I’ve done a search on this topic but could find much, it MUST be a common problem so apologies if i’ve missed another thread somewhere. I’m a MK1 owner of a few weeks. One little design floor i noticed quite quickly was the fact that the sun shines off the top of the black pastic rounded part of the dash board (over the instruments) straight onto the windscreen. This reflecion sits on the windscreen pretty much in my line of vision.
It feels like all that’s needed is a made to measure bit of suede or something to stick over the the existing black shiny unit.
I could potentially make something myself but this feels like it must be such a common problem that there might be something out there on the market anyway?
Haven’t been able to find anything though, let me know if you have! If not i’ll make a load and sell them to you lot for a tenner each or something…
I’ve been looking for a solution to this problem ever since I bought my car 5 years ago.
You may have seen some piccies on here of Tracey’s furry dash (not as rude as it sounds), she had her cowl flocked (again apologies, no sexual inuendo intended) by a specialist company and the results were pretty good. Certainly she seems happy enough to post pics of her fuzzy cowl (ok, couldn’t resist that time) on here for all to see.
I have also seen faux-saude covers that go over the entire dashboard but only on LHD cars.
I settled for painting mine with a Halfrauds rattle can, to match the car and then rubbed it down with very fine emery cloth to leave a matt finish, this seems to have eleviated the problem.
What you need to do is take it off from the car and just spray it with matt black palsticoat spray from B & Q,but dont forget to give in a good clean before spraying also make sure you use the under coat ,to make sure the finnish looks right.
A chap called ric(landwomble) on here as just done this,and he will tell you that it works and makes a big differance.
Your body colour solution suits your car, red its in with the exterior and black / red leather seats. I’ve got cloth seats and black exterior. Maybe I could try it with some matt black paint. I think I’ve got some in the shed from painting the coal house last year…
I did the same whilst trialling various options, a nice sun-warmed tin of smoothrite left a good finish, I just didn’t fancy black so I rubbed it down and used it as the undercoat for the red!
Think rally car dashboards with a suade-looking finish, the flock is tiny little fabric particles that are sprinkled over the surface onto a strong adhesive, they dry to leave a hard but matt finish that stops reflections.
Its an electrostatic charge that attracts all the fibres to the glue covered item. Speak to raj below on the tel number and he will give you a price including return postage.
As Wayne says, just done mine.
Remove from car (4 screws on underside of the steering column surround - the thing the indicators poke out of - and lift off top of box. 2 screws either side of cowl on underneath, then a sharp tug towards you as you sit in the drivers seat to pull the cowl out) and then give it a clean.
Panel wipe’s the best thing but meths or isoprop will do.
Quick dusting with black Plastikote primer from B&Q, then half an hour later another quick dusting of matte black Plastikote to cover.
Leave it half an hour and repeat. Plastikote’s about a fiver a can from B&Q and is great stuff, really easy to work with.
End result? I would say “factory” but it’s better than that as it completely kills reflections!
If you’re near Handforth and bring me the cowl I’ll do it for you for nowt as I’ve got these huge aerosols that’d cover a hundred cowls sitting there doing nothing…
Early cowls are shiny, later ones are satin, mine’s stealth matte…! Will probably do my console with it as well once Wayne’s had chance to have a bash at me stereo!
The one in the picture on the MX5 Parts website looks like the soft-feel paint that a lot of modern cars seem to use nowadays for switchgear, looks more like grey than black.
Plastikote sounds good, I will have to give that a try myself.
Plasikote’s brilliant stuff. Not sure how it does it but it covers beautifully. You just dust it over and it’s done, nice and even and with really consistent finish, no drips or runs. Very good on wiper arms as well (satin finish for these for the factory look).
Dries really quickly so you can stick a couple of coats on really quickly.
Whilst you’ve got the cowl out, it’s worth rubbing the metal springs that hold it in with a bit of emery paper and giving them a drop of silicon lube so that they’re easier to remove next time.
Wayne: I didn’t realise the method for flush-fitting stereos was so simple! Let me finish these beers and I’ll get the sledge out of the shed…
