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And the finished article. The lines will disappear overnight
still have the problem with the heater controls being too big. Any suggestions? Bakerlite ones off an radio would be good but smaller car ones would be great...but from what? They are currently 34mm, 24mm would be the max.
I then removed the pod from the top of the dash (the one above the speedo/tacho console) ready for recovering. I bought an already stitched leather cover from the internet for £24.99 delivered. They had many different stitch colours but as the car is Ferrari red it had to be red.
I sprayed the pod first with glue and then the cover. make sure you do not get any glue of the best side as once the glue hits it its ruined.
The underneath edges are glued last once the cover is stretched and all the creases and bubbles are pushed out. Start from the centre and work outwards.
You can see from this picture how to remove it from the dash. There are 3 philips screws at the back end and the front hooks in.
Tuck the excess leather under and hold till dry working your way along in sections. Dont try and do it all at once, the glue will dry before you finish.
So today I managed to bolt the speedo/tacho pod hood back on. They are assembled with the mounting screws coming from the back which are a donkey to get out. So when reassembly I reversed the spire nuts so they mount from the front now.
They weird bit is the company that make them put the stitching diagonally? Not sure why? I am starting to like it though.
Onto the lower dash panel fitting. I cable tied all the unwanted wiring and connected up the cigarette lighter for charging the mobiles and sat nav purposes.
Its screwed into place to the original Z3 dash mountings so very secure. Onto the complex centre tunnel next which will cover the shifter cable cut away.
Are you going to disguise the auto gear stick as a manual?
If you can find some way of replacing the top of the stick with something less 'auto' looking but still capable of triggering the gear stop trigger so you don't slip from drive to neutral i would be very interested.
In fact, if you do make something, please make two and I will take the second one.
*I will try to dig out the exhaust cost for the other thread. It is a powerflow pipe
I was at Nubodi on Friday trial fitting my wires for clearance - they looked great on your car Andy! Anyway I saw the centre console and door panels on the car and I have to say the pictures here really do not do them justice at all. They look great and fantastic disguise.
In fact - you may have to make some more *ahem*
Re: the trigger - could you look to veedub scene they have plenty of triggered gearshift handles (for the reverese lock out)?
Of the 427 Cobra lock out style:
No idea if you could adapt them - more likely use a similar approach?
The problem is the gear shaft is so short. I will find a solution. Anyway my new heater control knobs came today. They needed a little modifying (one day something will just fit perfectly) but look great and more importantly ..work.
I managed to start on the centre console yesterday. Now I'm on a deadline for a show I have to find time. At least the weather is being kind. Here is a cardboard template made from two cereal boxes stitched together (I really should label the bags of cereal now).
A bracket was added each side to mount the console. It is secured by a black rivet. The brackets will then be sprayed matt black and will be hidden by the seats once fitted