how to repair dashboard padding ?

[georgesgiralt]

Hello !
I've my "rubber" padding cracked at the tacho.
I used Neoprene glue to repair it but the fault open again.
I've seen a lot of these padding broken at the same spot.
So I'm not the only one to suffer this...
I would like to test your successful repair technique... if this exist ;-)
Thanks for your help !

[Tony Smith]

It is an expanded type of neoprene, pressure cast into a mould. Over the years I've tried a few things - superglue will work for a time but the plastic usually gives up on one side or the other of the glue line after a while. I've tried heat welding and then filling the resultant horrid mess with foam, filing/sanding back and painting black - worked for a while but the reason they all break at the spot you mentioned is that they flex there - eventually the glued in foam piece popped out.

Aside from the above I don't have any ideas other than to haunt the usual places and snap up a decent one on the odd occasion they become available - I do put some "plastic preserver" by the name of "Armour-all" on both our bikes when I remember to, supposedly it replaces the "plasticizer" chemicals that leach out over time - probably nonsense but like chicken soup - it can't hurt.

[georgesgiralt]

Thank you Tony !
Now I know I've two options :
Leave it alone,
Find an used one without crack
or buy a new one from BMW at a whooping 330.90€ apiece ....
I think I'll pass on the last one ;-)

[Barry]

It's one aspect of our bikes that's a worry in the long term. Will there still be any intact crash pads when these bikes are 50, 60, 70 years or more old.  Mine is still intact with just the beginnings of a crack underneath.  I've made a pre-emtive attempt to strengthen it by stitching it together it with metal staples. Given the propensity for these things to split and that a glued repair will probably not be as strong as the original material I think you need to devise some structural support underneath. Perhaps a combination of stitching and glue.

[georgesgiralt]

Speaking about this issue at a dealer I've been given 3 of them cracked. Some are very very hard plastic and the last one is very supple but widely cracked. Go figure.
I'll do some test and report back if i find something satisfactory.
But I doubt it...

[Carott]

This summer I bought an R45N with the same broken dash cover. After I straightened the gauge mounts I repaired the cover. Unfortunately I did not take any photos of the process but it seemed to work well.
First I used an assortment of clamps, shims, weights and Automotive Goop (http://eclecticproducts.com/products/amazing-goop.html) to join the two faces of the break together again. Let that cure for a day then went to work to strengthen the repair. I cut two or three pieces of non-metallic window screen about three inches long and shaped to fit the inside of the cover. I then smeared a layer of Goop on the inside of the cover, placed a piece of the screen in the Goop and smeared another layer of Goop over top. Let this cure for a couple days and added another Goop, screen, Goop layer. After it all cured I used a pair of wire cutters to trim off the lumps and bumps as it was too rubbery for a knife to be accurate.
The finished job looks ok, is very flexible, put up with me stretching it over the gauges several times as I tried to fine tune the gauge alignment and has survived a couple hundred kilometres of riding. I would post an after picture but the bike is in storage for the winter.