Anyone got their dash top off at the moment?

[Bassfiend229hp]

...if so, could you grab me a cameraphone photo of the area behind the dash panel to the right of the revcounter? I'm trying to work out whether there's enough depth left there between the back of the dash panel and the fibreglass bodywork of the car to get another 52mm gauge in.

[MADMAX2]

i took my bolt completely off replaced with velcro just below the line of sight



what dial are you fitting?

[Harrytsg]

Pretty much all as above, removed bolt and replaced with Velcro
Guage fits with a reasonable amount of room

[Alun450]

Cooooooool.

[Bassfiend229hp]

All sounds good so far - just doing a cutting layout for a new main and radio panel and my full-size "mockup" shows that everything's visible through the wheel. Just suddenly thought "How much space is back there?"...

[Alun450]

Oh I like them, I want to re assemble my old dash with the same clocks, I'm going to have padded leather instead of wood, areo style, keep us upto date with those I'd love mine done.

[Bassfiend229hp]

I think they look excellent and I really like the 270 degree movements on the minor gauges - they do look quite deep though which is why I was concerned about getting one into that bit to the right of the tacho...



I do like the look of the gauges though and they have a "startup sequence"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bji05nEcZzI

...which I'm not sure I'll like or find annoying but should at least prevent the "sticky gauge" syndrome I have with my current gauges.

I think I've settled on this layout for the main dash group...

[Bassfiend229hp]

I wish they did an AFR gauge in that style too but they don't ... and I was pleased to see they do a boost gauge (I'm back looking at superchargers again) so a boost gauge would be nice but their "Flight" boost gauge says "Turbo" on it rather than "Boost" which is slightly annoying.

[Alun450]

Oh FFS that's done it, I've got to have some of that. So hang on what was your question, did you want to know the clearance from dash front to fibreglass at screen area. Seeing the depth of that clock I will measure all the existing openings and take some notes.

Bassfiend do you see many issues with calibration and wiring up?

I'm going to start playing with mine, this is the coolest mod ever, lol lol,lol.

I'm getting all nostalgic I'm going to weld an old Jag gear lever in place, you know the aeroplane type. Lol. I am joking you purists.

The lever on a series 2 XJ6 is just something wonderful to shift, awesome piece of metal art.

[Bassfiend229hp]

Alun450 said:

Oh FFS that's done it, I've got to have some of that. So hang on what was your question, did you want to know the clearance from dash front to fibreglass at screen area. Seeing the depth of that clock I will measure all the existing openings and take some notes.

Bassfiend do you see many issues with calibration and wiring up?

I'm going to start playing with mine, this is the coolest mod ever, lol lol,lol.

I'm getting all nostalgic I'm going to weld an old Jag gear lever in place, you know the aeroplane type. Lol. I am joking you purists.

The lever on a series 2 XJ6 is just something wonderful to shift, awesome piece of metal art.

Welcome to the hell that is looking at something and going "Ooooo that looks good - me want" and then looking at actually doing it ...

I reckon with new senders (as my gauges are all the original ETB gauges that seem not to use standard senders), a new dash (as my "old" ETB gauges are all 58mm diameter and so "standard" gauges just drop through), the new switches that I'm going to use (I succumbed and ordered the billet aluminium switches from CBS Online - they look pretty good when flush mounted) and the gauges themselves I'll end up spending about £1,100 on doing it - don't tell the Mrs!

[Alun450]

Jeez I'm gonna dream of them all night, truth is I can't read the TVR ones to easy at speed, there much clearer. I love them to bits. Mmm turbo, can you get them to do a be spoke baby!
Ive been thinking of Nos !!!!! Doubt you can get one for that in an old school style.

[Bassfiend229hp]

Alun450 said:

<<snip>>

So hang on what was your question, did you want to know the clearance from dash front to fibreglass at screen area. Seeing the depth of that clock I will measure all the existing openings and take some notes.

Ideally - please.

I can't remember what sits in that corner - if there is any "conflict" then what would cutting away a bit of the fibreglass behind there be cutting into?

Alun450 said:

Bassfiend do you see many issues with calibration and wiring up?

Depends what you mean by "Issues" ... I know that none of my current sensors will work so I know I'll have to replace those so that'll *PROBABLY* just mean crimping on new connectors at that end. Obviously moving gauges around and adding different gauges will mean extending and modifying the loom but again that shouldn't be hard.

In *THEORY* any gauge / sensor mismatches could be resolved by using the "Fuel Gauge Wizard" that Dave Byron (ChimpOnGas) flagged up and I do have one sat here "just in case"...

I do hate the crappy looking loom that is in there currently and the more work I do in her the more I'm tempted to get a friend of mine to remake the loom completely (and do the job properly) ... I've seen some of his looms and they are downright sexy but it's not his job and I know that I would realistically have to pay him to do it as it is a big job and takes him a lot of time.

Alun450 said:

I'm going to start playing with mine, this is the coolest mod ever, lol lol,lol.

Alun450 said:

I'm getting all nostalgic I'm going to weld an old Jag gear lever in place, you know the aeroplane type. Lol. I am joking you purists.

The lever on a series 2 XJ6 is just something wonderful to shift, awesome piece of metal art.

/me Googles to see what they look like...

[Bassfiend229hp]

Alun450 said:

Jeez I'm gonna dream of them all night,

Really - I thought I was sad but I still have better dreams than that...

Alun450 said:

truth is I can't read the TVR ones to easy at speed, there much clearer.

Are you supposed to actually read them ... mine always have always seemed to me to be much more a vague reassurance that the fact that you're not hearing any expensive sounding clanging or grinding noises is down to the measured parameters not being too wrong rather than them specifically being "right" ...

Alun450 said:

I love them to bits.

They're the only ones that I found that I liked other than some of the STACK ones and I couldn't find them in a consistent style across all the gauges *AND* have the same style of speedo and tacho in a 100mm (rather than an 80mm) format.

Alun450 said:

Mmm turbo, can you get them to do a be spoke baby!

I'm sure that anything can be done if you throw enough money at it - It looks like "SpeedyCables" manufacture them now so maybe I'll ask...

Alun450 said:

Ive been thinking of Nos !!!!! Doubt you can get one for that in an old school style.

What do you measure for NOS? Tank Pressure?

[Bassfiend229hp]

Right - just sent off the layout to be cut.

[Alun450]

I do say some silly things!
Corr that looks ace,
First off the rear area behind clocks seems to be a ridge of fibre, the new clock on the right will need be going through at the point of the 3rd r/h dash top bolt. I've poked my hand up there and it's just void space so no problem. Other than the brackets that hold the dash in place I can't see to many issues.
Oh G.Gill has signed the dash?

I will watch your progress with hope and good wishes mate, brilliant.

[Bassfiend229hp]

Alun450 said:

I do say some silly things!

We all do - it's called being human and it's what keeps us all laughing and happy when otherwise the crushing mundane day to day existence that reality generally feeds us would have us throwing ourselves under trains.

My Mrs bought herself some two-way radios and was sat playing with them the other night working out how to use them, one in each hand, working out how long you had to give between pressing the PTT button on one and the other picking up that a signal was there and coming out of mute. As she sat there we were discussing that the PTT button was a long rubber strip but that it had to be pressed dead in the middle to reliably activate and that it was probably easiest to press it with your thumb. She looked at the two radios, seemed a tad puzzled then held up the one in her left hand and said "Yeah - you can do that with this one..." then held up the one in her right hand and said "...but on this one the button's on the wrong side for that - wonder why that is?"

Sometimes I wish I was able to have that brief inner dialogue that discusses the pros and cons of bursting into hysterics before doing so.

(Thank God she never reads these forums!)

Alun450 said:

Corr that looks ace,

Thankyou - I'm really hoping it does when it's finished. The dash was finally ordered last night - I must pay for that today. I ordered the switches (£110 for five switches!) on Thursday night. There's the fuel level gauge on its way just as a "tester pot" to make sure I like 'em before I pull the pin on an £800 order for the rest of the gauges and senders.

Alun450 said:

First off the rear area behind clocks seems to be a ridge of fibre, the new clock on the right will need be going through at the point of the 3rd r/h dash top bolt. I've poked my hand up there and it's just void space so no problem. Other than the brackets that hold the dash in place I can't see to many issues.

That sounds good - I don't bolt my dash down anyway and I've not reconnected the air vent hose to the drivers side fresh air vent in over a year simply because I've always been too damn lazy - erm - I mean because I thought I might need to get back up there at some point.

Alun450 said:

Oh G.Gill has signed the dash?

I had his signature on mine too ...

Alun450 said:

I will watch your progress with hope and good wishes mate, brilliant.

Thanks - I'm looking forward to it ... Got a cost yesterday of about £150 each to retrim the door panels too so hopefully the interior will get a bit tidier as well ... he wants a grand each though to do the carpets and roof so he's not cheap!

[Alun450]

It's going to look exciting. Well you've got a future customer if you can work it all out Phil. Since the day I got the car it's been an ambition to get that old areo, 40's sportscar feel going on, your well on the way and I applaud you sir. I might get a fake choke. Lol lol lol.

[chris1972]

Bassfiend229hp said:

Right - just sent off the layout to be cut.

Awesome!

[jamienshelly]

Hi, those guages look really nice, You are going to a very special dash when its finished plus they will all work properly.

[Bassfiend229hp]

jamienshelly said:

Hi, those guages look really nice, You are going to a very special dash when its finished plus they will all work properly.

I hope so because it'll be carbon fibre which I'm *REALLY* not sure of but it seemed easiest to get a dash cut from carbon fibre rather than getting one cut from steel or aluminium ... at least if I hate it then I can get it veneered over.

Of course then I'll just have to move on to "fixing" the next thing ...

So - the current "list" can be summarised as:

Dash and Gauges ... as above.

Cooling system ... new water pump, new coolant temp sender (supplied by ETB for the early gauges but going into the RR sender location) for the current "old" ETB gauges - now why am I doing that if I'm now buying *NEW* gauges!?!?!?), new water pump, new "late style" solid bottom pipe, new seal round the front of the radiator to the bodywork, new (sic) radiator cowlings (mine has never had them and the "new" cowlings that I bought yesterday have washer marks, scratches and brown stains on them so they're not bloody new!), hefty 70amp relay and 40 amp fuse for the ECU switched fan supply (40A relays always seem to cause problems in the race cars that my mates run even when switching less than 40A so they use 70A relays) and a couple of brand new Tuscan fans which *SHOULD* fit in the space left, will draw about 35A rather than 14A but should hopefully pull through over twice as much air as the originals.

Rear Suspension Bushes ... got to do these for the MOT but tempted just to screw the pooch and buy a complete set of front and rear wishbones with bushes fitted then just replace the whole lot. Still not decided whether to go PowerFlex or standard rubber bushes.

Battery ... It was moved "temporarily" to the middle of the boot floor 18 months ago and is still there. Need to get that sorted so that I can get my boot space back.

Lights ... I want to do the Lupo lights conversion this year - I saw Peters (phased) a couple of months ago and thought it looked really good!

Interior ... I have a set of Jag seats in the garage that I still need to look at fitting and I need to get the cat-mangled door trims recovered - the roof and carpets will need to wait for a bit to be done. Maybe I should just get a new rear screen sown in for now?

Oh yeah - I forgot that I would *REALLY* like to sort out this year is at least sorting out the bits for fitting a supercharger too - turbos never seemed right on a V8, Derek is still very tempting in so far as the dark side is concerned but I hope to get to chat to a few of the "blower" boys and that's the most likely route at the moment.

Will the list ever end?

Edited by Bassfiend229hp on Saturday 11th May 12:50