienh

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There are flexible filler products available specifically for repairing padded dashes. I've had reasonable success with one, but it's a product from the UK. Then you use a dye, and apply that to the whole area. You can take an imprint of the pattern, then press that on top before it cures.
 
Dan Wood

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If it is a clean cut and some heat as Eric recommends will soften it enough to bring it back together, I would try gluing it together with Super Glue Gel.

I just used it on a steering wheel and it worked well but that was leather.

This video might give you some ideas but not the exact same as you have.
Google " Steering Wheel Leather Plug v40" as the video didn't load,

Here is some black die (if you need it) I used on the E24 steering wheel, I don't think you want to sand it as you will loose the grain.
 

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