Must Dash

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
John Muir

Marigold's original left-hand-drive dashboard was removed before the skeletal remains were dragged away and taken to places unknown. I do have a bit of a soft spot for the old dials and guages, having spent so many happy years of my childhood studying them on our regular holiday trips. So I have taken out the relevant clocks and dials and transferred them to the new, right-hand-drive dashboard. Makes my heart happy to see, it really does, like a familiar smiling face. As usual, click on the pics to enlarge 'em a bit.

I managed to locate some colour images of the wiring diagrammes (thanks to the nice people at The Samba for the help) and printed them out to use in trying to make some sense of the tangle of wiring beneath the project. I cut and slashed rather indiscriminately when I did the original Big Chop and did not really think ahead very far. At that time I expected to redo the entire wiring loom in the unseen future. As it happens the wires that exist have been well protected from weather and other agents. They are in excellent condition and I expect that I'll be able to safely re-use long sections of the original loom. Thankfully, despite some minor differences between the 1971 front and the 1972 rear, the wiring is very similar and the colours all seem to match up except one.

When I look at the front interior of the project I think that I must be a bit blinded by affection. Or beer maybe, it could be beer. I don't seem to notice the huge collection of mess until I take a photograph and realise just how awful it all still looks. Never mind, any progress is good progress and we are indeed getting something done every week or two. After seemingly endless fiddling and following all of the exact directions on various expert websites I simply cannot get the ignition switch removed. I only have a working key for the original ignition switch taken from the other front-end. So I'm going to just change the whole housing and move it across - it'll be simpler in the long run I s'pose.

I gave the housing a light sandpapering and a couple of coats of satin black from a rattle-can. Looks okay, now we just have to get the steering wheel loose and I can fit the whole thing. Next tasks: to complete the wiring, test it all and chuck in a battery. We're getting there!


Thanks for stopping by
CooP