MG Sports Cars

Pictured below is the final installation on my 'early style, late model ('78) dash. I posted a few in-progress images once before but, now that it's done and actually in the car, I thought it would be good to revisit the construction and the results. I'm not being lazy here, but the forum doesn't permit posting the images relative to the text so if you'd like to get the whole story including particulars about the switch choices and the like, you can visit here: [tempusfugitgarage.com]

You are, of course, welcome to comment if you're so inclined. Overall, I'm happy with the result but, like most of these things, would make a few different choices if I had it to do again. Just the path of constant improvement.

Very cool! An interesting vintage look, for sure.

Quote:

the forum doesn't permit posting the images relative to the text

Huh?

Curtis,

I wrote the copy referencing specific images so keeping the images "embedded" in the copy was important to maintaining context. If I post under the project section, this isn't a problem but if there's a way to do other than tag mages at the end of post in any other section, I haven't figured it out. I would be happy to stand corrected. Take a look at the link to see what I'm getting at.

BTW, not a complaint, just an observation. Happy to remove or reword the reference if you'd like.

David



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2012 02:31PM by DC Townsend.

David, I've been following your build in the Project Journal section, and let me say your work is of excellent quality and I hope one day to see your car in person, along with several others. I think your modifications to the dash look good and gives your dash a more purposeful look. It fits the racing theme of your car much better than that molded dash imo. You helped inspire my own dash conversion, so thank you very much for that!
I had a '72 dash in my car after replacing the original "Abington Pillow" (in poor shape) years ago. I decided I wanted a simpler look with less plastic, ventwork, etc. I found some photos of what other people had done to modify their dashes and then got to work on my own. I stripped my dash and cut off the irregular leftover metal bits and was left with a rough opening for a glove box. I worked for a few weeks on construction on the flush glovebox and latch alone, but I feel like it was worth it in the end. I tossed the (in my case non-functioning) vents and welded the hole shut, later filled with a pair of Autometer Nexus gauges. I bent a strip of metal over the top of the dash and padded it then wrapped it with matcing vinyl to transition. The combination of blacked out gauges in a familiar layout combined with the body colored dash looks good, even if nobody will ever know what kind of work it took to accomplish! This is an early picture that shows me just starting on the center console construction. I'll post some more recent photos soon, as the car is nearly complete and has been driving under it's own power (finally!) for the last couple of weeks now.

Scott

Scott,

It would be great to see some details on your glove box and the top pad treatments. The body color dash really compliments the interior accents.

"nobody will ever know what kind of work it took to accomplish!" Boy, ain't that the truth. It really came to clear how much work I actually put into the dash when I sat down to do the write up and began to recall all of the details.

David

You can intersperse text and images in this section exactly the same way you do so in the Journal section. There's no difference at all... except that the number of attached photos per post is restricted to four here instead of to 100. (You can link-in as many images as you like per post.)

If you know just a little HTML, you can do much more elaborate formatting. Have a look in the "Test Messages" section. You'll find lots of tips there for formatting messages, manipulating images, etc. The BritishV8 message board isn't lacking for features, it's just that some of the ones it has aren't obvious.

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Playing around just a bit...

One of the notable features of the early metal dashes, and one which I am particularly fond of, is the black wrinkle finish—undoubtedly done to reduce the glare that might come from a body color dash. In any case, it’s one of the hallmarks of the early cars and clearly, a central idea in the development of this...

At this point, I thought I had the biggest challenge behind but it wasn’t so as fabricating the cubby door turned out to be a test of my tin smithing skills. Like the rest of the dash, I wanted the cubby door to be reminiscent of the original part, complete with chrome strip, another one of those iconic touches. The difficulty in forming the door was in addressing the compound curves of the dash, coupled with the straight lower edge where it would hinge. The challenge of this is probably not particularly meaningful if you’ve never bent metal before, but if you have, you know exactly what I’m talking about...

For instruments I settled on Sun for the oil, fuel, volts, and water temperature partially because of the nostalgia of the brand to the era and partially because they fit the stock openings. Sadly Sun didn’t/doesn’t make a matching tachometer or speedometer in the correct diameters but I found suitable matches to the dial faces in the Autometer brand and painted the bezels to match the others.

"it's just that some of the ones it has aren't obvious."

Perfect! I know enough html to probably do the formatting without difficulty. I appreciate the tip. I can get around the 4 image limit by just making consecutive posts in the thread. Thanks for fooling around with it.

DT

Outstanding work on the dash. The rest of your car is brilliant to. Really sets the standard for the work I'm doing on mine...

As I recall, I've seen AC Cobra dashes where the wide white racing stripes carried over, onto the dash. I Iike this for certain applications. I'm going for a retro look with Hemi Healey, aka AC 6.1. For this reason, I would like to cover the dash and waterfall with black leather. Time will tell. Great dashes, you guys, roverman.

To answer e-mail questions I received on the steering column set up, it's your basic hot rod column from Speedway Motors (less than $100 I think) and came with the quick release (which isn't anything special). Other than a small amount of machining of the collar to accommodate the turn switch assembly and a bit of shortening, it's about as "plug-and-play" as you can get. Turn switch is out of a 60s era VW and was chosen because it has a provision for a horn button at the end of the stalk and it was correct for the period of the car (sort of). Column mount is another hot rod part which I modified by re-drilling the mounting holes so it would bolt right up to stock MGB location. Steering wheel is an old Grant that's been hanging around my garage since Henry Ford was building cars.