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Repairing or replacing a marked dashboard cubby door?


DeeJayDready

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Just wondering if there is any good patch-up jobs for a marked dashboard cubby door like mine.

A previous owner has presumably scratched up the handle with their nails, and the owner before me said that he scraped the area around the handle by using the wrong vacuum attachment while cleaning.

 

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions, or would it be better to try and source and fit a replacement door?

 

 

 

IMG_4723_zpsdmaj1baw.jpg

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strip it down and re paint in something more durable. You'll be stripping the bulk of it out to replace the cubby fascia so you may as well undo a few more screws and take the little switch plate out and give it a coat or two. That's what i did and it changed my life, I've never looked back.

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Thanks for all the responses. I take it when people are talking about 'spray painting' they are referring only to the handle area (after taking it out)? I can only imagine that spraying the whole fascia would have disastrous looking results, as it would be surely near impossible to get a good match with the surrounding dash. I think I will probably give this a go (for the handle) with some matt black spray, and maybe also apply a little to the area in the photo below.

 

As for the scrapes on the door fascia itself, I presume there is no good way to clean these up? They are obviously fairly minor, but given that they are very much in your line of sight I would be keen to trying something. I reckon my only option for that might to see if I can find a cleaner one than mine in a breakers yard somewhere.

 

IMG_4939_zpsnwpfos37.jpg

Edited by DeeJayDready
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Have a look on youtube or search on here, plenty have done it but you need to do it all, or it'll be differing shades.

 

To be honest if it's a choice between just removing and spraying the little handle or having to spray the entire dash just in order to clean up the light scratches on the cubby door fascia, I would grin and bare those and just do the handle. I don't really have the appetite for a big job on this as the current state of play isn't too bad. I'll maybe try and undo the screws on the back of the door and see what i'm dealing with when I get back from London. Not sure if the door fascia is even removable or what? I presume it is if people are talking about removing the little handle in order to spray it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So...

 

Having gone out, in the dark of night (first ridiculous mistake..), and removed the screws on the back of the lid door I was faced with this:

 

IMG_5009_zpsc2pcprts.jpg

 

The back of the door comes off ok and the little handle is easily removed. The fascia of the door however is not removable... I did also remove that silver centre screw, but annoyingly there are other fixings further back inside that appear to be glued, so it looks like a no-go. But still, time to shop for some matt black spray paint for the handle and see how that goes anyway, right?

 

 

But wait, just for now lets reassemble that door first shall we.

Ok, handle in place, back on, and yep that appears to be all those fiddly little screws screwed back up into the rear of the door. Now just to close the door and check the handle still catches correctly...

 

IMG_5016_zps2yy8r1oa.jpg

 

****..!

 

So yeah, it seems that in the process of putting the screws back in I have put another nice big scratch line across it, were it obviously it rubbed up against the top of the door opening. How this useless material ever got through Nissan factory tests I will never know.

But the bottom line is that I think that this has definitely now pushed me to do the door as well as the handle.

 

I am not at all convinced that I can repair the door and have it end up looking stock. Though I haven't 100% ruled it out. I did find this guide which seems to have been pretty successful: http://my350z.com/forum/body-interior-exterior-and-lighting-diy/524912-diy-06-remove-and-paint-center-console-cubby-guages.html

 

My other option is obviously to replace the whole cubby or "Instrument Panel Cluster Lid" (68250-CF45A) either with a clean one from a breakers yard or failing that, a brand new one from Charles Hurst Nissan, but that will cost £105.56 + VAT (£126.82 in total). I may do a hunt round breakers yards in the first instance and see if there's anything worth looking at there...

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

For the benefit of any one else with a marked Instrument Panel Cluster Lid in their centre console reading this at a later date, in the end, after unsuccessfully trying breakers yards for a few weeks I just bit the bullet and ordered a brand new one from Charles Hurst Nissan for £105.68 + VAT. Probably not the best value for money I've spent on the car, but it does look the part and has brought the interior of the car back to like new. So in that sense I certainly don't regret it. 

 

IMG_6583.JPG.8e72c209b4ecb8f7df533c022669acdc.JPG

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On 21/07/2017 at 11:23, DeeJayDready said:

For the benefit of any one else with a marked Instrument Panel Cluster Lid in their centre console reading this at a later date, in the end, after unsuccessfully trying breakers yards for a few weeks I just bit the bullet and ordered a brand new one from Charles Hurst Nissan for £105.68 + VAT. Probably not the best value for money I've spent on the car, but it does look the part and has brought the interior of the car back to like new. So in that sense I certainly don't regret it. 

 

IMG_6583.JPG.8e72c209b4ecb8f7df533c022669acdc.JPG

Be super careful then, I assume that will scratch just as easily? I've got the same issue but will probably wrap the entire console. 

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