Drilling the dash

[redjohnson]

i'm planning to fit a peninsula starter button to my griff but have been warned that drilling the dash will ovearheat and blister the veneer. is this right and does anyone have any tips for fitting extra buttons / switches?
thanks

[Joolzb]

Not sure I can help on drilling the dash but you'll have to go through the veneer and the steel plate behind it, sounds like it could get messy to me. Have you thought about changing/getting rid of any of the existing buttons?

Perhaps moving the boot release to the dial illumination switch and starter in it's place.

Just a thought.

[victormeldrew]

IT WILL BLISTER!

I have my dash out, and about to be reveneered, and I have just cut new holes for extra clocks. Drilling the pilot holes for these generated enough heat to badly blister the veneer. No problem for me, but unless you plan to reveneer as well ...

don't do it!

[HeyAndy]

The way round it, is to cut a hole using a scalpel. Mark out the hole first, run the scalpel round the marked out section applying increased pressure each time you go round. Then score the marked out hole diagonally before lifting each segment out piece by piece. Once the wood is out then you can drill through the metal backing.

[spend]

Sheet metal punches make a much cleaner job of it, just drill a pilot hole, and screw the punch to cut a nice clean hole.

I remanufactured my complete dash, including slightly better steel backing (due to mounting extra oil temp & voltmeter in a chim) and the punches were an awful lot easier to use than hole saws as well as giving a perfect finish.

I got mine from:
www.lawson-his.co.uk/scripts/products.php?cat=Q-Max%20Cutters


Would certainly cut away the veneer first tho.

Dave

[victormeldrew]

I just used a hole punch to cut holes for voltmeter and oil temp in a Chimaera too! The standard steel backing tends to buckle a bit, but some judicious battering gets it back in shape. The hole punch I used required a 14mm pilot hole, and thats when I got the blistering. My dash was losing veneer in a big way already, but the drilling then the hole punch pretty much put paid to any that was left.

How are you planning to secure the dash now with the extra holes - mine had steel strips riveted to the glassfibre slap bang where the holes cut for the extra gauges are. I'm going to fit a couple of offcuts of timber bedded into some resin. Wonder where I got that idea!

My punch was from Frosts btw; 52mm punch specifically designed for "Smiths" instruments. Very fractionally tight on the TVR clocks, bit a whiz round with the Dremel eased things out a little.



>> Edited by victormeldrew on Saturday 17th April 00:43