Anyone Removed 3-Piece Dash For Painting?

[Sten]

I have a 54 plate mini One with 3 piece dash and want to get it sprayed black to match the body colour and bring out the chrome interior bits. Has anyone removed the dash before and have any advice please? Also, could I mess up the passenger side airbag if I try this?

[Richard22b]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sten

I have a 54 plate mini One with 3 piece dash and want to get it sprayed black to match the body colour and bring out the chrome interior bits. Has anyone removed the dash before and have any advice please? Also, could I mess up the passenger side airbag if I try this?

Ive removed it before and had no problems. Just make sure you take of the spongy dash under the windscreen off first as this make it loads easier.

[SymesMiniLTD]

yep, literally did the same today - airbag is fine you wont mess it up just be careful taking it off and putting it back as the clips sometimes break and your left with a rattly dash!

[Sten]

Thanks for the replies, will call the body shop and try to get it done this week. Should be able to sort out the annoying rattles while iv'e got the top dash off too!

[Sten]

Now Complete, couldn't remove the top dash in the end, so had to be really carefull removing and replacing everything, but fairly simple job and i am really pleased with the results. It cost £30 to get all the panels done. Pics below. I have also included a pic of the dash in silver before I did the work for comparison.

[Richard22b]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sten (original)

Now Complete, couldn't remove the top dash in the end, so had to be really carefull removing and replacing everything, but fairly simple job and i am really pleased with the results. It cost £30 to get all the panels done. Pics below. I have also included a pic of the dash in silver before I did the work for comparison.

Where and how did you get them done. £30 seems cheap

[Sten]

I took the original dash panels off then took them to a local body shop in Cheltenham (found them in the yellow pages). I had one quote of £100 for doing the same job so I was happy when they offered to do it for £30. I gave them the paint code for my car so I got a good match, then they sanded, primed, and sprayed them the same day. After that I just left the paint to set and re-fitted them a few days later.

[GTT 280]

that looks SUPERB!!

out of interest, those people who said they CAN remove the top dash part (with the integrated airbag) - i woul dbe VERY interested to know how you did it???????

cheers,
K.

[CC07ERS]

check my gallery as i bought an old one from ebay & had it painted along with my downtubes it looked the muts ,& went great with the colour coding.

[GTT 280]

Quote: Originally Posted by cco7ers (original)

check my gallery as i bought an old one from ebay & had it painted along with my downtubes it looked the muts ,& went great with the colour coding.

Your gallery does not show how to reomve the airbag dash - confused here...

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sten (original)

Now Complete, couldn't remove the top dash in the end, so had to be really carefull removing and replacing everything, but fairly simple job and i am really pleased with the results. It cost £30 to get all the panels done. Pics below. I have also included a pic of the dash in silver before I did the work for comparison.

Sten, that looks brilliant I'd been quoted £50 by my local bodyshop to do the dash in Hyper Blue (probably a fair price for metallic) and I'd been tempted to do the downtubes as well, but I see yours are chromed.

Do you mind me asking where you got them from and what you think of the quality. I had heard that some, from one supplier, were not a true mirror finish.

Thanks in advance,

Tigger.

[Sten]

Hi Tigger,

I got the chrome supports off ebay. Although the finish was very good, there was a small section where the chrome plate hadn't taken. It was replaced, but the seller was a real pain after that and wouldn't pay for costs in returning the faulty one.

Mine came from Italy and are solid metal. There are lots of cheap plastic chrome look stuff out there for the mini, I don't know if that's the case for these supports too, but I expect that would give an inferior finish.

Here is the link to the seller on e-bay if you want to take your chances, but they aren't cheap.
eBay UK Shop - Auto Chrome UK: Range Rover, PT Cruiser, BMW X5

[Tigger, Eeyore & Roo]

Thanks Sten,

I remember them, I bought some bits of them some time ago. I am pleased to say I can't remember having a problem

You're right, definitely not cheap; probably more than I can justify at the moment, but thanks for the link anyway

Tigger.