Old Chestnut - E30 Dash care.

[E30Conman 0]

I know there were lengthly theads on this topic in the past but I missed them.

My 325 vert 'scrack-free dash has been lovingly massaged with Armour all - but I hear it may cause the dash to crack. Whats the low down on whats best for the E30 dash and interior plastics?

[Yamahoo 6]

My suspicion is that the vert dash is less likely to have cracking problems anyway because without a roof you don't get the excessive heat buildup inside the car when it's left locked up. The verts tend to spend less time out in the weather anyway, more likely garaged and not used as dailys now that they're getting older - it's less common to find verts with the 3-400,000 km's on them like the sedans may have for example. My vert also has an uncracked dash, but my coupe has cracks like the Grand Canyon.

[nath 134]

Im not convinced that ANYTHING is 'good' for the old vinyl, apart from keeping it out of the heayt and UV.

My 1985 318 was a very low km 1 owner when i got it, which fantastic un-retouched paint, but the dash was the worst I have ever seen..... Made me think that batch quality control in the vinyl wasnt too fab, or something along those lines.... ie. if it is still good it may well stay good.

[ducatiss 1]

All Vinyl dash's will crack eventually if exposed to sunlight and heat and cold. The repeated cycles of expansion and contraction make this an eventual certainty.

BMW themselves make a product for dash care - not sure if its any more effective than anything else on the market but it doesn't leave that shiny greasy look of some of the others. A dash mat would be a sensible option for daily use and protection as would one of those silver sun block things you put up on your dash to keep the car cool. Other than this, try parking in the shade whenever possible, avoid extremes of heat and cold.

Prevention is much better than cure :-)

[E30Conman 0]

Cheers Ross, have to agree, my vert is garaged and only gets out for decent drives, summer I put on a dashmat (which tends to wanna leave at 120+), dash is perfect but I do wanna keep her polished up - verts insides get more noticed. Am keen to share 'vert type things if you want, your 327i sounds interesting??

Mines NZ 5sp 148kms, totally original (2nd owner)

[E30Conman 0]

Im not convinced that ANYTHING is 'good' for the old vinyl, apart from keeping it out of the heayt and UV.

My 1985 318 was a very low km 1 owner when i got it, which fantastic un-retouched paint, but the dash was the worst I have ever seen..... Made me think that batch quality control in the vinyl wasnt too fab, or something along those lines.... ie. if it is still good it may well stay good.

Thanks mate heres hoping :-)

[cliffdunedin 8]

A friend of mine restores old 50's-70's muscles, and i saw at his workshop a dashboard covered in vasoline...he told me that the best thing he has found is thickly smearing petroleum jelly on the tired(not broken) dash and trim and leaving it there for a while...in his case a month-two then cleaning it off and hand polishing before using armour all or other trim care products a few days later.

Don't know if it works well, but he deals with 50-100k customs so can't be too bad.

[nath 134]

Something very general and somewhat appropriate to remember is that all polymers/ alloys want to return to their natural component state, and cannot be stopped/ cured/ reversed with 'snake oil'. Nothing can be literally 'added to the mix' without actually chemically re- engineering the polymer.

This however may be a very very long and incremental process, which i suppose can be masked sufficiently with certain products for the life of the vehicle while it is still in your hands.

[JiB 0]

....So just bring this back up. My dash is juuuuuuust starting to crack, as in miniscule/barely visible hairline cracks.

Is there absolutely nothing I can do about it?

[cliffdunedin 8]

From the long chemical analysis Nath said, No

But i still think the vasoline would be worth a nudge, like i said he uses this on very expensive classics so the only risk i can see is dust and vasoline everywhere!

[antil33t 90]

and what people might think of you and what you do in your car