Dashboard part 1 of ??

Decided it was high time I tackled the dashboard .
First problem was it didn't fit and when I managed to get it some were near it caught on both the door hinges .
Calls out to Andy ,Dale and the Keith for help found out that the dash need to be square at the ends unlike mine .

needs to be trimmed at the line to fit

Once trimmed it would go in but when setting the dash to be parallel with the transmission tunnel found the top was not leval with the top of the car .
with a bit of sanding and more phone calls it fits

make shift sander

Once I was happy with the fit  then pondered over which layout to go for .This was a lot easier than I thought as I wanted the 5 gauge layout and Annie (the boss) said I was having a clock !! ^ gauge layout it is then


Any layout I want as long as it looks like this !!

The dash has all the marks on it for various layouts so its just a case of making sure the right guide holes are used for the layout I was having .
Measured each gauge and then added 2 mm for the leather to give me the final sizes .
Used a dermal circle cutter for all the gauge holes after first drilling a 3mm pilot hole to allow the point of the cutter to sit in as not to move .

Dusty job so I held the camera !!(what a tidy garage!))

Note the gauge sizes written on the top least I forgot

Itching to have a go

Once the hole were done couldn't resist a trial fit

starting to look the part now ,a lot of work to get this far (note the switch marks )  

Flushed with success the switches and warning lights next .Again measured the diameter and added two mm for the leather .
used a step drill for this ironically the metric one I had was the wrong sizes but the imperial one was just right how strange .
All drilled out and ready to see it in the car .

nice fit and nice smile !

Found the the top gauges were going to foul the top sill as well as 2 of the warning lights which I expected as read on other blogs so marked these as well as the four mounting holes I was going to use .
drilled 2 each side of the big gauges and 2 at the ends .
Drilled them 5 mm in the dash and 6mm in the car to give me a bit of play when the leather goes  on .

sill filed out to clear and the securing holes can be seen

took 2 days but worth the effort