My Murple

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

we need a picture of the car inside with the dash removed.

2nd pic in the previous post Is it not showing?

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Sounds like you'll be keeping your eyes open now for any cars with full leather dash that get scrapped.

It wouldn't matter how hard a dash swap is if I found a leather one I will keep this one in case I feel like getting a quote to get it re-trimmed

[HPsauce]

Ooops, sorry, missed that dash-out interior pic.....
(My excuse is that sometimes pictures on this forum (only!) don't open in my browser until I go back to them a 2nd or 3rd time, so easy to miss one, odd.... )

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

It wouldn't matter how hard a dash swap is if I found a leather one

But now you know how easy (relatively, for you) it is to get out....

[johnny_quattro]

And the award for the biggest understatement of the year goes to MJ:

"Took a few more bits out to tidy some other things up"

[MikkiJayne]

Erm... in the end I took everything out to clean it all up

Here are a few more pics with the dashboard out:





In this one you can see the recirculation air inlet between the top of the HVAC box and the sound deadening. This is what the blower is switched to when you select recirc so it pulls air back in from under the dash.



You can see the servo motors for the HVAC here. The dash has to come out to get to these top ones which control airflow to the side vents. Also visible is where someone has hacked off the sound deadening to get to the inside cover for the ECU box, and also a nice rusty stain on the engine bay wiring at the bottom of that cover. This car had serious issues with water ingress due to a total lack of care



Yeah... The other side was glued on with silicone sealant.



Top of the HVAC ready for fresh foam strip



I cleaned up the alcantara headlining while I was there. Considering this car had been smoked in, it cleaned up pretty well





The upper B pillars have to come out anyway to swap the seat belts so they will be cleaned on the bench. They are properly minging so need extra care anyway.



This was white when I started 🤢



Minging...



One everything apart from the roof lining was on the 'kill it with fire' pile I vacuumed thoroughly and then set the Aromatek running for a couple of hours to fumigate the remaining alcantara and sound deadening, then left the dehumidifier running overnight.



I still think this is doable in a weekend between two people, assuming the donor interior is prepared in advance and the recipient vehicle is actually in a decent state beforehand, but I'm taking my time and cleaning / repairing as I go along because I'm not in a rush.

[Ronin]

Do you use a normal house hold dehumidifier? I'll be doing something similar to mine.

[MikkiJayne]

Yes, one with a compressor rather than the peltier type.

To dry them properly the carpet really needs to be at least lifted. The foam underneath can hold a considerable amount of water but the carpet can still feel dry on top.

The dehumidifier only removed a teacup of water overnight so I'm satisfied its dry inside now, plus the Aromatek has left it smelling mostly neutral with a slight fruity hint, which is rather pleasant Once I put all the conditioned leather back in it should smell like a D2 ought to at last

This is hands down the worst condition D2 I've come across, from bodging and lack of care. If it weren't purple it would have been takeaway tins by now.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by mikkijayne

if it weren't purple it would have been takeaway tins by now.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Audifan]

Oh wow nice work on starting the interior swap (are you doing a complete black interior swap?) and cleaning her up. How many HVAC servo motors do these cars have?

[The_Laird]

Jeez, MJ, some of this keeps me awake at night! Is there anything that fazes you? You need to get on Mastermind!

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by Audifan

Oh wow nice work on starting the interior swap (are you doing a complete black interior swap?) and cleaning her up. How many HVAC servo motors do these cars have?

All of them Funny you mention the servo motors. It occurred to me just as I was checking everything was ready to put the new dash in that now would probably be a good time to check all the servos are working. I'm glad I did! Two were seized solid (full of rust), one just clicks, and one is completely dead

I've changed all of those, the centre vent potentiometer, and run through output tests and everything is now working, although the unit still won't perform a basic settings. I was going to take a video of it doing the basic settings, but I ran out of tinkering time tonight so I will have another look at it tomorrow.

I can tell you, I would have been properly grumpy if I'd put the dash back in and found half the HVAC did't work!

Its a complete lower half black swap, keeping the platinum alcantara uppers. It'll actually end up more like an A8 interior in terms of colour combo, but still a nice place to be. If I get bored of the platinum alcantara I can swap to black fabric.