Volvo 850 Dashboard Mount Repair

[osman]

Two things that need to happen that wont with your "fix". The dashboard is a big, heavy two-piece construction that one, needs to be supported, and two, needs to be affixed to the firewall, not sure how wedging an inner tube (why not a whoopee cushion) into the space between the firewall and dash will both support and connect the dash to the firewall. If you accelerate to fast your whole dashboard might try to fall in your lap if it were not for the steering wheel. The best cheap fix is cardboard shims between the bottoms of the a-pillar and the side of the dash on each side, this will greatly quiet much of the noise and also reduce the amount of movement by the dash. I have fabricated my own mounts and while I would rather do a PCV system replacement than a dash restoration anyday, it is worthwhile to do. Just remember tolerances on the firewall bolts and square nut is very small. If you dont maintain the location of the threaded mounting squares, the bolts that pass through the firewall are nearly impossible to line up.

[Hellas T-5]

the supplier of these parts for volvo is ECRIS AB I think,the website is www.gcp.se I searched their website for 850 parts,they don't have anything,but in the past when I ordered an interior part from our importer in the box with the part there was a paper from them with the part's description and volvo part number on it.maybe a message to them would be good

[ZionXIX]

I apoligise ahead of time if reviving this necro-thread brings back any horrible nightmares regarding dash repairs. I have read through this thread and several others and I have to say you guys have come up with some really clever ways of patching up these dashboards. Its going to be a very long time before I get my chance at channeling my inner MacGyver to fix my own dash problems. I wanting to raise a question. Give it some thought, hear me out. Dont institutionalize me right away, I'll get there on my own soon enough. Has anyone ever thought about taking a junkyard dash and dissecting/dismantling/reverse engineering one in order to form a mold and use that to manufacture a "new" dashboard. I told you it was a batshit crazy nuclear option but nevertheless it intrigues me. Since the plastic is so bad, could one obtain a more modern plastic with all those qualities that we wish our dashboards had and make one? I think some backyard engineer with some time on their hands and a junkyard dashboard (so as not to put their own vehicle out of commission) could devise a way of making the separate components of the dash board and assembling them like a jigsaw puzzle. As I said, it will be many years before I can try repairs myself but I like to plan ahead and start researching ideas early on.

Thanks for your time.

P.S. --> There was a point in time when I considering remaking one out of aluminum using backyard "lost foam" methods and it occurred to me that
in a front end collision would mean certain death as aluminum is a lot tougher than plastic. So lets not do that.

[ZionXIX]

More random thoughts on dashboard repair.

I often find myself dwelling on all the broken things that I will have the opportunity to fix when I return to the states permanently.
Today's thoughts focused on the dashboard and it's completely obliterated dashmounts. All 4 mounts have completely broken away from the main dashboard. This occurred as a result of tornado debris crashing through the windshield and smacking the dashboard really well. There are so many great repair ideas on here. I thought I would propose another.

In my situation the mounts have been completely ripped away. There is no hope of ever attaching them again. I noticed that the defrost duct is continuous across the front of the dashboard. I have considered performing a kind of "Laparoscopic" repair.
Remove the defrost vents from each side. Take some of that wonderful pipe strap that comes on 25ft rolls for $5 with holes every 1/2". Attach nuts to the strap at the proper intervals. Then "thread" the pipe strap through the defrost vents and match up some longer bolts to the newly attached nuts.

My first roadblock with this idea is the malleable nature of the pipe strap. It will probably bend and pull through the mounting holes once the bolts are tightened. The alternative to pipe strap involves taking a piece of flatbar and bedning it to match the curvature of the vent. Then inserted just like the pipe strap. I would be concerned about extra stress placed on the plastic veby since only the edges will be making contact with the vent. A work around I was toying with is using some sort of stiff closed cell foam like the kind used on pool noodles to "cushion" the pressure applied to the vent by the flatbar.

[Ozark Lee]

On basket case dashboards anything that you can come up with to hold it to the chassis is perfectly acceptable. If your mounts are completely obliterated then the only other option is to try to scare up a pick-n-pull dash that is less broken than the one you have. what you get at a junk yard will also be broken and it is less a design issue (that is part of it though) than it is an materials issue.

Volvo's obsession with developing "environmentally friendly" plastics resulted in plastic formulations that simply degrade horribly. Time has not been friendly to old Volvos.

The chances of someone marketing a replacement dash is pretty much zero given the complexity of the moldings and low number of potential customers. What we need is a LMC Truck for Volvos (I think you could build an entire 1996 Chevy pickup from scratch by ordering individual parts from LMC) but there are still millions of old pickups on the road and there is only a relative handful of old Volvo 850s.

...Lee

[800artfreed]

I have done 3 dashboard repairs on S and V 70 1998 and 1999. The last one on a 1999 I used another technique mentioned in another post. I use woven fibreglass sheet cut to an appropriate size and ABS plastic glue. I did not use PVC/ABS combination glue. Overall i liked this process the best. I cleaned the surface with acetone, applied ABS glue, overlaid the fibreglass piece and applied more ABS. I used the same method to rebuild the supports that hold the rectangular nuts. This included the areas around the mounts as well as the mounts themselves. I had the luxury of using a spare dash pulled from the PnP yard. This allowed the glue to cure and I could go back and strengthen any sections I wanted. So far after 18 months I am happy with the results.

I also used a new technique for refurbishing the foam on the wiring harness. Rather than trying to clean off the sticky dissolved foam I used thin sheets (1/8" thick) of styrofoam package wrapping cut into strips. I then wound them onto the harness in a spiral. Lastly I held it in place using friction tape, NOT electricians tape due to the elevated temperatures in the car. It is what Volvo uses as well. Good luck.

[scot850]

Looks good and solid.

Neil.

[abscate]

Here’s an idea. If your dash mount points are completely gone , anchor thin stainless wire at strategic points in the dash, feed them through the holes, then tension them under the cowl. You could use the inserted m6 bolts as wire anchors.

[STARRFRANK2020]

HI Matthew,

In my opinion, I came up with a much better solution to upgrade the P80 Volvo's notorious dashboard panel rattle issue. This design I came up with back in 2019 and they have kept my S70's dash quiet all this time. I sell them through Facebook Marketplace and on Amazon.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... 261611813/

Thanks,

Frank

[abscate]

I ran out of time to do dash repair on Evita doing an evap job, all four mounts broken up.

I anchored thin Nylon line on the two center mounts , ran them through the firewall, and used sprung line cord holders as the anchors on the front firewall side, with a knot as a safety. It’s holding with minimal BSR right now.

Pics to come