Any clever tip to fix the trim panel under the steering wheel on an S70?

[amblerman]

I went out last weekend to take pictures of my repairs and discovered two things.
1) The trim panel has the tabs on it and the dash has the loop. I thought it was the other way around.
2) I found that the screw hole on the panel was busted so I decided to repair it.

I initially wanted to take a picture of my older repair for the holes that accept the tabs. I originally thought the tabs were on the dash and the holes were on the trim panel. It's the opposite of that. Below are pictures of the hole repair I did over a year ago as well as my most recent repair.
I had hoped to provide a picture of the back of the dash hole but I couldn't take a good picture and I'm not taking my dash out for that.

Repair of dash holes for the trim panel tabs
In this photo you can see (yellow arrow) the fiberglass and ABS cement (black) that I put on back of the dash. This hole had been ripped in one corner and was letting the panel sag a bit. Using the procedure outlined below I layered on a few layers of fiberglass and once dry, cut out a bit so the tab would fit. It's much stronger now.

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When I did remove my trim panel I found the main screw hole to be broken.

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So I decided to repair it. I used the same fiberglass cloth + ABS cement method I used to repair my dash. However, I discovered that I had mistakenly ordered white ABS cement instead of black last time I bought it. I'd go with black but I didn't want to order any more at this time.

Step 1: Take off all the broken bits , pull back insulation felt, and clean plastic with alcohol.

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Step 2: Use some of the ABS cement to rebuild the plastic around the hole. At this point the repair is still too weak to hold anything

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Step 3: Cut some fiberglass cloth to fit.

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Step 4: Apply cement and then press cloth onto cement.. Once embedded in cement, use fingers (in gloves of course) to smooth it out and make sure the fiberglass is pressed in all the nooks and crannies. use your finger to smear cement on top of the fiberglass cloth so it's wet on both sides.

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Let the first layer dry (30 mins or so if nice weather) and then repeat with a few more layers. I used a total of three.

add an ant (optional).

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Step 5: Trim and drill a hole. I did this step after letting it dry overnight. It was rock hard at this point.

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Finished trim panel assembled. The screw hole is much more sturdy now.

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Oh I also took a random Volvo screw and stuck it here:

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[MoVolvos]

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This is the fastest and easiest way to fix plastic that I've seen. Attached are couple of sloppy fixes on a rear passenger door sill molding. Was in a hurry and didn't think the Gel would work but the paper (envelope) absorbed it very quickly. This gentleman has a lot of tricks up his sleeve so carefully follow his instructions or it's glue on your fingers and the paper stuck to another part of the piece to be repaired .



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Off Topic But Useful

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Will have to figure out how to patch the big area but wanted to keep the rest intact for now.
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