Started the Dashboard recovering....

[shmern]

I started the project to recover the dashboard last night, Well started on the glovebox door as a test.

I've posted some pictures to my website showing the recovering process. and the final door fitted again(well without a new handle as I haven't found one I like yet)

My interior should be dark blue, this new material looks REALLY blue in the flash photo's, but in real life isn't as blue as shown, however it is lighter than the rest of the dash, but hopefully when I get round to cleaning the existing material it will look closer.


http://shmern.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_eGallery&file=index&do=showgall&gid=9

[Podie]

Shmern - looking good mate!

[roy c]

You've done the easy bit then.
Is this your audition for Blue Peter?

Seriously, good luck with the fiddly parts.
Have the wood-effect (metal) strips on the door been painted black too?

[shnozz]

christ shmern - thats enthusiasm for you! Good luck mate - your car will be A1 in no time if you keep this up! keep up the progress reports and photos, it makes for interest reading and learning material if/when I come to do similar stuff

plus i can see a good sprint article in the future

[shmern]

roy c said: You've done the easy bit then.
Is this your audition for Blue Peter?

Seriously, good luck with the fiddly parts.
Have the wood-effect (metal) strips on the door been painted black too?

Yeah they are painted black, and they are also chipped , However on another thread I read these strips are actually slloy, and if you strip the paint back to metal you can polish the alloy.... anyone want to confirm ?

If someone can confirm the strips are alloy, I'll remove one and strip it (and of course post pictures).

Shmern

[shmern]

shnozz said: christ shmern - thats enthusiasm for you! Good luck mate - your car will be A1 in no time if you keep this up! keep up the progress reports and photos, it makes for interest reading and learning material if/when I come to do similar stuff

plus i can see a good sprint article in the future

Well I intend to remove the dash over the next few days and recover it at the weekend. I don't want the car off the road for long as I enjoy driving it too much !!!

Cheers for the interest !

Shmern

[dern]

Yeah they are painted black, and they are also chipped , However on another thread I read these strips are actually slloy, and if you strip the paint back to metal you can polish the alloy.... anyone want to confirm ?

They are either alloy or aluminium (aluminium isn't an alloy is it?). If stripped the paint off mine and am about to repaint them as I didn't like the stripped finish as it didn't match anything else.

Mark

>> Edited by dern on Wednesday 19th February 17:59

[shmern]

dern said: They are either alloy or aluminium (aluminium isn't an alloy is it?). If stripped the paint off mine and am about to repaint them as I didn't like the stripped finish as it didn't match anything else.

Mark

Well Im going for a similar interior to LeeBee (altho Dark Blue Leather instead) so the alu/alloy strips might match in ok, I'll remove them and give them a try.

Here is a link for those of you who haven't seen LeeBee's interior, this shot is quite old Im told...

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pikeynet/00/08/13/dsc00114.jpg

Shmern

[roy c]

I covered the metal trim strips on my S2 with carbon-fibre effect plastic. It sounds corny, but suits the black interior.

[shmern]

I've now taken the dash out, well over the weekend actually but Gassing was in read-only mode ?

Picture here for those who are interested

www.shmern.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_eGallery&file=index&do=showgall&gid=9&offset=12&orderby=titleA

I'll be covering the dash during the week, Im just making sure the gauges etc.. will fit after recovering, So out comes the file , to make the holes slightly bigger.

Also made the electric windows switch holes bigger to take the Vauxhall one (i.e. Griff type)

While I was sourcing the Vauxhall windows switches today, I came across a breakers locally, well within 50miles, that breaks TVR's, A quick look round their cars (*sigh* Griffs, Tuscans, Chimeras, S1, S2, S3, not to mention lots of Porsches, Lotus and a very sad DB7) I had a quick look at the Griffs, sadly one of the Griffs was missing an entire back end !, but the other was smashed at the front, a quick look inside revealed the alloy struts in place (back window section was ripped).

I asked the guy how much he wanted for the struts, £15each !

Bit of a bargain so I bought them.

But I need to ask another question, does a steering wheel from a Chimera fit an S ?, I'd like to replace my wheel with a proper TVR one, but the guy was looking £60+vat for one from a chim (which was wet btw). So do they fit , and how much should i pay ?

Shmern

[HarryW]

What can I say............your bloody mad , I've got to admire your enthusiasm(sp?) though, top post keep it up .
no wife, kids then .

Harry

[shnozz]

shmern - just had another look at your website pictures - Chimaera wheel should fit ok (but dont hold me to that )

I bought a Griff wheel for my S and had ages of trying to source a boss that I dont believe exists! There seems to be 2 sorts though - a 5 (or 6) allen key mounting and a 9 bolt one (which is what I have). I believe the less bolt fittings are from a personal wheel and the 9 bolt from a moto-lita. Basically, the personal wheels are inter-changeable from Griffs/S/Chim so you should be ok (subject to my disclaimer clause )

You can always return the favour by seeing if they have any decent condition leather moto-lita 9 bolt wheels in the scrappy for me still cant find one and they want over £100 for one new.

[shmern]

HarryW said: What can I say............your bloody mad , I've got to admire your enthusiasm(sp?) though, top post keep it up .
no wife, kids then .

Harry

Actually, I have a wife and 3 Kids !!!

Kids are 7 (boy) , 4 (girl) and 6months !!! (girl)

I looked at it this way, If I didn't fix the things on the car now, just after I got the car home, then I probably would never fix them and just drive the car . So I forced myself to move ahead with the work. Hopefully dash will be in by end of this week.

In between this Im also decorating the bathroom, not hard you would think, but I talked myself into removing one of the shower walls and replacing it with a glass block wall !.

WHY do I start these things !!!

Shmern

[shmern]

shnozz said: shmern - just had another look at your website pictures - Chimaera wheel should fit ok (but dont hold me to that )

I bought a Griff wheel for my S and had ages of trying to source a boss that I dont believe exists! There seems to be 2 sorts though - a 5 (or 6) allen key mounting and a 9 bolt one (which is what I have). I believe the less bolt fittings are from a personal wheel and the 9 bolt from a moto-lita. Basically, the personal wheels are inter-changeable from Griffs/S/Chim so you should be ok (subject to my disclaimer clause )

You can always return the favour by seeing if they have any decent condition leather moto-lita 9 bolt wheels in the scrappy for me still cant find one and they want over £100 for one new.

hmmm , My steering wheel is a personal one, but not a TVR one, It does have 6 allen key screws onto the boss, so maybe a straight swap with the Chimera one then, but is £60 good for a second hand wheel ?

What does the moto-lita one look like ? I can go back down and have another look for you.

Shmern

[Podie]

Looks like a good job mate... oh, and I've got a personal wheel, which has 6 bolts...

[rustoni]

Shmern,

Keep up the good work and keep posting, love seeing all the pictures but have to say you’re a lot braver than I am. I have to summon up the courage to the simplest Jobs on my S as I scared of wrecking things. Quick question – when do you sleep ?

Ian

[shmern]

Lucky the kids are great and goto bed with no problems, even the 6month old girl goes to bed at 7:30 and sleeps until 7am the next morning. My wife is extremely understanding, especially as the car is new to me, she expected a bit of missing husband syndrome.

At the moment the Dash is in the house and all the work for recovering is taking place in the house.

As for being scared of doing work, When I first opened the fuse/wiring box in the passenger foot well, I thought... OH MY GOD. how am I going to remove this dashboard ! But it's actually not that bad once you start, provided you label the wires as you take them off and I also documented colour codes and wiring positions on the back of each device in the dash prior to removing the wires.

As for recovering the dash, Well my options were limited, eiter buy a replacement dash in the right colour (hard to find) or get someone to recover dash for me (Expensive) or try it myself, I have had a bit of experience doing this.

Pointless trivia: I worked on a school project many years ago for a competition called 'BP Build a car', Our school and many other schools entered along with Royal Engineer cadets and Ford Apprentices, and we actually won (interesting story actually, the interior was made using DeLoren bits)

[shnozz]

shmern - cant see any problem with fitting a Chim wheel mate. £60 sounds ok, maybe try and haggle a bit but wouldnt grumble at that too much. I bought and sold my useless (immaculate) Griff 500 wheel for £50.

the fitment on my wheel is different. I assume you have steve's bible. have a look at the photos on page 229. the top picture is the set up i have, the bottom picture the one you have. you can see what i mean then.

I am after a wheel like the top one, or anything leather basically. I currently have a wheel like the one shown on the bottom of page 231 - wooden, skinny and lost its coatings over the years

[shmern]

Well I've recovered the dash, a few things to finish before I refit it back in car for the weekend.

Here's a couple of pics, sort of before and after (Notice the fan switches are missing , they are away getting made into lovely alloy ones, cheers LeeBee)

Oh and also changed the window switches for the vauxhall type, also I have to get replacement heater sticker, I saw a posting here somewhere about it, must go look again.

more pics available on my site here

www.shmern.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_eGallery&file=index&do=showgall&gid=15&offset=36&orderby=titleA




>> Edited by shmern on Friday 28th February 00:47

[rustoni]

Shmern,

Looking good, keep this up and your soon have some concurs trophies sitting on your mantelpiece

Ian