I'm looking for some feedback, possibly pictures of what others have done to correct these problems. Here's a picture:
My dash has an ugly split right in front of the steering wheel, from the speedometer all the way to the windshield. Sorry, but it doesn't show up in the picture. Obviously I can replace the entire pad with a reproduction, but I'm wondering if it's possible to do something a little different for the same or a little more money. I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland with a black leather dash cover and I love that look. The cover is tightly adhered to the substrate and the contrasting stitching is straight and perfect. I've done a search of places that make custom leather covers but the examples that I've seen just don't cut it.
I've got a quote of $700 to restore the wheel. The splits can be filled with epoxy and then the wheel painted but I think that the difficult part is the plastic chrome on the bottom half. What I was thinking of doing was building up the thickness a bit and then buying a custom leather cover. A two-tone cover will cost about $60 and I can stitch it myself. I've heard guys using a self-stick roll bandage product and simply wrapping the wheel to build thickness then doing this.
As an alternate I could cut the chrome out and replace it somehow, but I haven't found an appropriate product. Back in the 70's they use to make a two-part thick liquid that you would literally pour on a small table top and it would harden to form an 1/8" thick clear coating. If I could put some aluminum or wood veneer into the grove then apply a similar product I would consider doing that.
My dash has an ugly split right in front of the steering wheel, from the speedometer all the way to the windshield. Sorry, but it doesn't show up in the picture. Obviously I can replace the entire pad with a reproduction, but I'm wondering if it's possible to do something a little different for the same or a little more money. I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland with a black leather dash cover and I love that look. The cover is tightly adhered to the substrate and the contrasting stitching is straight and perfect. I've done a search of places that make custom leather covers but the examples that I've seen just don't cut it.
I've got a quote of $700 to restore the wheel. The splits can be filled with epoxy and then the wheel painted but I think that the difficult part is the plastic chrome on the bottom half. What I was thinking of doing was building up the thickness a bit and then buying a custom leather cover. A two-tone cover will cost about $60 and I can stitch it myself. I've heard guys using a self-stick roll bandage product and simply wrapping the wheel to build thickness then doing this.
As an alternate I could cut the chrome out and replace it somehow, but I haven't found an appropriate product. Back in the 70's they use to make a two-part thick liquid that you would literally pour on a small table top and it would harden to form an 1/8" thick clear coating. If I could put some aluminum or wood veneer into the grove then apply a similar product I would consider doing that.
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