mark944turbo

I am trying to improve the appearance of my 86 951 by buying a dash cover (79$) and a new shiftboot. Has anyone purchased the plastic cover (not the carpet one)? Does it look cheap or does it fit on nicely? Are there any leather covers? Is the shiftboot easy to slide onto the ****? From taking off the old one it seems hard.
Thanks,
Mark

pete944

Don't know about the dash cover. I'd like an answer to that myself. Someone here on the list got one (I think it was Sean) Do a search for that thread. As far as the shft boot, it is kind of a pain in the a$$. Be very careful not to break the plastic cap with the shift pattern on it. You can't buy them anymore without getting the entire shifter assembly.

930 under Restoration

Mark

Like Pete said the boot is a real pain, especially getting it over the ball of the handle. I haven't put one of those plastic covers on a post 85 dash but I did put one on an 83 it looked like total hell! Might want to keep a lookout on Ebay for a good used dash.

Dash

Deepice

I have heard the covelay dash covers are good for about 3 weeks and then they start to go to crap.

mark944turbo

Thanks everyone,

For anyone looking for resources on 944 dashboard problems, run a search here for "dash". I just did this and found that nobody has a good solution yet. Factory, aftermarket, and recovering are too expensive, and covers are ugly. Filling the cracks and painting/ recovering sounds hard and expensive. As far as the shiftboot goes, would it be smart to purchase a shiftknob and boot together (already assembled)? Or are there aftermarket options available for reasonable $$$? My decision on the dash is to uninstall it, sand it down, fill the cracks, and try to coat it in carbon fiber. I will keep you posted on the results.

Deepice

you can already buy a corbon fiber dash from GT racing, its under 400 dollars

but you can have the dash recovered back to factory specs for around 300

I am recovering mine in Alcantara I have filled in the cracks with Bondo and have sanded it down

My car is going to be a track only car but it will look good.

PorscheG96

Does anyone know about the quality and fit of the GT Racing carbon fiber dash? Obviously anyone with a passenger airbag would have to disconnect it, but is it the same shape as the factory dash? And how is the upper portion of the dash removed?

Mark, just get the AJLA leather shifter boot from Paragon or whatever place you choose, it's VERY easy to install but takes a little time to get the top portion under the cap just the way you want it.

mark944turbo

I would feel fine about buying the shiftboot but when i originally pulled the old boot off i tried to pry up the cap on the **** with my fingernail to see if it popped off. Does it? Mine moved a little and now it looks uneven. I will go look at the carbon fibre dash. I do have experience w carbon fibre (boat industry), so I will probably attempt the project anyway.

PorscheG96

Yes, the cap on top of the shifter pops off. Try to lift it as vertically as possible [meaning not from one side and OVER] because there are three delicate clips holding it into the shifter ****. Just cut your old boot off with a knife or scissors and pull the new boot up from the bottom of the shifter...you want the leather hanging over the top by about a 1/4 inch, then you fold it inward and pop the cap back on. I love how my new shift leather looks, some d1ck ripped a hole right through my last one [I think it was a mechanic].

mark944turbo

where is the GT Racing dash

PorscheG96

<a href="http://www.gt-racing.com/catalog/default.htm" target="_blank">http://www.gt-racing.com/catalog/default.htm</a>

Scroll to 924/944 parts in the left-hand column and wait for the pdf file to load. There's a ghetto looking race dash on page 3 [item 74] and the sweet looking carbon fiber dash is on page 4 [item 94]. I think I want one.

mark944turbo

I wish those dashes were in bigger, color pictures. I can hardly see what I am looking at. The first one is definately not good for a road car. The second one is maybe the best option I have seen for a replacement dash. It is still questionable worksmanship though, because it is built for a track car. Has anyone bought one of these?

Deepice

I don't see why you need to pop the cap off of the shifter if you lift the plastic retaining ring and then pop rubber boot there is a small retaining clip that you can remove and the whole shifter and leather boot will come up.

Sean

Yes, I posted a thread on the Coverlay dash cover a while back.

I will expound more on this issue later but... I regret to say that "the honeymoon has worn off." In other words, the Coverlays look great when you first put them on....and then they start going downhill.

I think the key to a dash cover would be proper (professional) installation. And even then, it's not gonna be perfect. The problem is that YOU will always know it's a dash cover. Your passengers will probably never notice, but YOU will know.

When I first got my Coverlay, I was excited to no longer be seeing my eyesore dash - it had terrible TERRIBLE dash cracks. But recently, I have begun seeing some heat related distortions (warping) of the Coverlay and hearing a few extra rattles. So instead of noticing the dash cracks, I notice these dash cover problems.

The only true "slam dunk" fix will be an OEM dash. <img src="graemlins/drink.gif" border="0" alt="[cherrsagai]" />

danny951

I've been thinking about this for quite a while, it's like $89, but it's the **** and the boot. The crest is optional. I've heard to stay away from 9xauto before though.. anyone know about these guys?