Ok so I pulled off the dash cover and the old fabric and foam dash liner to the front window. The metal looks to be painted black, with some weird swirls of yellow. so I hit it with purple power sparay to clean it up and the black comes off like a layer of soot? its yellow paint on the metal.

I have no idea whats going on? is the purple power liquifying black paint?
the black is dry and appears stable till I hit it with the spray - then most of it comes right off with a sponge or a paper towel?

anyone seen this? or have any idea whats going on?

My plan is to put the foam and vinyl covering in place - no glue, just tuck it in. Then secure the front with the window trim rubber seal, and the back side will be held under the new dash pad, an i thinking about that correctly?

edit: so I went back and read the label on the Purple Power. it says don't use on automobile finishes and painted surfaces - so I'm guessing its disolving paint?

Yes purple power is very strong, and likely not be used anywhere close to a Porsche 914.
It stains anodizing, eats through a lot of things like paint, as you've discovered.

I am not sure if your dash recovering plan will work. It will be tough to get the tension even across the width of the dash, and any disturbance risks pulling the cover out.

and the black paint on the dash frame seems to be very cheap stuff. I was able to rub some of mine off with just Dawn dish soap and water. Purple Power would be like paint stripper on that stuff.

Ok, so I appreciate the advise. but I'm a bit uncler. are you saying I need to glue it down? if so, what glue, as i've heard several horror stories of glue and the foam layer not playing together nicely?

i still have my lhd dash stored.

the black paint is some flat black paint (almost chalky) where the front pieces of vinyl were attached. the yellow swirls you see are probably 50 year old remains of factory double sided tape used to attach front pieces of dash trim? or remains of glue,

the flat section of vinyl on top trimming against windscreen have foam glued down and vinyl is only glued around edges and is slightly stretched over (really it just looks laid over) foam. i'm looking at one that got pulled out of my car when it was 16 years old and has been stored in a box in the dark since. thats how it is on this one. they didn't seem to use a lot of glue under the foam as out on one side its lifting and i can see underneath. just enough to hold the foam down.

guessing factory did it this way to deal with dash heating up in sun and air bubbles forming. if vinyl is not glued to foam except at edges heated air disperses evenly underneath?

as far as i can tell, the bit under the front dash top trim piece/ instrument cowl was literally held down by the pressure of the dash trim. my dash trim top is stored as a separate piece. there does not seem to be any evidence of old glue or any adhesive along that entire edge. if there was it would have only been a few dabs to keep it in position until the dash top went on. its so hand made when you look at it all that it could have varied a lot from car to car depending on who was making the dash that day and how much glue was left in their pot?

hope this helps/

I replaced mine recently (see my build thread). The original foam was glued to the metal dash. The original vinyl was wrapped over (under) the front edge--including the recesses for the defroster vents--and glued along the underside, and then glued under the padded dash top. It was floating on top of the foam.

@bkrantz

makes sense to me. pretty much what i was looking at.

except i think their glue pot ran out when it came to under the dash top. maybe.
or it was friday and they were going to the pub.

Ok so now I'm confused again. I have the 914 rubber dash cover =- pre cut with the foam liner as well. but i'm pretty sure the foam liner is the same size as the dash cover vinyl. so how do you put glue on the ends of the vinyl without getting it on the foam?

I trimmed the foam so it did not extend beyond the front edge, and only a short distance beyond the "step" for the padded dash top. Again, that seemed to be the way I found the original.