One of the biggest parts of repairing the existing leather is the thorough removal of all the old adhesive before reapplying the new for it to be long lasting.

 

bocattrip,
You're right. Nearly all of the adhesive is on the hard shell. The thin fabric on the back of the foam which is bonded to the leather and which is the actual surface that is glued to the shell is essentially free of the adhesive. Since there is little downside to trying this first, we'll give it a shot. The only concern I have is what if it happens again down the road?

As for the rippled part on the driver's side, this will be much more difficult to solve. It appears the backing was not bonded properly and the ripple was sort of permanently bonded by a wrinkle in the foam backing. My upholsterer will attempt to stretch the wrinkle out, glue the backing down, and put a couple of staples right on the edge in an attempt to anchor the leather and keep it stretched out.

We'll see what happens.

 

Now let's talk about how the leather was cared for that is now 7 yrs old. If never treated, or maybe done 1,2x in seven years, it will eventually shrink. If interior of car has ever gotten damp and windows stayed closed to essentially create a sauna in car, leather will shrink when drying out and adhesives are compromised as well.

The dash or tops of doors take MAJOR heat abuse. They need to be treated at least annually with a quality product. If you have done all that and the leather shrunk, you've got a case. If not, its a seven yr old car that was nominally cared for.

Just playing devil's advocate here. BTW this issue is known to happen to all car manufacturers esp on cars not well cared for. Seen as you probably only have faux leather dash on your Infiniti, you'll be fine.

1x/yr I liberally treat EVERY leather surface of all vehicles with Lexol Conditioner or Leatherique etc. Its always amazes me how quickly the stuff soaks in.

 

It has nothing to do with the care of the leather. The dashboards were not made correctly, If they were made correctly the leather would not pull. Period. The Jaguar people even admitted this. The leather was not cut correctly and the glue process was bad.

 

Hold on...it is convenient to blame this entirely on Jaguar but the fact is that leather on the dash top suffers from heat and sun damage - the result is shrinkage and breakdown of the glue IF the leather is not properly conditioned regularly. There has been no evidence presented here to adequately contradict the evidence that this problem happens primarily in cars used in high heat geographical areas. Cars used in these areas also suffer from breakdown of roof linings (I am speaking here of sedans) caused by the same issue of heat.
The problem, in a sense, IS Jaguar's (this "defect", by the way, happens in these high heat conditions in every marque that uses real leather on the dash tops). Jaguar should have a clear recommendation for the care of this leather. Their comments on leather care that come with their cars are simply inadequate, perhaps motivated by a desire to make the cars seem to be "easy care" machines. But the major responsibility lies with the owners - the first owners whose neglect may have started the deterioration process - as well as the current owners. Leather is skin; skin needs regular moisturization to remain supple - otherwise it dries and shrinks.

 

CClifton,
Once you have the dash removed, it's obvious that you are right. The adhesive used a) was not strong enough to withstand weather conditions, b) the adhesive was "asked" to do too much since there is no overlap of the leather to the back side, it simply ends right at the plastic dash insert. So, there is nothing (like staples) to anchor the leather besides the adhesive. Period! Although I have arranged for a custom auto interior shop to re-upholster the dash, when we pulled the dash and I had a better look and idea of the situation, I elected to first take it to my regular upholsterer of 20 years and ask him if he thought he could stretch the leather out, re-glue it and staple the leather to the ends of the dashboard. I had nothing to lose, since if it didn't work, the auto upholsterer was going to pull all of the leather off anyway (and most likely use it as a pattern to cut the new leather).

In the last few minutes, I have just received a phone call from my upholsterer saying I could come pick up the dash as it was finished! I asked him if his efforts were successful, and he replied, "Yes!" I am beyond excited, not only because I may have dodged a $1300 bullet (even though I thought that price was very fair based on the $4800 price from the dealer), but because it made me "sick" to see the rippling and bubbling on the dash everytime I got in the car. I am cautiously optimistic, because my standards may be different than his and because I don't know the long range viability of the fix.

First step is to pick it up and look at it. That will be in a couple of hours. If it's good, I will take pictures and post, and if not, it's going straight to the auto upholstery shop.

Wish me luck. And by the way, if it's good, I'll get the details of the adhesive he used and technique, so that anyone with the same issue can possibly fix it themselves or have a local upholsterer take care of it.

 

Well I've just returned from picking up my dash and........
it's perfect! It looks like new, even on the driver's side where there was rippling due to the backing not being bonded properly, it is virtually imperceptable. I can see very faint traces of where the ripples once were, but I believe even these will disappear once it has been "stretched" out for a longer period of time. Airbag bubbles are gone and the sloped areas leading down to the nav screen are once again attached solidly to the frame. These areas were not even touching the frame and could be pushed down more than a 1/4" with air in between.

My upholsterer used an automotive adhesive called Super Tack ST-230 whose description on the packaging says, "Top and Trim Adhesive--High Heat Resistance." Additionally, he stapled down the leather to the edges of the frame as well as around the center speaker. He also told me that he believes Vic's (TopsOnline) has an even stronger automotive adhesive, but he had this one on hand and has had good success with it.

When I asked him for a bill, he wanted nothing, however I gave him $100 anyway for his time.

The first thing I did was slather Lexol conditioner on it (a lot easier to get to all the little nooks and crannies when the dash isn't installed), which I'll do after the dash is re-installed and I get the car back from it's other work.

Frankly, I'm pleasantly surprised (more like stunned). Now the questions is how well it will hold up. To be continued....

 

Gratulations, wonderful job done and incredible that he didn't want a payment.
Decent of you to tip him generously.

 

That's funny because I've have a headliner problem on all 3 Jaguars (yes, even my '07 XKR convertible has a headliner issue underneath the visors) I've owned, but never on any other car. No, I did not move from a cold climate to a hot climate just before buying the Jags.

Frankly, cars should be designed for these kinds of climates. It's not like Jaguar designed the car to be driven in Siberia all year long.

And Jaguar is capable of making a dash that doesn't pull. Do the X350s and X351s have this problem? My 2006 XJ8 Vanden Plas had a leather dash, and I hadn't heard of any peeling issues at the time.

 

Thank you for pursuing this Ted!! It is great to know that a skilled upholsterer can resolve this very widespread issue. I for one will be following along as to the long term durability.

 

What I'm wondering is how hard is it to remove the dash. Any idea how many hours it would take? (Then I'll multiply that by 5 to find out how long it would take me!!)

 

Alan,
To be honest when I brought the dash back to my mechanic's shop and saw how much of my interior was "torn" apart, it unnerved me. However, between the time I dropped the car off and the time I was called that I could pick up the dash wasn't more than a few hours (maybe 2-3 hours). Even if you pay someone with experience for several hours of labor to remove (and then re-install), it will still amount to a fraction of a replacment or even a fraction of custom re-upholstery.

I was prepared to pay the $1300 for the custom re-upholstery and felt that was a bargain compared to the $4800 for a dash replacement at the dealer. I could not have lived with it the way it was, and probably had I paid attention when I purchased the car and had properly done my homework about what its potential cost for repairing or replacing would have been, I, most likely, wouldn't have bought the car. The fact that it could be repaired relatively easily for nearly nothing makes me feel a lot better (but not less stupid for being impulsive).

 

Guys, I've only skimmed this thread so I apologise if I'm way off beam here, but I thought that everything except the seat facings on anything lower than the Portfolio was actually synthetic - Ambla or whatever it's called now? In that case, the considerations for leather shouldn't apply as they would to the seats etc, but to the best of my knowledge synthetics shouldn't shrink either.

The stitching around the centre speaker on the dash on my XK looks like it's pulled really tight and you can see some of the stitching, was like it when I bought the car...no tearing or ripples at present but it bugs me the way it looks, this is a UK car (it's normally not that hot here) but it might become a bigger problem later on.

 

I believe the leather dash was part of an option package and my dash is leather and not a Portfolio model.

 

I like those staples for that extra security around the edges. Do you know if he removed ALL OF THE LEATHER and reapplied the adhesive? The staples will certainly keep it tight, but the adhesive still needs to do it's job and lay flat. It seems that you might have really lucked out and we will all be interested to see how it holds up in the future. You may be the hero of this forum when it comes to a quality dash repair. Good luck.

 

That's weird, mine's got the premium interior package (or whatever it's called) with the seats where you can adjust the wings etc., all of the seats and door pull handles are leather but I'm sure the dash isn't...maybe it is, it just doesn't look like it

 

I thought all of the 2010 XKs that came to the U.S. were portfolios. I don't remember where I got that info so it could be wrong.

 

Ted, that looks fantastic. I still would tint all windows and use a windshield visor whenever parked out side ...

 

That is awesome! It pays to know some people. I don't see why it wouldn't stay on.
My dash started a rippled at about 4 years. Jaguar said it is leather. Of course the heat has something to do with it, the point is a car that price CAN be made with that in mind. Duh. I had my dash replaced by Jaguar. Jaguar repair guy told me conditioning it would not have helped. (anyway how is conditioning the leather going to make the glue stick any better???) I doubt I will keep my car 4 more years but I do wonder if this new one will unglue too!

 

tberg,

I'm really happy that you were able to get this mess straightened out!! Unfortunately, I think mine is too far gone ( as you can see from my pics) to be able to have it fixed. But maybe I can find another shop here in the north east that can tell me different.

What the most frustrating thing is.. I have contacted three different Jag dealerships and Jaguar NA to see if they can tell me whether the new dash replacement through Jag are constructed differently. Not one can answer the damn question!! Do I really want to sink $3,800 on a new dash for this to happen again in a couple years????? I'm stuck!