Like many of us, my dash has started to develop bubbles and separate at the windshield vents. My plan is to remove the dash...FastFeline has done his and offered to remove and re-install mine for a very fair price. My problem is finding a shop to recover it. I’ve contacted 5 upholstery shops, one wanted $1,800.00 to use vinyl. 3 said it couldn’t be done and the last will take a look, but hasn’t done one. I’m in suburban Philadelphia, PA and would gladly travel a couple of hours to get to the right shop. If you have a suggestion for me or have had yours covered and can advise a fair price, I would be grateful.

 

If any upholstery shops said "It can't be done", then they are incompetent and shouldn't have your business anyway.

 

Agreed - after all of these frustrating contacts, I figured it was time to get some info from my friends here.

 

Lims is a quality shop in Northern VA (DC Suburbs). They offer estimates online via photos:
Estimate Request

I've been happy with their work.

You can check out the list of installers from a well known vintage leather trim supplier:
https://www.worlduph.com/info/installers/#pa

Or you can contact one of the best in the Jag Community:
https://www.muncieimports.com/interi...tallation.html

 

Just the info I needed. Thanks for your help.

 

Arenaej,
I have probably posted more on this subject than anyone else. When I bought my 2010 XKR some 6 years ago, I had air bubbles next to the center speaker and along the sides of the speaker as well as a completely unattached leather cover above the passenger side airbag and along the entire width of the dash along the windshield. I could not have kept the car if I left it that way. The dealer wanted $4800 to replace and I found an auto upholstery shop that was willing to do the job including the leather for $1300 which I thought was a great price. So since I was having a lot of custom work done on my car, I had the shop remove my dash. Once out, it was obviously clear what had happened. Jaguar had falsely believed that an adhesive could handle the pressure of keeping leather in place through widely ranging temperatures, with leather which has a natural tendency to shrink in humidity, There is no adhesive on earth that could do this by itself without anchoring of staples. Having been in the interior design/decorating industry for decades, I took the dash to my longtime furniture upholsterer, showed him the issue, knowing that after seeing the problem we could restretch and anchor with staples all of the leather. It took my upholsterer less than 2 hours to stretch, glue with high temperature tolerant adhesive, and staple the leather at the whole lip of the dash against the windshield and completely around the center speaker and he called me to tell me I could pick it up in the morning. I asked him how successful was the fix,, and he replied, "Perfect!" I picked it up in the morning and was stunned at how good it was.

It's now been six years of San Fernando Valley 100*F heat all summer and fall, parking the car outside every night, and it still looks like the day we did it 6 years ago. Without staple anchoring any fix is destined to break down rapidly again. I have attached links to old forum discussion on this subject along with some pictures of my dash before and after. You don't necessarily need a specialist to do this, any decent upholsterer with a staple gun and some high temp adhesive can do it. When my upholsterer did the job, he refused to even charge me, he said it was such an easy repair. I still paid him a tip, but he saved me quite a bit of money and grief as I wouldn't have kept the car with the dash the way it was. ,
Leather on dash 'pulling' - Page 9 - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum
Leather on dash 'pulling' - Page 10 - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

 

tberg, thanks for this response. I’ve read all of your posts...even took my iPad and showed your pix to a couple of shops. They just don’t want any part of this. From this post, I’m going to visit a couple of furniture upholstery shops to get their response. Unfortunately for me, unless you have a relationship with them, they don’t want to experiment. We’ll see...
I’ve read in a couple of posts that the new replacement dash from Jaguar are stapled. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks to all for your help.

 

Here’s an update. Today I visited “The Trim Shop” in Newark, DE. Thanks to Fast Feline for the recommendation. I spoke to Dan, the owner. He was extremely patient and completely understood what I needed. He hasn’t done an XK, but has done other cars with shrinking leather dashboards. I was surprised to hear that some Jeep Grand Cherokee’s have a leather dash. Dan has successfully repaired 5 or 6 of them. I showed him the pix that tberg has posted. His suggestion is to remove the windshield to give access to the front of the dash. The repair will be similar to the repair that tberg had done. He showed me what he called a “bead” that was a strip of leather to cover the staples. I never saw the leather strip that tberg used, but this looked good. A couple of variables...there’s no guarantee that the windshield won’t crack on removal. His windshield guy hasn’t broken one in 17 years. The dash vent and speaker cover may break. On the plus side, if the repair goes as expected and nothing breaks, he’ll charge $495.00 including windshield removal. A new windshield is $385.00. Speaker covers are out there and Texas Traveler has dash vents available. I’ve scheduled it for week of August 19...wish me luck��

 

I would get the dash vents and the speaker cover before you start the operation.

 

I agree but highly recommend you remove tham after the windshield is out. They are much easier to remove from outside and you can use plastic tools for removal.

 

I agree...I’ve reached out to Aaron for the dash vents. The speaker cover is harder to find. $155.00 for a new one.

 

The defroster vents will most assuredly crack but can be reasonably glued back together. The speaker vent is a non-issue as it is not that fragile and pulls away fairly easily. I have also figured that with the windshield removed it would be possible to staple the leather to the front edge without removing the dash, as previously suggested

 

Good to know about the speaker cover. When I showed Dan the pics of your repair, he was very confident that he can fix it that way. Your attention to my issue is appreciated.

 

Best of luck. I'd love to see before and after pics.

I have a 2007 XK Vert and the dash speaker grill was cracked. It was easy to replace (new part was ~$50) but the old one was the most brittle piece of plastic I'd ever encountered. It crumbled in our hands. Anyway, if that piece does break, it can easily be swapped after the fact from inside.

-dsd

 

I’ll post some pics when it’s done. When I searched for the speaker grille, it’s $50 for caramel color but $150 for charcoal. Guess which one I need?

 

Noticed a bubble on my dash this morning, drivers side. So I am guessing it won't be too long before my dash is a problem. *sigh*

 

Yup. I plan on pulling my dash out this winter