When my brother bought his car the dash that was in it was not very good.
It was a custom job, made of wood and uncovered/painted. We
ripped this out but needed something to replace it and so decided to make
our own version.
Starting outOne of the hardest parts of this project is to detemine the size of the dashboard itself. We were quite lucky in that we already had an old "Rokke" dash lying about * and we used this as a starting point. The main difference between the old dash and the new dash was that the new dash would be completely flat whereas the "Rokke" type was curved in many places. For the wood we used some 12mm MDF board because it is quite dense and rigid across the width of the car, it also cuts easily but you need some ventilation to blow away the fine fibres which blow about while cutting. We had to cut all of the holes in that would be used later (4 52mm dials and the centre dial) and allocate some space for switches that we would put in later (my brother's car does not have the switches in the normal place and we felt that they would be better up on the dash). It was the holes for the switches that proved to be the most difficult!
CoveringOnce the template was established and tested for size in the car we then had to decide on the covering. I had seen (and liked) some vinyl covered dashboards before and so we went that route. We bought some vinyl with a slight "grain" on it and got some padding (2 different layers) for the backing. We felt that just having the covering with no padding would not look or feel as nice. AssemblyWe sprayed the dash with some glue (the type found in carpet sets) and layed the 1st layer of foam, pushing down to ensure good adhesion. We then sprayed and fitted the second layer on and left for a few minutes. Note that we hadn't cut any holes in the foam at this time. We felt that this could be done better if it was done later. We layed the vinyl on top and used some small, thin strips of wood to clamp the covering down behind the dash. This was thought to be a better way then gluing or tacking but maybe small staples would also be suitable. Wen everything was dry(ier) we then started to cut the holes for the dials. We already had the holes in the wood but now the padding and covering needed to be cut away. I took the knife and cut from the centre to the edge of the holes, making little triangular shaped pieces. The "points" then we pulled through the holes and pinned back. If this is done so that there are at least 8 triangles then the resut can be good. Once this is done the dashboard is finished apart from the fixing of the dials, we also had to fix the switches and LEDS in along with wiring them all up. I made a new illumation circuit and re-wired every switch to ensure that I knew what I was doing.
ConclusionIt took us around 2 days to make the dashboard including the time taken to look around the shops for bits. My opinion is that this dash looks very good and masks a lot of the noise coming from the engine through the bulkhead. My only regret is that the design of the template was a little too large and is only held in by the tightness of the fit, but once in it does not move or creak. All we have to do when we want to remove the dash is to remove the (still standard length) speedo cable!
Siililand note:
If you don't have an old dash lying around that you can use as a template,
Paul has managed to draw up a crude drawing a while back that will perhaps
set you on your way to cutting up your own piece of board. Please, do mind
this is only a temporary version as we await an improvement from Paul:
Click to view/enlarge! by Paul Hill Northavon Mini Drivers Club |
