The Ford Capri Laser Page

Can anyone recommend a good dash repair company close to or near colchester Essex, or a video of DIY.. Tia.

Don`t know how successful, long term, a repair would be as once the plastic/foam of the original structure has started to deteriorate it will continue to do so even after the cracks have been filled so there`s a danger that new cracks will form in time, possibly at the same places? From past experience , it`s a bit like trying to paint on a failed substrate. The only long term solution is replacement: CCI do a new one in GRP, but you need to strip your old dash and use the internal frame to mount the new one. It is a big job! viewtopic.php?f=17&t=47380&hilit=Dashtop (Blame Photobucket for blurred pics)

I have done all 3: First trying to fill the gaps and cracks in the dash, then covering the dash with a leather cover and then finally the replacement CCI fibreglass dashboard shell. Frankly I would recommend the CCI dash every time - I wish I had just gone straight to this first time.

Filling cracks- can be success but you lose the textured effect where the cracks have been filled so it can still be seen. Also new cracks are likely to appear over time.

The covers are almost as expensive as the CCI dash, almost as much work and although they look nice it doesnt look original. My leather cover started to go baggy after a year or so hence the change to the CCI dash.

The CCI dash involves a bit of work but frankly this isnt really a major job. An hour to remove the dash from the car and take it indoors so the rest of the work can be done in comfort. The instructions were given in the CCI magazine but in brief it is just:

Scrape off all the padding to reveal the metal frame.
Prepare the CCI dash shell by trimming off the excess around the binnacle surround
When ready use Tiger Seal or Sikaflex to bond the shell to the metal frame. Hold in place with G clamps or similar and leave for a couple of days to cure.
Fill gaps with expanding foam.
Trim and tidy.

The speaker holes are indented rather than drilled - in my case I decided to drill some of them to allow ventilation for the stereo.

On mine i then fitted the assembled dash to the car with a T shaped rubber strip ( £5 on ebay) at the back between the edge of the dash and the windscreen rubber. Bolting up the instrument binnacle, heater controls etc is just the same as with the original dash.


With average skill and reasonable care you cannot go wrong. It looks like the original dash but is much harder wearing and will never need attention again.

The CCI cover is the way to go and it certainly is not a big job at all. Any car I build that has dash cracking gets one of these dashes. I have a load of old
cracked dashboards ready to use as donors for the CCI covers.

After reading the comments above I'm certainly tempted to have a go at this myself as the dash in my car is in an appalling state.

Martin, out of curiosity how much would you charge to put these together? Getting the time to do it can be a problem for me as I'm sure it is for a lot of people.

Wayne

I'll work out what the last one took in time and materials and I will let you know.

The latest CCI mag tells me they have worked out how to repair the dash - they’ve been trying to work it out over the past year I think and apparently seem to have found a solution as they are advertising it for club members - £295 to restore dash to ‘original condition’

Yep just as Paul said CCI now offer a repair and sales service for dashes...

That's great, is that the miracle cure we've all been waiting for?
I'm definitely going to give the sample one at club HQ a good looking over. Fingers crossed!

Andrew.

I can vouch for how good they are. I've done a couple and it's the way to go. I have over a dozen old cracked dashboards stacked up for future replacement.

Hi Martin, kindly see my PM..