Dolby center dash speaker cover repair

[scot850]

I bought a top dash pad with the Dolby speaker built in. I knew it had a crack on one side (which from on-line pictures seems fairly common), but the vendor assured me it was minor. Have to say, for the first time ever, a Volvo owner has flat out lied to my face. Yes, you expect some 'memory misting' but in this car the top was cracked almost 40% around the inside. It turns out the car had been in a fairly serious collision and this pad had been removed as the airbag had not gone off.

As these have long been NLA from Volvo my only option was to repair it if I could, as I have not seen one for sale locally in about 10 years and never seen one in the junkyard.

I carefully removed the top grille which is fairly easy as it is held in with around 8-9 bent tabs which are part of the top grille. Careful not to be too rough as you can easily make the breakage a lot worse!

I used JB weld Black plastic 2 part epoxy for the repairs (the same stuff I use on dashboard mount repairs). I did bits at a time and used a tooth pick to put the glue in the crack and elastic bands and light clamps to hold parts in place while the glue set.

I replaced the dust preventing foam with a piece of speaker material I got off Amazon for about $30. I probably used 5% if that!

Slight crack as advised by vendor

PXL_20230528_223721619.jpg (346.39 KiB) Viewed 593 times

Dust protection foam remains

PXL_20230528_223725963.jpg (506.54 KiB) Viewed 593 times

Cover grille removed

PXL_20230528_223741662.jpg (464.81 KiB) Viewed 593 times

Glue repaired top cover

PXL_20230722_210416223.jpg (738.49 KiB) Viewed 593 times

Finished repair

PXL_20230722_210340068.jpg (597.5 KiB) Viewed 593 times

Only remaining visual repair

PXL_20230722_210345544.jpg (474.15 KiB) Viewed 593 times

I wish I knew enough to find a better way to hide the crack remains of the external repair. Any suggestions appreciated!


Neil.

[CIK7]

I bought a top dash pad with the Dolby speaker built in. I knew it had a crack on one side (which from on-line pictures seems fairly common), but the vendor assured me it was minor. Have to say, for the first time ever, a Volvo owner has flat out lied to my face. Yes, you expect some 'memory misting' but in this car the top was cracked almost 40% around the inside. It turns out the car had been in a fairly serious collision and this pad had been removed as the airbag had not gone off.

As these have long been NLA from Volvo my only option was to repair it if I could, as I have not seen one for sale locally in about 10 years and never seen one in the junkyard.

I carefully removed the top grille which is fairly easy as it is held in with around 8-9 bent tabs which are part of the top grille. Careful not to be too rough as you can easily make the breakage a lot worse!

I used JB weld Black plastic 2 part epoxy for the repairs (the same stuff I use on dashboard mount repairs). I did bits at a time and used a tooth pick to put the glue in the crack and elastic bands and light clamps to hold parts in place while the glue set.

I replaced the dust preventing foam with a piece of speaker material I got off Amazon for about $30. I probably used 5% if that!

I wish I knew enough to find a better way to hide the crack remains of the external repair. Any suggestions appreciated!


Neil.

I managed to remove the ratty brown (all plastic) Dolby cover from the 98 s70 t5 i found in Dallas without breaking it. At home, I held a solder iron close to it. In one spot it slightly melted but rest is intact. One of the 4 clips melted 2mm shorter than suppose to be when I put it in the oven @ 200F. The rest the cover is fully intact. It has regained partial softness but it still looks brittle.

Sorry I was caught up in sharing my sad experience of restoring a dolby cover. Try to think of a way to melt and smooth the plastic at the same time. So maybe in one hand, hold a heat gun and in the other hand use a small flat-edged plastic/metal pry tool to smooth out the crack.

Just remember, there is one crack you will never be able to get rid of...
I am proud that I thought of that^ one before abscate did.

[abscate]

Make up some grey JB and smooth it into that crack , wipe away excess. Use the slow set so you have time to fool with it

[scot850]

The only issue with that is that as you can see on the other side, the black (is there a grey JB Weld plastic or do you mean something else?) goes shiny when dry so it makes it more obvious.

I had thought about the plastic welder, but that has the same issue is it makes it shiny and changes the surface texture.

Thanks!

Neil.

[abscate]

You can play with the amount of black ( epoxy) and white ( hardener) to make a bunch of spots to match the colour

Let it set up twice as long if you pinch on the hardener and work quickly if you use more white ( use the regular, not the quickset)

Plan B is a sharpie fix

[FireFox31]

Odd, part 9477251 appears to be available, at least in oak (though I thought they were all black). $44 seems like a fine price.

[scot850]

Well I guess oak ones are still available. Black/gray have not been available for probably 8 years or more.

Good to know not everything is NLA! I guess you could buy an Oak one and paint it with vinyl paint?

Neil.

[FireFox31]

PlastiDip might do the job. And it's easily removable. Check the specs for how it holds up under direct sunlight in a sealed car. Might simply shrink and peel off.

[scot850]

I played about with a bit of Sharpie and white wax pencil, then cleaned with Mother's vinyl cleaner. Looks better, but will never be 100%. I'm good with 90% if it holds together. So far this year the 'R' has not even got it's summer tires on! We will be lucky to get August to October use from it. I guess if I can even find out if there is still a steering wheel vibration, then I know the rims might need straightening which can get done over the winter. Maybe we should finally sell it. My wife used to drive the car over the summer to all her golf and other activities now she is retired, but following a knee injury, that has dropped off. Hard to justify 3 cars, when we are hardly using 2!

A sitting older car is not good. Maybe someone else should take it on and use it. If they want to use it year around, that is their lookout.

Neil.

[Goupil]

Well I guess oak ones are still available. Black/gray have not been available for probably 8 years or more.

Good to know not everything is NLA! I guess you could buy an Oak one and paint it with vinyl paint?

Neil.

Mismatched doesnt look too bad, at least the other way !