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








































Demisters

Fitted the demisters as figured that would be an easy job as the holes have already been cut out .
Not quite that easy as the hole centres didn't line up and the holes weren't wide enough drilled the holes out to 5 mm to give me a bit of room and filed the slots out and it fits two issues I am not happy with
1 the white fibreglass can be seen though the slots which stands out too much on a black car and
2the body is curved but the demisters are straight this means they fit nice at the edges tight up to the bracket but I have a gap in the middle .

demist slots look good from this angle

going to try to build up the gap with black silastic which may sort out the first problem as well






 

Battery cables

Had a bit a time today so fitted the battery cables I copied Dales post and fitted the Positive at the bottom ,although my set differed from his as only had rubber protectors on the engine side ( will need to clarify that with Andy )
Also the main wiring loom supply that I fed in above the heater what seems like an age ago needed to be fitted to the positive as well which needed filling out to fit !
another little job off the list. also fitted the heater plug at the same time ,The heater is three speed and the wiring is for 2 speed using the diagram on the side of the heater went for lowest and highest ( can always change my mind )

Batt cables from the inside showing the main loom feed and the now wired heater plug

Also dropped in the battery box to test for fit ready to bolt though the floor on next visit .

seems to be too many holes just for a bat box more reading required  

 

Washer jet

looked at the kit and two jets are provided but copied a lot of other people and went for just the 1 as it is twin jet and how much rain use am I going to see ( famous last words )
found the centre of the car and marked 20mm  in from the bonnet copied from other blogs and noticed that the windscreen stay was 3 mm off the centre line . After deliberation and re checking my measurements it is the windscreen that was not quite plumb, assuming this is due to the windscreens being hand made. Decided to stick with the centre line as the stay bracket wont be seen because of the rubber .

Jet fits nicely

 

Fuel Cap

I opted for the Aston Martin type fuel cap and it comes undrilled but had pilot indents on the underside.
Drilled these 4.5 mm to accept 4mm countersunk bolts which then needed countersinking from the top .
This was a challenge in itself  as the countersink (from screw fix) was too wide to get square on to the holes so with a make shift lathe ( drill in the vice and angle grinder !!) made it thinner so it now fits

Drilled out and countersunk

then it was just a simple job to fit the unit to the car but wanted to make sure that the cap was the right way round so ,,, fitted the cap with all the gaskets as clearance s close tightened it down and placed it on the car so it was facing were I wanted it to then mark the holes

placed on the car at the angle I wanted

I then drilled a 5mm hole and tapped it out 6mm to place a grub screw in the back ( as picture above) so it could not move over time .

Marked the holes and drilled out 5mm so I had a bit of error factor and fitted it looks good .

finished cap

Wipers

Tackling the wiper mounts today ,The outer edge of the rubber washers were marked at 415 mm from the windscreen stay and 5 mm from the screen rubber and the eliptical spindle holes were marked on to masking tape using the inside of the rubber washer as a guide. The centres of the holes were established and marked only to find that they were marked already by GD .Oh well at least I was right with my markings . I then checked that the distance between the holes was the same as the assembled wiper mechanism and it was within  2 mm which I figured I could lose by bending the tubing to follow the curve of the body



All set to drill my baby  

 Drilled the holes with a small drill first as expecting it to bite which it did
after that I drilled  the rest of the holes with the drill going backwards ( always amazes me how that still cuts )
once I had got to 13mm I set to with a file for the final touches .

Once  the hole right the GD manual says that the spacer has to be cut down measured this and decided it was 5mm to long .

original spacer

Quick drive to one of Steve's mates and a 30minute lathe job later the spacer was right .

5mm shorter

Fitting it all was a lot more fiddly than I guessed it would be due to weight of the motor so took the motor off and just fitted the tubes with the idea of threading the motor though later.

What a pose

That all went well  and all lined up very well slid the motor cable up though the tubes and turned the wiper spindles to feed the cable though .all went easy .secured the motor with the bracket and after reading the manual noticed I should have put a piece of rubber between the motor and frame (did wonder what that strange bit of rubber was )

fitted and happy

motor secured (with the rubber)
 

 

The park position of the motor will need to be checked once they run as the wipers should park on the drivers side (which may need to be altered later .

 

another job off he list.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Brakes

Had a bit of time to kill so finished fitting the two brake pipes on the master cylinders bit more tricky than I thought as the pipe is too long to fasten to either end until it is bent but didn't know were to bend it until I could get it in .found the easiest way was to screw the pipe into the cylinder first and bend to suit as the cylinder thread is quite fine and easy to cross thread
another job ticked off

Note the brake pipes don't fit on the end like the clutch

Windscreen 2

After feeling elated for getting the windscreen fitted and then subsequently removing it leaving the end posts ,discovered that I needed to fit the centre stay as more often than not it doesn't fit and the windscreen needs adjusting again to suit
Fitted the centre stay to the windscreen (while off the car ) making sure to use the screws provided so not to damage the glass

Bracket fitted on Kitchen table( Mrs not happy)
 

Offered up the windscreen back on to the car and to my surprise and relief it fits and needs no adjustment ,so back off again

Steve checking on the gap as I daren't look (god how dusty !!)



Windscreen

Tackled the windscreen today as Steve came round and was willing to help .

Trial fitted the windscreen only to find the holes needed a bit of fettling , once the windscreen would slide in and out the stanchions were removed from the screen by undoing the four fixing screws on either side.
 The stanchions were then drilled 8 mm at the pilot holes ignoring the top hole. It is brass so grabs a bit but a bit of grease sorted that out .I used a countersink on both sides of the hole to take any burs off .
The drilled stanchions were then re-attached to the screen and the screen put in place. The screen position was checked as per the manual which is :-

The screen should be about 6mm off the scuttle at the outer edges and the top should be 930mm from the rear of the cockpit roll to the inside of the screen.


Windscreen temp fitted -looks like a car now

Mine was bang on which meant I didn't have to mess about with altering any holes .
Then had to check that the screen was square in the car by checking the measurements from the windscreen top screw each side  to the back of the door opening again bang on well pleased .



Steve smiling ready to fit the dash stays ( the smile wont last long !!)

 Next came the  under dash cross bars these "just "fit to the same holes as the windscreen ! .

however, because the stations seemed to be a little narrower than the car and looking at other blogs we put a washer on each side between the car and the windscreen station to stop any stress .
trying to line up the two cross beams .the windscreen and without the washers falling out needs 6 hands when only 3 can get in .
All sorted eventually  ( learnt some new swear words )and then realising that the bottom cross member has two  rivnuts needing fitting to bolt it  to transmission tunnel !! so all out  again



Cross member fitted for the second time showing the rivnuts to secure the bar when the carpet is fitted  



Other side showing brackets for the centre dash

Finally all fitted check again for square and the correct measurements before marking were the Wipers were going to go. The screen can be removed  after a quick picture (long day but a real sense of achievement  Thanks Steve)

Windscreen fitted and wipers marked



Pedal box pipes

Started to fit the pedal box pipes as had a bit of time .Started with the clutch as that is the pipe that must go to the rear of the car .



Brake feed pipe and supply pipe fitted


 

Clutch pipe fitted to rear