S1 Elan Dashboard needed for a pattern

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 1:39 pm

I have made few dashes in the past for the S2 elan's and still have the pattern. I have done a couple for the S4 too, these dashes are a pain in the ass to route out the switch holes and get the switches centered plus the height difference makes for a compicated muliti layer problem. I'll not do another as the time involved is not worth it. So that leaves me with S3's and S2's as all that is needed it to drill out the holes or the proper diameter. I found a couple of fairly decent photos of the S1 dash and last Wednesday it was raining all day so I spent about 6 hours laying it out on a extra piece of Baltic Birch Plywood. Over the weekend I cut out the pattern and then used the router to true up the top edge so that it fits fairly nice in the type 26 shell. So far it looks ok but I am not entirely satisfied with the angles coming up from the backbone. The height for the glovebox may be off an 1/8 of an inch and I have no real pattern to compare it to. The center of the dash with all of the switches is close enought to the S2 that I can get that layout pretty good. I guess what I am looking for is a good perimeter tracing of an S1 dashboard to verify that what I have done so far is worth continuing with. If anyone has old bastardized S1 dash kicking around (something with that 8 track player hole in the middle would be good) I would be interested in that. The pattern I have made is probably good enough for a one off. I think its ok but if other folks wanted one I am not sure about doing more.

The photo that I scaled off of is the top photo (not sure if is even a real S1 dash as its missing many of the mounting holes, they may be just covered by the new veneer) and the pattern is the second photo

Why yes the guage holes are too far down and a little close to the center but I needed to see how it looked with the guages in. It's only a template after all.

Post by: **1964 S1** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 6:52 pm

Hello Gary, Oddly, I own that new dashboard you have pictured, that very one, I can tell by the wood grain and routing. I believe I bought it on eBay years ago and it appears to be a factory replacement part . I also have another original LHD spare dash that was removed from a wrecked S1 decades ago. The only difference is the used one has the holes in it that you referred to. There are two at the steering column mount and four at the backbone base. PM your address and I'll do a tracing on a large sheet of paper and mail it to you.

Eric

Post by: **cabc26b** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:09 pm

Gary,

Looks like you have the hook up from Eric -BTW, don't forget the glovebox door - I assume you already have the fiberglass binnacle/cubby that goes on the passenger side ?

George

Post by: **paddy** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:16 pm

Gary,

Can I ask why the fuel gauge you've fitted is indicating Full?

Thanks - Paddy

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:04 pm

Hi Eric

I thought it was ebay where the photos came from, I have a date of March 1st 2002 on the original photos. Back then there were a lot of good parts around for not much money, I got a whole S3 dash with all of the guages and switches for $75. I wish I had bought more stuff then, ridgeliven is the only person selling stuff now...

George
No glove box yet, I was going to buy a plastic waste paper backet
(yes I know, what a spend thrift I am) and mold up the shapes in fiberglass and then cut the corners out and reglass into the shape that fit once I had the dash pattern finished to my satisfaction. I think its a lot of work but I don't know who sells glove boxes for S1's. why do you have one you can loan me?. Tingles body will be there the body shell used with the above to bootleg an S1 for me to ride around in.

Paddy
I looked around in the guage box and took this first gas guage I came across, maybe if I shake it a bit it will read empty

I gave it a shake and it emptied right out...

Post by: **cabc26b** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:33 pm

Hi Gary.

I have an S1 glove box, it a right hand drive piece though - You should be able to use it for a pattern. Let me know and I will drop it and a lhd glove box door in the mail.

don't for get to use Teak for the veneer and have plenty of your favorite oil finish handy -

George

Post by: **paddy** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:56 pm

garyeanderson wrote:I looked around in the guage box and took this first gas guage I came across, maybe if I shake it a bit it will read empty

I gave it a shake and it emptied right out...

And there was me thinking that we would learn some new obscure detail about Smiths gauges

I'll shake mine and see if I can fill it up.

Paddy

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:08 pm

Hi Paddy

It was actually the dash was leaning back. To get the guages to lay flat I suspended the dash between the couch and a bench and that had the dashboard leaning with the top of the dash below the bottom. when I stood it up verticly the guage went straight to empty. I have no idea if the guage works or not, I use a redwood dip stick in the S2, I don't care if it works or not, just so the Elan starts and drives...

Gary

Post by: **paddy** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:27 pm

BTW Tony T lists new S1 gloveboxes: http://www.tonythompsonracing.co.uk/pricelist-2009.pdf (item TTRBW 033)

Paddy

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 10:11 pm

Hi Paddy

I looked yesterday and didn't see it, not only am I forgeting a lot of stuff but I am going blind too. I better get the shovel out while I can still dig the hole. 6 feet is kind of deep though, maybe two will do...
Gary

Post by: **cabc26b** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 8:01 pm

I have seen the repo's in pictures and they look a little different from the oem pieces ...

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:28 pm

The pattern came in the mail today, Wow Eric really went all out on the tracing for the LHD dash. I placed my template on top of Erics drawing and traced around it in red ink, Eric original is in black so everyone could see how close (well how far off) I was. The parts that are close are because I used the S2 dash for the top and routed that to fit the S2 body that the crashpad sits on. The camera angle is responceble for the angles coming up from the backbone of the body being off. The height difference is due to the fact that I ran the pattern right down to the bobbins. The dash hole are where they are because the cutout for the steering column and I wanted a bit of material on the top of the gauge holes so I moved them down a quareter inch. Anyhow have a look and if I get a couple comments, I'll post a larger picture of the back which has a ton of detail. Must have taken a couple hours to do. Good thing I have another sheet of baltic birch in stock

Gary

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 10:04 pm

I couldn't get my mind straight on what to do today so I was doing nothing. It got to be about noon and I decided it might be a good time to see about a dashboard for tingles C production race body. The chassis is on hold until I get the differential housing back from Karl and I saw him yesterday and it may be a while as he has been busy with paying work. Anyway I looked at the pattern I had made a couple years ago and it needed the column cutout and that was about it to be ready to use.

I did that and found the piece of Baltic birch that I had saved for the dash and cut some walnut veneer (I know it should be teak but then I would have not done anything)with a scissors that I had hanging around to the rough shape of the dash. This had an adhesive on the veneer so I just pulled off the paper backer and pressed it on. I then traced the pattern on the back of the veneered plywood and went out and roughed it out with the skill saw to get it close. I put a couple of screws into dash and into the pattern where I would be cutting out the oil/water gauge and ignition to hold the pattern in place. I had a 1/2 inch pattern cutting bit in the router and went around it. It came out pretty nice so I got another pattern out that is just the 4 gauges and one screw and two pieces of double sided tape held it in place. I drilled 4 holes in dash, one in each gauge hole and routed those out. I next did the switch layout and drilled those, I think its been too long since I started this project as I messed up on the ignition and wiper hole and got them reversed. one was just a bit large and the other needed to be routed out to get the wiper to fit. I was in a hurry as there was enough issues by now that its just a practice piece so I didn't bother to make templates to rout out the recesses for the switches for lights, panel lamp and heater motor and I did them free hand and they look it (no photos of those

). I rounded up some parts and stuffed the dashboard to see what I was missing, many of the parts are not correct and the cables are cut short but they are good cores to rebuild. All in all a good practice piece and the day was put to good use. I want to thank Eric again for tracing out the pattern and sending it to me, I really appreciate it.

Gary

Sunday June 17 4:00 pm
Seeing I got something nearly good enough yesterday I started over again this morning. The perimeter template worked nicely but I wanted the back to look a bit better and I decided that if I made a "mask" to do the switch holes and gauge hole too it may be usable again. I guess I spent a couple hours getting it close, I started with a cut off that was not quite large enough to use as a blank so it mad things a bit of a challenge to square up. I think its pretty close and it worked pretty good except for the large routed out cutouts for the headlamp switch and the gauge lamp dimmer. I ended up messing one of the holes in the pattern as the router chowed though into the ashtray of the S3 dash that I was copying, I thought it was going to be one of those days but it didn't matter in the end as the "mask was not deep enough for the pattern cutting bit and I needed to double rig it to get the height correct to route those 2 pockets for the switches. Total time to route out the blank as you see in the photos was 1 hour and 45 minutes, not a bad thing I guess as now I can do a few more and I have the "mask" now that is also good for a lot of the S2.

I had a 5 X 5 sheet of 10mm Baltic birch and cut off enough to do two, here is one ruff cut with the skill saw and the drill in the crotches.

This is the same self adhesive plain sliced walnut that I used yesterday, seems to stick pretty well. I guess I'll find out more in a few years.

blank with veneer applied flipped over, template ready to be placed on for routing.

I had this two sided carpet tape and figured I would give it a try. its a few years old but I don't think that it was a problem, it didn't stick well because the template is made from exterior plywood and its not sanded so there was not a lot of contact. I will make another out of Baltic birch and my guess is it will stick just fine, that is all I used in the past and never had any problems doing it that way.

Two screws to make sure it didn't move were used in the same locations that I used yesterday.

Pattern removed

perimeter routed and mask ready to be used to start on the gauge holes

I use a laminate trim bit in the router with the bearing on the end of the bit to shape the perimeter and gauge holes. For the perimeter this works fine but for the gauge holes I need to pre drill a hole to get the bit through the blank.

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Sun Jun 17, 2012 8:37 pm

Continued from previous topic:

Kind of looks like a dash

I was in a prototype mind so I didn't fully drill to the depth required, I wanted to inspect so I took it appart to look and decided to rout out the Lamp switch and gauge dimmer recesses.

My mask was not deep enough for the pattern cutting bit that I had so I had to raise it up to use it, kind of a pain in the ass but shit happens. Anyway it seemed to work out well and I will make a few mods the next time.