MGF instrument cowl repair

The cowl over the instrument cluster on our MGF was broken and showed large cracks.

"Fortunately" the fixing clips at the rear had also broken, so I could remove the cowl easily by unscrewing the front. The rear clips seem to have been screwed in from the rear of the dashboard before the air ducts were assembled. Extremely hard to reach. What were they thinking when they designed that? 

I glued the cracks with epoxy glue. The gaps were filled with a polyester filler.

Underneath I strengthened the cowl by glueing thin metal strips to the plastic.

It was hard to sand the repair to make the joint invisible.

I used a textured coating to cover the joints. At first I thought it didn't work

But after several coats a regular texture covered the cowl.

With the cowl refitted the repair is hardly visible. If I want I can cover the cowl with cloth or some other material later. If I find the cowl rattles I'think I might fix the rear with one or two magnets.