Dashboard refresh
Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 9:07 pm
When I restored my '66 912 six or so years ago, I retrimmed my dash from the bare metal shell that came with the car.
At the time I hadn't fully realised that I was missing the steel strip that helps to clamp the loudspeaker section of the dash down.
After several years of the vinyl peeling up, I decided it was time to rectify the problem.
I'd searched for a long while to buy the missing steel strip but to no avail. There is a SWB dash frame on eBay at the moment but at £1100 that wasn't really an option.
Instead I bought a plate of 1.5mm steel and cut my own out.
First cut in, now to trim to 16mm thick.
Of course in order to retrim the dash I would need to recreate the loudspeaker cutouts.
The last time I did this from a paper template and hand punched all 725 holes.
This time I persuade my son to 3D print me a jig to speed things up - but still a bit of a chore!
Also redid the knee bolster whilst I was at it to get a better finish.
As a final touch I finally replaced my Blaupunkt Bremen, with a W series 65/66 Blaupunkt Frankfurt.
FM has finally reached 1966!
And here is the final result - a lot of effort but pretty happy with the final result.
At the time I hadn't fully realised that I was missing the steel strip that helps to clamp the loudspeaker section of the dash down.
After several years of the vinyl peeling up, I decided it was time to rectify the problem.
I'd searched for a long while to buy the missing steel strip but to no avail. There is a SWB dash frame on eBay at the moment but at £1100 that wasn't really an option.
Instead I bought a plate of 1.5mm steel and cut my own out.
First cut in, now to trim to 16mm thick.
Of course in order to retrim the dash I would need to recreate the loudspeaker cutouts.
The last time I did this from a paper template and hand punched all 725 holes.
This time I persuade my son to 3D print me a jig to speed things up - but still a bit of a chore!
Also redid the knee bolster whilst I was at it to get a better finish.
As a final touch I finally replaced my Blaupunkt Bremen, with a W series 65/66 Blaupunkt Frankfurt.
FM has finally reached 1966!
And here is the final result - a lot of effort but pretty happy with the final result.