1999 S70 Dash mounts, should I reinforce?

speedyt5 · Post by **speedyt5** » 27 Jan 2014, 11:12

I pulled a dash out of a junked s70 and every single mount was intact with no cracks. I plan on putting this in my car in the next couple weeks. My question is, should I bother reinforcing these mounts? They are all in perfect condition. If I do reinforce them, I was thinking of getting some fiber tape (such as the very thin self adhesive drywall tape, and a thin layer of epoxy over that, I don't want to do too much, since last time I did the dash, the epoxy I used was the putty kind and it was too thick and couldn't get all the firewall screws through. Any ideas on a reinforcing these mounts with the metal stripping, also do I go over the metal part with the tape and epoxy or do I just reinforce the plastic? Thanks.

Post by **cn90** » 27 Jan 2014, 11:48

There is a long thread by Ozark Lee on dash repair.

Since yours is perfect with no broken tab, my suggestion is to reinforce "sideway":

http://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-s70- ... 802/page9/

Post by **cn90** » 27 Jan 2014, 11:50

This is the idea...

: DSCF0012.jpg (86.84 KiB) Viewed 1139 times

speedyt5 · Post by **speedyt5** » 27 Jan 2014, 12:54

Thanks, I'm hesitant to use the metal strapping though.

Post by **rspi** » 27 Jan 2014, 13:05

Is there any evidence as to how old the dash is? Maybe it's only a couple of years old and will last another 10 years.

I seen some fiberglass stuff, Weld On 790.

ChiNorm · Post by **ChiNorm** » 27 Jan 2014, 13:10

The dash is at least 15 years old, reinforce everywhere you can. The plastic degrades with time and vibrations. A dash from a high mile car will likely be more brittle, not that you can see anything. You hopefully will never do this again, so make it bulletproof.

Good luck.

Post by **rspi** » 27 Jan 2014, 13:20

I don't know if anything short of metal bracing will help support the plastic when it gets weak.

ChiNorm · Post by **ChiNorm** » 28 Jan 2014, 10:01

+1 to the metal bracing. This plastic either is now or will be brittle soon. You have the luxury of having a fresh dash to work on before you install it, so do it right unless you want to do it again.

I had all the mounts break on my 96 854. A big pita.

speedyt5 · Post by **speedyt5** » 29 Jan 2014, 19:05

I see how they (the metal) goes in but do I go around the sides of the plastic mounts? The thing is that all my mounts are intact, so putting the metal bracing around the plastic will add thickness then I am not sure they will sit in the firewall spots perfectly making it hard to get the screws to thread in. Hard to explain, but last time I did my dash I built the plastic mounts up with putty epoxy, then put metal strapping over that, then when we put the dash in only two of the screws went through the mounts to screw in, I think it was off by centimeters and couldn't get them through, I know there are write-ups on the whole process but I can't find exact ways to put the strapping over the mounts when they are not broken.

Post by **abscate** » 29 Jan 2014, 20:10

You could just build up the sides with JB Weld and skip the metal IMHO

A nice big fat 1/2 bead around the base should do the trick