308 Dash bezel stuck

I have had a slow tear in the top of my dash bezel and want to remove it and get it reupholstered. Getting the instrument cluster out was easy. Getting the 4 nuts off that secure the bezel to the dash was easy. When I gently lift the bezel up, it's leather is stuck to the dash leather. I don't want to force it off and possible tear the dash leather as it is in excellent condition.

Has anyone encountered this or have any advise on safe products to help separate the two pieces? Here are some pics that hopefully help

BTW, this is a 1978 308 GTB.


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Thank you all, for your replies! Since it has been so hot in Washington the past few days, I have been mulling over all the advice.

Well, the good news is today was much cooler and it allowed me to work at it some more. And voila! I got it free.

What worked best was my finger. I used it as a fulcrum and as a guide between the halves. The hardest parts were around the four posts (embedded in the bezel). This is where the leather/vinyl was stuck the worst. A lot of patience and go slow, that was the key.

While I am at it, I want to replace the bulbs in the instrument cluster as they are as dim as can be. Any recommendations on bulb/supplier to use?
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f355spider, that's exactly the feedback I was looking for. I am going to see what jumping the dimmer pot does prior to changing the bulbs, for s&g's of course.

Thanks so much!

 

Thanks raemin, That post was very detailed and informative. I'm on travels for the next couple weeks, but will investigate my specific cluster bulbs further upon my return.

One question before I go, I want to bench test the bulbs before and after replacement. I do not have a power supply and read about someone rigging their cluster to a car battery. That I can do. Do you or anyone else know which lead(s) from the three harnesses do I use for pos(+). I am assuming gnd(-) will be self evident.

I have yet to exercise due diligence yet, but sometimes think it is easier to ask than reinvent the wheel.

 

Thanks again raemin. I did watch the video several times, but all I saw was you turning the dimmer and seeing the lights react. I tried to see the power supply and which harness leads you used, but they were not visible to me.

I will take my multimeter and check continuity to be sure and reply on what the 308 model used for illumination. Ground is almost always black (for automotive), but I will check that too.

 

I've been gone since the 4th and heard back from my upholstery guy yesterday. He is unsure of the actual stitch color on the bezel and wanted some input from me. He says that it looks more tan in color, not white. If I look at the pics in this post, it looks more white, like the steering wheel stitching (not tan).
I don't want it so white that it doesn't match the wheel and am curious what thoughts you guys may have.

I can ask him to try and get some stitching to match the current color, go black or go white. I just want some consistency between the stitching color on the bezel and steering wheel. Does Ferrari have a specific stitch color they used?

 

I got my project wrapped up and it turned out fantastic! Thanks to all for their input and advice.

The dash bezel came out perfect with the white stitch trim.

I ended up using three different kinds of LED bulbs as each style of gauge had it's lighting configuration different.
For the three smaller gauges (fuel, temp and oil), turn indicators and headlamp used the small T5 style bulb.
The speedo and tach used the BA9S style, but even here I had to used different styles of LEDs. The speedo was straight forward as the depth of the bulb tube was fairly short and the 200 lumen bulb lit the speedo well. The same bulb did not light the tach well. The tach housing is much longer (depth) and the bulb tubes were very long. The speedo bulbs had the LEDs facing the sides and barely lit the tach. I found a bulb that had the LEDs all facing forward (not to the side). This worked much better, although slightly dimmer than the speedo. All were dimmable and worked great with the original dimmer (much to my surprise and delight).

If any of you ever head out to the Seattle area in the Summer, you have to spend a Saturday morning at the Redmond Town Center Exotics Show. It is a free car show and usually has hundreds of cars on display.
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