I bought this car last year with no records and little information. Then only thing the guy told me was he bought it from the original owner. "Yeah right" Well I just ran a CARFAX and it looks like he was telling the truth and the low mileage is correct also. Currently shows around 54,4xx. The report shows 15,000 put on it in the first 2 years. Another 20,000 over the next 4 years. When the car came from Texas to here in Colorado when over the next 8 years only a 1,000 miles a year Then it started having emission test every 2 years with less the 1,800 miles put on in the next 6 years. Then all of a sudden 6,000 miles put on in a year. Which takes me to the guy I bought it from and his 1,000 miles. I have put about 1,500 on it over the past year I've had it.

So now to my questions this car looks to have been garaged it's entire life. It is 1982 Black/Black 5-speed with full leather. Why would the dash defroster vents and shifter trim be so bad. I know if that is my only issue I'm lucky but still seems odd that they would warp and pull so bad with very little mileage and what my guess is very little sun exposure.

With the new information I would like to keep car as original as possible. Any way to repair this area I will take pictures if needed but it sounds like a common issue here on the forum.

Also I was told the original owner parked it after denting to Drivers fender I for the life of me can't figure out what he hit or how he did what he did. Anyway the rest of the paint is clean and I have a new fender to relace the bad one but I'm scared about matching the paint any advice to make sure the body shop knows what they are doing?

And finally does this story sound familiar to a car anyone here once had. Moved from Texas to Colorado around the end of 1988

 

TX is humid and CO is very dry. the leather needs regular treatment or it will get hard and shrink. Even if it's not in the sun. Mine is black int and has the same thing as yours.

 

Humidity or lack of makes sense seems it would cause shrinkage. I don't seem to have this problem anywhere else so is this area just extra vulnerable? Anyway to over moisturize and strech the leather? "did I really just ask that"

 

You'll never make that leather to work. My car came out of Nebraska and the interior was dry as sand. (The dry sand up the beach from the water. You know what I mean.)

Easier to get new leather and put it on. Believe me, I tried and tried. Jeez, there's some guy who sells new leather for 928 dashes out of Michigan. Nice stuff. I did my dash and glove box. A quick search should find it, or it may show up as an ad on this page.

 

www.928leathershop.com

or if you've got cash stuffed into a safe somewhere...

http://www.designpaulchampagne.com/928.html

 

Can anyone tell me how these work and sucess stories?

Nicole??

http://marketplaceadvisor.channeladv...339&i=26458136

 

I used those vent covers. They are an 'OK' fix, as long as your cracks are small enough to be hidden by them. My car only had small cracks that ran between the vent openings, no cracks running down away from the windshield. But you can tell they are not factory. I attached a picture of my '87 S4 with the vent covers installed.

Since your car is nice and you want to keep it, I would eventually pull the dash and have it recovered by one of our leather craftsman sponsors.

 

I guess I had better take a picture. I don't have any cracks the leather just shrunk and pulled in.
So those are just covers?
Are they oversized? Is that their way of working? Not sure I'm understanding exactly how they help?
I would love to send off my dash and have it show up good as new. I'm just not that guy so much. If I can figure a way to do it myself first I like to try.
Thanks for the information on the vent covers.
It's foggy here so I'll see how good a picture I can get in the garage.

 

Here are some pictures kind of hard to get while stuffed in the garage. Excuse the dust we had a vacum cleaner mishap this weekend. This is only on the passenger side.

 

Well, as this is a family forum I won't type in what I said when I saw the pictures..

I will type in that I spent a couple of years trying to get the foam to lay down after the leather pulled it back like that. Clamping and glueing. Pressing with cinder blocks. Etc.

If you want a leather dash, get a different dash and a new leather cover. Or just buy the leather dash already done. That'd be the smartest.

 

Those covers will not help you with that issue. You will need to pull the dash and have it recovered.

 

Yup, my leather dash looks exactly the same. Gotta tear down and recover.

 

Seem's a shame to throw away the original dash when this is the only problem.
Guess that will be a winter project as the driving season is way to short around here.