Willy’s Fiat X1/9 - The Journey
2019
My good friends at MidWestBayless can’t get to the car until mid September, so what to do in the meantime?? Well since they are doing all the electrical and converting to LEDs, it would be a shame to pull all that good work apart after to redo my cracked and crappy dash. So the plan is to fix the dash before the car goes to them.
The first step in this process was determine how to move forward. First try, looking for a new dash that was in better shape. No go. Then sending mine away to be refinished. That seemed like a good plan until I got a few quotes. You’re talking north of $2,000 US$ to have the dash redone by an upholstery shop, probably not too bad for the level of work they do, but not what I want to spend. The next option we found was to ship the dash to the Netherlands, where they will repair and recover the dash, that was a better price, but would take 4 - 5 months as they are backed up at the time. Henk Maartens (http://www.x19partsholland.nl/en-us/home.aspx) is doing some great work for us Fiat guys in Europe but I don’t want to wait that long as it will mess up the timing for the electrical work that I have been trying to get to for almost 2 years. So I keep looking.....
You can learn a lot by poking around the web. Found several ideas on repairing the dash and then painting it or even flocking it. Flocking is something the race guys do apparently, it basically covers the dash in a powder that is not at all shiny, race guys like it as it gets rid of the glare. You can also paint it. Here are a few pics of some of the ideas.
After looking at all the options, I decided I would try and recover the dash myself with the help of a local upholstery shop. So step one remove the dash and repair it. Found a few videos on how to remove the dash, its only held in by 4 bolts! Easy they say, we shall see!
Once the dash it out, it needs to be repaired to fix the cracks and fill a large hole from a previous stereo install. The only music I need while driving is the sound from the rear of the car, anything else is a distraction!
Then while cruising eBay, I discovered a leather company in England that will send me exactly what I wanted, a leather dash skin with red stitching. This is very cool. Hopefully, the link still works as time goes by. They have many different colours available for the stitching.
The plan is to remove the dash, repair all the cracks and then install this new leather skin. This will be fun!
More updates as we work through this process. Here is a link to a great post on how to repair a dash. This guy flocked it in the end, but that doesn’t matter, the repair is the important part. Enjoy.
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1865940-DIY-Cracked-Dashboard-Repair-Pic-Heavy
A New Dash
19/07/23
It all started in 1983 with the purchase of my first X1/9.
1974 Fiat X1/9, 1300, 4-speed
If You’re Looking for Fiat Parts, Try These Guys. Matt Knows His Stuff!
http://www.midwest-bayless.com
