198 replies to this topic

[Richie83]

So the time came for the old Webber battery box to go.

I bought the Rotadip repair panel and the boys at Slarks welded it in and painted it up.

Inside:

I've just ordered up a blanking plate from Carbon Weezle, which will be here next week. Whoop!

[Richie83]

I've been looking for a 3 piece dash for a while, then Wile E Coyote from here came the rescue (thanks for the top notch handover).

It's complete and has the usual lacquer wear and tear. I've got some big plans for it, potentially creating a copy to skin in carbon fiber.


I popped in a smiths speedo just to imagine 😋

Stripper didn't touch the lacquer, so I'll be turning to heat next:

I'm planning on either adding a larger hole over the right hand 52mm for my Stack ST700 or moving the right hand glove box over to place it on the right hand panel. Either way they'll be more 52mm gauges and some sort of clever storage behind the lids.

[Richie83]

Oh and bumble came home:

[Richie83]

I managed to to get the loadbed cover pretty flush on the body but wanted to make it water tight, so opted for some closed cell foam. This will stop any water Ingress and ensure no rattles when driving along.

Edited by Richie83, 15 October 2016 - 07:12 AM.

[Richie83]

A little more tinkering today with the dashboard. First I stripped the center panel down with a heat gun:

This took far less time than I'd imagine
Here's a really rough draft of what I'm thinking (tacho is the ST700 currently in my dash) but I think I'm going to stagger two 52mm on the bottom left instead:

We are going to remake the middle bit in plywood to try a couple of different configs, so I don't know why I spent the time stripping it down - I guess it'll be good practice for when I do the rest .

Edited by Richie83, 23 October 2016 - 03:20 PM.

[Richie83]

This arrived today. I'll endeavour to fit it this weekend:

[minimissions]

Glad she is back home! Looking good!

[Richie83]

This afternoon was spent stripping back and trial fitting the dash. We stared off with some snazzy cardboard panels made to fit with the now larger center pod area (due to me wanted more space for gauges):

This meant we had to cut down either side of the original dash to accommodate the large center peice (which meant the dash was put in and taken out of the car many, many times). The upside of this mod means it has less spacing around the dash; although some is inevitable and normal because the original would have had cloth all around the edge.

This was the end result today:

We're going to mount it using some sturdy brackets next and I'll need to work out where to place my gauges. I'm planning on cutting more high tech round cardboard to trial these with the steering wheel on. All in all a good day (bar the fact everything always takes longer than you think when working on a mini).

[Richie83]

Here are some mockups. Straw poll?
1.



2.



3.


Don't worry about the gaps below each side of the dash. I'll be doing something about the final fit. So which is your favourite?

[wingnut]

Last one

[Jared Mk3]

3

[GreaseMonkey]

Will you be selling the stack gauge?

[Richie83]

Will you be selling the stack gauge?

no. That's the larger dial. I'm actually going to add more Stack gauges .

[GreaseMonkey]

Aha fair enough, should look really nice when done :)

[Richie83]

Number 3 was also my favourite, so with a little tweak it came out looking like this.


I've got an oil pressure and water temp on the way. In the end I decided I could use the ST700 to display fuel pressure and air temp instead (or similar).

I've also been looking into digital smiths speedos. This is fresh on the market, I know it's meant for MK1 minis but it looks so cool. It would also mean I can run a much neater GPS or wired sender setup alongside the ST700. I'm also planning on hooking the amber lights up as indicator warning lights instead of the normal oil (don't worry I've got a plan for a much bigger oil warning light of sorts). Here's what it looks like.

Edited by Richie83, 20 November 2016 - 04:45 PM.