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Mark Chipperfield's Experiences
"Just Done It... its a dash out job. Not to be recommended for the faint hearted.." The words of Mark
Its not a common problem but has been known to happen on a few Griffiths. The leather on the dash that is front of the passenger seat where it dips down can sometimes lift. This may be due to leather being stretched too much when being made or maybe not enough Glue.
Mark reused the leather on his but I suppose his info would be of great use if you wanted to re-leather in new.
Use the Instructions from the Dash change page to take the dash out. Remembering some things may be a little different as these cars are handmade and differences are common. The re-leather was done on a 95 Griffith.
The glove box has to be taken out, this is done by undoing the bolts at the rear left and right of the inside of the box.Lift out.
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Once the dash is out it is easier to remove the central
console, it can just about be removed by undoing the two nuts one behind
each seat. Once the back is lifted it will slide forward, and just about
lift over the hand break etc. (don't forget to undo the gear stick).
If it will not clear the hand break , then
the handbrake adjuster will need slackening of to allow the lever to
go more vertical, this adjuster is (apparently) on the drivers side
of the car, on the inside of the transmission tunnel just above the
front of
the Diff, i.e. almost impossible to get to with out a ramp.
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The dash itself is held to the bulkhead by about 8 bolts along the top, just under the front edge.
When taking the bolts out of the dash DO NOT DROP THEM,
a couple of mine ennded up in the inner wings and were a total SOD to
get out, I did contemplate leaving them but knew they would most likely
create an anoying rattle, so in the end all the carpet had to be unstuck
in the
footwells to get at them :(
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To remove, You will have to take the lid of the car as otherwise it would be almost impossible, and also the steering wheel will need to be either dropped(see Dash page) on its mountings, or removed from the coulomb.
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Pull towards the back of the car evenly, then wiggle it to ease it out.
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Carefully and I mean carefully peal the leather of the dash, you will find that the raised part of the dash around the drivers area, is padded, and the depression on the passenger side is basically leather to fiberglass, and there are stuck using a spray on contact adhesive, having spoken to a local leather trimmers, I managed to remove all the glue from the dash and the back of the leather (took a few hours to do properly) I then reglued using a much stronger impact adhesive, this should now stay PUT.. For a while.
Don't tear the leather when pealing it of, it should not be that well stuck, but you don't want it to end in tears..
Make sure you get ALL the glue off both surfaces before even thinking of regluing. As they say its all in the preparation, so don't skimp (as if you would ) the last thing you wish is to have a small lump of old glue left, once the dash is reglued.. IT WILL NOTICE
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I managed to stretch the leather on my dash before regluing, basically I soaked the leather then pulled it as taught as possible access the dash Clamping it in place along the screen edge, then put a couple of heavy phone books on it to take up the recess, N.B. put a thick towel on the dash first otherwise the books leave nice straight prints in the leather leave overnight. Repeat once more, don't overdo it as it may spoil the leather. I found only a small amount say 10mm helped lots when trying to reglue it.
Apply a strong contact adhesive to both surfaces VERY
thinly, you don't what ridges in it, as they to WILL show.
Do the normal procedure with the gluing, it goes without saying you
only get one shot, else you have to clean it all up and start again..
Once glue replace clamps and leave with the books on to make sure its stuck.
Lastly after all this abuse, give the leather a GOOD
feed, with something like conellies (SP) leather food.
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It actually sounds more difficult than it is, it just
requires one to be careful and have lots of patience.
Oh, and have lots of coffee to hand. Basically be slow and methodical.
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