Wow, good thread. Lots of little details.
Good tip to do all the dash trim, brackets, glove box, etc. first for ease of installation. I never thought of this, but that is how I did mine and it worked out well. Job kind of flows that way because you want all the stuff positioned and installed on the new dash prior to placing the loom as it goes over top of some of the attachments points.
You will probably need a supply of very small screws to hand, as the originals are so small and tight in there that they tend to get buggered on removal. Don't know if they are available easily in the UK, but Canadian made Robertson square head screws work very well for this; Phillips and conventional blade screws in these small sizes strip easily.
For the question on where to get wire in Lucas colours, here are some links. Have bought from all three suppliers and they are all very good. Note there is modern thin wall wire available, or the older standard stuff if you want to better match the stock loom for small repairs. For sure invest in a very good quality crimping tool for any repairs; far better than the hardware store variety. They also have a selection of connectors if you want to make extra connections to make future dash removal easy. I am going to do this when I install the dash. Second supplier is US based, and one orders by phone and has a $10 minimum, but ships well by mail and has good advice. Other two are Europe/UK and orders on 'net forms.
For those just repairing their original loom, I found the biggest difficulty was not necessarily the age condition of the wire & connections, but that the wire colours were faded so bad that it was very difficult to read the colours where the wire is exposed. Stripping the loom wrap exposes the original colours. I ended up replacing the entire loom in the end, mainly because of this issue. Note the loom tape is generally without sticky stuff to keep the wrapped loom flexible; new tape or various wraps/tubes etc. available from suppliers below.
http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/V ... mepage.phphttp://www.britishwiring.com/http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/Rich, having trouble visualizing the shift light you mention. Anyway, the first two suppliers above have push in dash warning lights that match the originals on my car in various colours and symbols. I bought all four required new so they would match and have new bulbs, and they have proper spade connectors rather than hard wired connections of stock warning lights. If I had an extra hole to fill, I would consider adding a low oil pressure light, which would be a very easy addition. I believe standard wire colour would be white/brown.
For the headlight switch, at least on my Federal car, it is a pull knob vacuum switch with two integrated micro switches for the electrical piece. Note this type of switch required flag connectors due to clearance issues with the heater box. Other arrangements appear to use micro-switches located in the nose of the car that are mechanically actuated by the movement of the pods. I haven't seen these ones, but think the vacuum switch in the dash does not have the electrical connections. In both systems the lights are controlled by relays under the bonnet.
The side lights are a spring loaded temporary make and break push on rocker, and use a relay, but I understand this is different on UK cars.
Due to differences in these switches and circuits you might have to post a pic and exact model details of your car if you need to fix/replace something in these as there are several subtle variants.
If you are repairing the heater box and fan, you might want to consider mod to provide additional clearance for a modern radio/head unit. This is discussed in archive threads, or I can post pic's of what I did. Note mine is not in the car yet, so hoping like heck it fits, but don't have personal experience yet.
Really like the idea above on making heater hose connections prior to installing heater box. My body is off, so will be able to do this prior to body install, but with the engine in place I don't think this connection is possible in a reliable fashion. I had missed this issue, so very helpful!