The rest of the Thursday evening saw work start on the dash. Here it is again in it’s original state:

First job was to cut the hole for the steering column. Fairly easy with a 22mm (I think, might be slightly larger) hole saw.

The dash is supplied oversize, so too tall and too wide. I trimmed it down to vaguely right with a rod saw – then slowly but surely filed it down to the right shape and size. Doing that must have taken an hour and a half but with the dashes not being made anymore, I had to be sure I wasn’t my usual incompetent self. Cycle wings certainly fresh in the memory!

Once I was happy with the shape I marked where the centre of my switches should be (in line with the gear stick), chose a nice height for them and cut out the rectangle for the main bank of switches. The last job was to drill the holes to bolt the dash on. I used 9 holes and fitted rivnuts into the scuttle.

This is how it was left at the end of Thursday. I had 2 hours on Friday afternoon to finish the car off before the MOT at 3 o’clock. I had to finish the dash and drivers side cycle wing. Nothing like cutting it fine.

Did I do it?

Of course I did – but the horn, heated screen and crash pad got ‘de-scoped’. I’ll fit them next week!

The four buttons are to control the functions on the dash. The eagle eyed also won’t notice (because the steering wheel hides it) that I’ve swapped the indicators for a normal switch. I found out on Wednesday that the indicators weren’t working. The control box (self cancelling Westfield unit) was getting 12v but it wasn’t sending it to the switch. Westfield sent me a standard toggle switch and if necessary that will be fine for the IVA. I have to send the control unit back to them.