Originally Posted by KAdams4458

Wow, how did I miss this thread so long ago?

I'm already well ahead of you, though I doubt it would be a worthwhile business opportunity. Just Dashes will, in fact, take a W123 dash in and cover it. Grain patterns would not match the original, but hey, does that really matter, since the glove box door could be refinished at the same time? As long as the two match, the difference between original and recovered would be trivial.

The problem, as I see it, is that no one want's to pay close to $1,000 after shipping just to have a crack-free dash, when most W123 owners are A) unwilling to spend that kind of money on the motor, much less a dashboard, and B) are content with buying crack-free originals.

Me? I despise dash cracks, so I want them gone! Will I pay Just Dashes more than my car is worth to have one restored to non-original finish? No way. Besides, it violates my DIY spirit! I also don't see the logic in buying an original, but crack-free dash, because after 25 or 30 years, they are brittle, whether they have cracks or not! So...

I have in the past built one-of vacuum tables and used heatable vinyl and plastic to re-cover small items, like door panel inserts and armrests. Never have I attempted anything so large as a W123 dash, but, that won't stop me from trying. The project isn't exactly on the front burner, but it is in the works. Should my efforts prove successful, I figured I would offer the service to a small number of forum members for right around cost, as a sort of hobby/service to the community. I've estimated that the material costs for an actual finished product would be similar to the shoddy dash caps that are available.

The problem I am having is longevity... I can't say how long a fresh vacuum-formed vinyl skin would last. No one that manufactures the stuff deems it worthy of receiving any sort of rated service life.

Originally Posted by sd300td

That's good thinking. But what if someone were to "reengineer" the w123 dash from similar materials used today for dashboards? Getting molds would be the difficult part; maybe they could be obtained from a perfect example. I wouldn't be turned-away if the covering was similar to the black vinyl covering my soft/spoongy w203 dash. The grain match would be fairly easy I'd think.

I don't think there'd be enough money in it from a new business perspective, but for a company that already has the tooling and capabilities, it could be viable.

How much would folks with restorable w123's pay for a new dash?

Originally Posted by KAdams4458

Well, they'll pay $120 plus shipping for a crappy dash cap, it seems.

I am confident that I can restore a good vinyl surface to any old W123 dash while preserving the factory foam, and simply repairing the sections that require it. I've done it with moulded door panels and armrests, after all. Removing and replacing the foam entirely with something that has a little more give is possible as well, but would obviously require a lot more work and materials. Beneath the vinyl and foam, the W123 dash is just a chunk of metal, and those simply don't go bad unless they have rusted out, and if that has happened, well you've got bigger W123 problems than a cracked dash.

I can obtain vinyl which is close to the original texture of the dashes, but it isn't a perfect match, so for aesthetic reasons, recovering the glove box door would be required. A perfect texture match doesn't exist. The end product, while not being something that would be identical to original in texture, would look every bit the part of a completely new dash. It would pass for a factory fresh dash to anyone who didn't know better.

How much is that worth to someone, and just how many someones are there, I cannot say. It's pricey to do a one-of dash the way I plan to do it, because I have to actually build the equipment to do it. There are things like heating elements, thermostats, and vacuum pumps involved. Much of that is stuff that I have laying around, or can repurpose later on, but it's still a lot of work. However, in theory I'll end up with an essentially brand new dash that should look like a million bucks and hopefully last longer than the original did.

Originally Posted by sd300td

I'd be concerned about the original factory foam. Even though it'd be more costly, getting new foam seems to be the absolute best solution. I don't know what MB used back then, but I'm under the impression that the cracks also go through the foam...I suppose that the foam could still be stable, but chances are that it's dry/brittle/turned to dust. No? Seems like it'd be similar to building a house on a faulty foundation?

Originally Posted by sd300td

I really think there's a business opportunity here, though the number of folks with restorable w123's, with funds and willingness to restore, are probably few and far between. Could only mean a few customer's each year. But advertising at meets and maybe in the Star Magazine, might get some business.

Originally Posted by sd300td

I like the vinyl sample you found. It looks very similar to the stuff covering my 2005 w203. And while not an exact match to the w123 original material, I don't think it'd look out of place at all. Especially since door panels etc., are a different color in most cases.

Originally Posted by KAdams4458

From my experimenting, I've identified it as a polyurethane expanding foam. It's not UV stable at all, so when the finish cracks and spreads, the slightest sunlight getting at it turns it orange then brown, and it quickly puffs up and falls apart. If you stumble upon a really trashed dash in a salvage yard one day, peel back the vinyl from the crack, you'll see that beyond the effected area, the foam is still yellow, supple, and very much intact.



You're right. Most folks simply wouldn't go for it, but a few would. Hmm... I do have plenty of space, thanks to a 1600 square foot shop. I'm also out in the cold, job-wise. Maybe I should think harder about this as a business opportunity. I like that Star Magazine idea, since it seems to me that MBCA members with W123's are more likely to spend money on a refinished dashboard than most other W123 owners. Hmm...



If I had the buying power, I could get a manufacturer to exactly duplicate the original grain. I don't feel that there is enough interest to justify that at this point. I did pick this particular grain pattern for a reason, though - it blends extremely well with the steering wheel grain, and will add a somewhat richer, modern feeling to the interior of the car without straying too severely from the original aesthetics. Besides, the dash/glove box never had the same grain pattern as any other part in the car. If you look closely, even the center console has a somewhat different pattern than the dash.

Speaking of center consoles... I can recover those, too.

Originally Posted by sd300td

Godspeed my friend. Godspeed.