Even More Dash

Right then, its starting to get interesting now. I left two tabs on the body to hang the dash off, just got to fashion something out of ali to close the gap at the end (lower photo). Then its out with the hole saw and eventually on with the vinyl. I have a cunning plan for the 20mm radius required on the lower edge involving some aluminium tube with a slot cut in it.

A bit of woodwork

A trip to B&Q and Screwfix for some industrial castor wheels, 18mm ply and some 4x2 (apologies for mixing imperial and metric units) and we now have a skateboard with a loading limit of 1000kg, ready to take the engine when it comes in a crate at some point in the next 2 weeks. 

More dash related jiggery pokery. Its a good job I bought a sheet of plywood large enough to make 2 dashboards as the first attempt wasn't very good. Even though we spent a good while carefully trimming the curve on the cardboard it was still nowhere near when the shape was transferred to the plywood. Mk2 is a lot better and I'll put a photo up when we have cut the holes for switches/dials.

The picture below is the offending connectors mentioned earlier, I couldn't get them to snap together so I binned them and got some high current Ford loom connectors, Ill update with a pic later. They are a bit excessive, in fact they are bloody enormous but they feel very secure when connected together so that's all that matters.

More Dash and planning remaining jobs

Right then, good progress made with the dash. The return was sanded down so its nice and smooth and the cardboard cut to size. The dash depth is almost true, maybe 2 inches deeper than it needs to be. This is the cockpit lip during sanding:

The dash will then sit forward of this at the extreme left and right ends, with an ali plate made (and covered in vinyl) to fill the gap. Might sound odd now but when its done it will make sense. The standard dash follows the curve of the cockpit lip and is angled, which I don't want, I prefer the look of a classic vertical flat dash.

Anyway, bunch of other stuff was done - some mega loom tidying for a start, and the indicators now work. I've got some oval stick-on indicators for the side repeaters which look pretty awful to be honest but they will do until I find something better. I might end up using a lucas lamp but side repeaters use the smaller 501 capless bulbs and I will need an LED version. The column switch was wired up just to check it works so thats ready to have the loom spur cut to length and a connector added. 

Other jobs related to the dash area - I think I've worked out where the heater matrix is going. Its absolutely tiny. 2.2kW from T7 designs. It just has one 63mm outlet so I got a 63 to 2x38mm splitter/reducer from CBS to then take the ducting to the windscreen demist vents. The heater will go right at the very back of the passenger footwell. I plan to install it initially with no ducting for fresh air, it will just recirculate whats in the cockpit. The washer bottle will go on the other side of the footwell so I will position that to allow addition of a duct for fresh air if I decide I need it at a later date. The only reason I'm not fixing the heater and the washer bottle down now is becuase I'm a little wary of the headers/exhaust in that region and want to see how much space there is before drilling holes. Similarly I've got a solenoid controlled heater bypass valve off a ford puma for £12 which will need locating in that region somewhere but I'll wait for now.

Long wordy post this, not many photos as we've been busy actually doing stuff rather than standing around taking photos!