This weekends progress.
Time to get the dashboard shell back in. This should make it easier to get the cabin wiring loom organised properly and route things where they’re going to be going.
My cars original dash is unfortunately in a bad way. It had a split in it when I bought the car all those years ago, but it’s gotten much worse since. It’s got a few splits now and the perforated speaker bit on top has pretty much rotted and disintegrated in the years of sun light. It’s far to far gone to be of much use.
Options for a replacement aren’t ideal either. There are no new ones, so that’s out. There are fibreglass casings available but I’m not 100% convinced by them tbh plus, they’re in grey. I could paint one in the required black but how well that’d last I don’t know.
The last option is find a good used part. This was my best bet so I kept an eye out for one in black. Eventually one turned up on eBay so I decided to bag it.
It’s a 100% improvement over the original, but even so it’s still got its problems.
First, although the top is just about perfect, there’s a couple of small cuts in the front face on the vinyl. It’s not really bad and I can use some glue to make it better but it’ll never be invisible. There’s also a slight scratch to the vinyl under the top, where the binnacle facia fits in, it looks like the facia has been taken out a bit carelessly at some point and scratched the vinyl on the way out. It’s barely visible though unless you really look hard.
The last issue is that this dash is from a Ghia, so it’s got that little grab handle on the passenger side whereas an L spec car shouldn’t have it. It does bug me a little bit but it’s the best I can get so I’ll just live with it!
Here’s the old and new comparison.
1FEE5BF4-6762-47C4-B3ED-4C0D94879C4A by
Dan Clark, on Flickr
78789040-544D-461D-A136-5830B3A8F46A by
Dan Clark, on Flickr
I had to transfer over the two fresh air vents from the old dash, these went in a bath of warm soapy water first as they were very dusty on the back. The dash light dimmer was also swapped over and I pinched a few of the clips and fittings too.
Next was to carefully get the dash shell into the car without scratching anything.
I was expecting a bit of a fight with this job tbh but I needn’t have worried! I placed it roughly where it needed to go, gave it a tap on one end and it fell straight into place first try! That’s how I like things!!
Screwing it in went easy and it seems to fit really well.
8F37A831-6CEC-43FF-9BDA-8F4B35CF8BB5 by
Dan Clark, on Flickr
6105A460-F165-4A71-ACA9-FFEE2872E93F by
Dan Clark, on Flickr
The towels over the windscreen were a necessity! It was a sunny and hot day on Saturday and the hot sun was shining straight through the windscreen on me while I was laying on the cars floor doing various things under the dash.
I’ve got the two windscreen interior surround trims back on, one is a bit bent so I’ll have to remove it and straighten it out a bit. The wiring has also been tidied up much better and run where it should be. And I’ve also reinstalled the two air vents that blow onto the screen since they’re easy to get access to at the moment.
The next job was to double check the front wiper mechanism was all ok.
This had been installed loosely to get the alignment right for the repairs to the cars scuttle panel, then after paint it was just put back in again loose.
I’ve dropped it down, checked all was ok then put it back in place. I decided I’d best double check it as access is good at the moment and it won’t be for long once the dash starts going back together.
After a bit of confusion about how the washers, seal and spacer fit back on (I’d completely forgotten how it went after over three years - I should have taken more photos before really...), and some assistance from a member on here, I’ve got it all back on and fitting well.
Luckily I’ve got two sets of all the fittings for the wipers so I’ve taken my original ones and rubbed them down, primed and sprayed them in black.
This means while they were drying I could use the scabby spare set to fit and do a dry run with before doing it all permanently with the good bits.
Once the paint is dry I’ll swap them over one at a time so everything stays where it is now. Then I can carry on getting the dash fully built up and finish the wiring in it.