How to eliminate all the creaks and rattles in your dashboard

[LannVouivre]

My dashboard was collapsing into itself and shedding all over the floor, so I removed it and now my credit is silent aside from suspension noise and the soft top support braces creaking. Examination of dash revealed all the plastic with the brown/yellow fibers in it has become some kind of horrible clay-plastic hybrid.

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Bonus: flush fit Continental stereo (literally pushed it into the opening from behind the console to see how it would look and it kind of snapped right in)
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[PhilPhil]

1) This is not much of a "how-to". You removed the dash and saw plastic deterioration. Okay, then what?

2) "and now my credit is silent". Proofread, maybe?

[raubritter]

...thus solving the problem once and for all... once and for all!!!

I've been wondering about this for a long time-- clips breaking off are bad enough, but eventually (at least some of) the plastic seems destined to self-destruct, and there won't be good replacements available.

So what is your plan? Buy a new old stock dash? Anyway might as well brainstorm...

Some ideas: Construct some sort of replacement with other materials (like those car shop tv shows do sometimes)? Use the current one to make a mold and then create a replacement from some type of spray foam (which could then be wrapped in leather maybe)? Maybe coat the underside of the current one in plasti-dip or epoxy or something to at least stabilize it?

[328 Power 04]

1) This is not much of a "how-to". You removed the dash and saw plastic deterioration. Okay, then what?

2) "and now my credit is silent". Proofread, maybe?

Probably tongue-in-cheek, if you ask me.







But hey, this guy did it too

[pine1000]

If it were me and I had already taken things this far, I would probably try to buy a new one from ECS or my dealer with the BMWCCA discount: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...d/51458399909/

Or has it been established that this part is NLA even though it is still listed?

[LannVouivre]

Abel's right, the primary purpose of this post is satire. Of course, if you can't the lack of seriousness, I guess I could take it down.

And raubritter, I'm not sure what I can do about this situation. Originally, I had thought to remove the dash and repair the fractures. When I started removing it, I couldn't help but notice that every single one of the small protrusions that the speed nuts attach to was cracked. Most of them were completely detached. The dash was supported only by the HVAC ducts and firewall insulation.

What I've been trying to do is think of a way to support the dash in more locations. I don't know if it's intended to only have its weight supported in the center by the central HVAC components, at the windshield end by the car body (under the front trim piece), and on the outside edges by 2 screws per side in metal brackets, or if parts were missing. The dash also has to support the instrument cluster, the vents, the headlight switch, the glove box, the lower dash panels, and possibly the center console. It's hard to tell for sure, because almost all of the tabs have snapped off.

What I think I'm going to do is put a (soft) metal support below the instrument cluster, under the stereo, and the glove box. I'm not too worried about destroying the car's value because the car is rebuilt titled, but I don't want to create a death trap with metal. Then again, BMW didn't worry about it too much.