Sun damage to dash - Z3 BMW Cars & Trucks

A simple test is to feel around the carpet in that footwell. See how far up under the dash the carpet is wet. Does it only happen after rain? Do you have a sun roof fitted?
If the carpet is only wet low down on the floor the most likely reason is either a perished or damaged door seal rubber, a faulty sun roof seal or the drain channels for the sun roof are clogged up. Check the footwell in the back as water always flows and settles at the lowest point in the vehicle.
If it is high up and nearest the middle of the dash you issue could be the heater matrix under the dash but as it seems to be only on one side this might not be the issue.
Door seals are a simple case of pull the old one off and push the new one on and they don't cost silly money to buy. Heater matrix issues, unfortunately, usually involve taking the whole dashboard out to get to it.
Hope this helps.

I covered one of mine with a custom dash mat...about $50. from JC Whitney...on line...much cheaper...leather is not usually used on top side of dash due to Sun rays...

very hard.
there are 2 options
get one from the wreckers and fit it
Find an upholster shop that has the means of recovering the dash like new. Look for dash restorer businesses on line and in the phone book yellow pages.

There are vehicle upholsters that have the ways and means of redoing the dash of most vehicles. Or go to the wreckers and get one from there. A good investment when you have had it replaced is a dash mat to stop the sun damage.

84-89

This depends on the type of crack ... if it is from the sun drying out the material and shrinking it a quick-fix will probably suffer the same fate and look worse when it happens. If the crack is from abuse (like when I threw a bunch of 2x4 lumber on mine and caused a crack) then you might be able to find some repair goo for it -- ask at an auto-parts store and they might have it ("repair goo" is not the real name of the material, but I don't know the real name off hand). Make sure you let the person who is helping you know whether your dash is real leather or synthetic material as the type of repair fluid used will vary with color and type of material to be repaired.
If you have a real-leather dash you might even be able to go to a leather-goods store and find a repair fluid there -- it would be basically the same as fixing a tear in a leather jacket. I know that the repair fluid exists, but I do not know the name ... just that I have seen it advertised on late-night television.
If you can't find a repair fluid that will work with the material that your dash is made from, or if your crack is caused by sun-aging of the material, you might have to replace the piece of the dash panel that is cracked to get rid of the damage. Just bare in mind that if your dash is sun-faded it will be very difficult to match the exact color with a replacement .. and you might be more annoyed with the color difference than you were with the crack.

you can get the dash panel recovered, not sure of the cost but

if its yellow and on the tachometer side of the dash it means you have a burnt out bulb.

You can try using a heat gun on low setting, but I doubt you will have much success, I have the same issue on a car of mine, I bought a Dash Mate (brand name) to cover the dash top, it looks great and was cheap, the sun of course is the reason this is happening, the dash top mat protects the dash from the sun and will stop the damage.

yes but mostly it needs to be done by dash tech recommended or apolstry shop <<< spell check

but here are the steps
remove dash place out of sun
mix batch of heat resistant resin
apply resin to dash the whole dash make a little thicker on dash
let dry
now when dried and hardened after 24 to 48 hours you take a sanding block and sand down smooth with sand paper then repaint with color dash that was before

you can use this same resin to also fill in the cracks of dash but you will still have to sand and repaint the area you just applied the heat resistant resin too this is called touch up the dash

dont use a power sander on this type of project you could damage your dash permanently