Drilling Steering hole in Dash?

[San Diego GTR]

I'm sure something on this is in the build manual but I'm getting close to that point of having to drill the one hole that all others are based off of and I'm nervous about it. Does anyone have any suggestions on great ways to do this????
Thanks,
Paul

[actuary]

Hi Paul,

I would stick to the build manual diagram - I drilled my holes exactly according to the diagram on the CD and it's spot on. If yours is LHD I guess it will be a mirror image of mine.

Ultima's measurements of the hole sizes were also spot on. I drilled a touch short to be on the safe side but then found myself filing out the holes a fraction - not something you want to do when you have just trimmed the dash.

NB When you do the switches, make sure that you don't get too close to the end of the dash as (if you have a GTR) the outermost switch will be blocked by the roll bar. It's tricky to do without the cockpit section in place but, if in doubt, call Ultima on Mon for some measurements.

Regards

Tony.

[jschwartz]

Fiberglass doesn't drill too good, wants to grab the drill and break.
I did a smaller hole and worked it bigger with a die grinder and a stone or sanding drum.

[San Diego GTR]

Tony,
Thanks for the comments and I agree that the diagram on the build manual is good. I just don't know how to start. Looks like everything is based off the location of the steering wheel hole, but I can't see how to locate where the steering wheel hole should be. Am I missing something really obvious?

Thanks,
Paul

[mkoch1]

if I recall correctly I took the last piece of steering rod flipped it around and put a little grease on the end. Then with the dash in place I pushed it forward so it made contact with the back side of the dash. Then remove the dash and drill where the grease dot is.

mark

[steve_d]

You will want the hole slightly larger than the shaft so start with a small hole and look through to see where you are in relation to the chassis mounted bearing for the shaft. Progressively open the hole using a Dremel until you have both the required size and aligned with the bearing.

Steve