The leather had shrunk badly. I used ajzride's instructions on how to remove the dash. Here's a link to that thread: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...sh-how-172398/

Removing the dash took a couple of hours. The hardest part was removing the connectors for the passenger airbag. If you ever do this, do yourself a favor and remove the three little screws that hold the air duct in place. That makes it much easier to access the outer airbag connector and it will save you 30 minutes.

Here's what my dash looked like sitting on the table in the breakfast nook:



The "carbon fiber" vinyl you see is what I was planning on using if the leather was beyond repair. In the end I kept the leather, even though the finished product wasn't perfect.

The internet suggested water, isopropyl alcohol, and propylene glycol to stretch the leather. I moisturized the leather with various combinations of the three ingredients, but after about 24 hours it became obvious that the leather wasn't going to stretch back to it's original position. One of the seams started to split, so I gave up on stretching. The bubbles were out by this point, but the leather still wasn't "normal" around the center speaker.

So.... it looked a thousand times better, and I can live with the little gap at the edge of the speaker, so I put the dash back in. Here's the finished product:



That's what it looks like in the car. If you're looking at it closely through the windshield you'll see this:



...but I can live with that. It's much better than the giant bubbles. Keep in mind, that last pic is zoomed in on the problem area. Someone casually looking at the car would never notice.

'm going to keep moisturizing the leather. If it shrinks and bubbles again, I'm either going to cover it with the carbon fiber vinyl, or take it to an upholsterer and have it done right.

 

I can only see your first picture, the other two "Won't Load". Course, I'm on my wife's computer while I await a part for mine.

 

Everything loads on my Galaxy S8 phone. Well done, Sam. From the looks of the first photo, I thought it was hopeless. You proved me wrong and, as you said, although it isn't perfect it sure is a whole lot better and you can live with it.

 

Now I have all of this extra fake carbon fiber. Should I cover my spoiler? Mirrors?

Heck... I have enough to cover my hood. But that would be lame, right?

Right?

 

Yep, I see them now. Cool, man. Saved quite a bit by DIY.

 

Looks good enough to me. I see in first pic the security system was keeping a watchful eye out on the dashless Jag.

 

It's your car, so you can do whatever you like to it. I had my Engine Appearance Cover hydrodipped to replicate carbon fiber and am pleased with the results. See:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-cover-129949/

You can try to do the same thing with your fake carbon fiber wrap. I'm not sure if that wrap will work, but you can give it a try. If it doesn't, you should be able to remove it.

 

I don't think the vinyl could hold up to the heat of the supercharger. It gets very stretchy when warmed up with a heat gun. The supercharger would turn it into a puddle on my garage floor.

I've admired the look of your cover ever since I saw it 6 months ago.

 

Yes, I love it too! :-)

 

great job

 

Very nice, this is on my short list of repairs.

What glue did you use? I'm pretty handy and would like to do this all myself, but I had resigned to dropping the dash off at a shop due to people saying the bubbling comes right back if not done properly.

 

I didn't use any glue at all. I just stretched it stapled it along the front edge.

I intentionally didn't use any glue because I'm thinking I might have to redo it in the future. I didn't want to be fighting the old glue. The leather has a cloth and foam backing, so even with glue, it's only going to grab the cloth. The leather will shrink and the foam will tear. The cloth might stay in place but the leather will do what nature tells it to do.

The dash is made of some sort of fiberglass-type material. It takes staples well along the front edge. Unfortunately they are visible through the windshield, but you have to be looking to see them. I left them bare because I figured this will most likely be a temporary fix. Some people cover them with a strip of leather. My dash is grey, so I was tempted to buy some grey caulk (like concrete caulk) and smear a tiny dab on each staple. It might have disguised them a tiny bit. But in the end I just left them bare. If this repair holds for a while, I might buy some model paint that matches the color of the dash and try to hide them.

Here are a couple of pics. Someone casually walking past the car would never notice the staples. But if you look closely you can see the staples.

 

Please get some leather and glue to that front edge, I'm not going to be able to sleep at night knowing you didn't finish the job...

 

Or, I could just...

 

go to an upholstery shop and have them make you a long strip of black leather or fabric with backing rod inside it- that should slip into the gap and cover the staples.

 

Or you could put a shim piece under the vents so it will mask the staples. The vents won't move anyway if you won't take your car to the track 😉

 

Or you could just leave it. It won't affect my sleep cycle.

 

Reverand Sam,
It's been about 7 years since I redid my dash the proper way as you've done with staples, and it looks the same as it did on day one. Anchoring the leather with staples is the only viable way to make it work. I did cover my staples with a little piece of 1/2" leather foldover braid, but even that starts to curl with time. Great job, and Jaguar as well as other carmakers could have avoided this altogether with an extra 3 minutes worth of effort. just plain stupid!

 

Put heavy tint on the windshield for the first 4 inches.