Dash! You Would Think I'd Be Done By Now!

Dateline - 04/16/2016 - Okay, another day working on the dash.  This weekend was spend getting the drivers side fascia to fit correctly.  This has been a real pain and has required a lot of refitting to make things work.  First, I needed to mount the dash dimmer rheostat and control box.  I knew I wanted to have this between the switches and steering column, but there is a lot of foam there that holds the dash.  So I used a piece of brass tubing to act as an extension and mounted the rheostat using an aluminum bracket.  The control box is mounted using double sided foam tape.  I'm going to print out a knob on my 3D printer to finish this off.

Brass tubing used for dash light rheostat

Rheostat and control box mounted on fascia

Next I mounted the right and center dash panels uses 3M industrial strength re lockable fasteners.  I was thinking of using Velcro, but I thought I would give this a try first.

Next I worked on fitting the left hand dash.  I connected all the wires to the speedo, tach and center control console and tried to get the fascia to fit, but it would not fit well around the ignition lock.  I didn't like the fit and know if I left it, it would bother me, so I peeled back the vinyl and did quite a bit of sanding.  After everything fit, I glued the vinyl back.

Then I had to figure a way to mount the fascia.  I opted for a bolt going through the door jam into the left side of the fascia and a bold going through the center console into the right side.  Seems strong enough.  I epoxied steel tubing into the fascia and center console to add strength.  We will see how long it will go.  I may be revisiting this design choice in the future.

I did figure out how I am going to do the hazard light switch.  I nice piece of brass rod epoxied into the switch and running out to the lower right of steering wheel cover.

Finally, I put the seats back in the car!  Hopefully I will not need to take those buggers out again.  They are a pain.

So, as it stands now, I need to finish the center console face so that I can put that it.  Once that is done, and I re-upholster the steering wheel cover, everything will be in the car!