MadaboutKitcars

Good morning before investing in a new dashboard i decided to try an build! some instruments that would look appropriate , first off i bought a spare Z3 instrument binnacle , this would allow me to see what was possible before taking the dash apart in my car .





The binnacle taken apart , the actual instruments are the 4 silver "plug in " units .
I removed the water temp and fuel gauge units , then after removing the internals from Smiths type 2" gauges fitted the BMW units to the rear of the Smiths gauges and fitted new dial faces (courtesy of Scott"Smash") .



The rusty Smiths gauges were cleaned up and the sprayed black inside and out .

It was much the same for the speedo and revcounter , but i used Jaeger dials from a 60s! Alfa bought from Ebay Germany for just £50 delivered , these were gutted cleaned up then the BMW units screwed to the rear the faces were changed to say Veglia .

I will be fitting them using short runs of cable with a female connector at the instrument end and a mail connector at the PCB end , nothing is tested yet so there may need to be adjustment made to the faces and also the position of the BMW units , but we shall see .







Waiting for a couple of VDO gauges to turn up Oil Pressure and Temp , to complete the set , Geoff .

Good morning thank you for all the replies , right how hard can it be to remove the dash from a Z3! as anybody would , first check Google and i used the following link
http://www.zroadster.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38747&f=5 .

I pretty much followed this although i did not move the steering column switches and where it states that the 2 small bolts below the centre vents are difficult to remove (that is an understatement) , 3 hours later it looked like this ,




The Brother label maker that work paid for came in useful for a change, the door cards are out as the window frames are currently being dipped and stove enameled , so will my BMW/Smiths gauges work ? Geoff .

I finished off the removal at 8 this morning after seeing the weather forecast and as Paul would say "rain stops play" , Geoff .

Good evening i have recently had the window frames on my car dipped and the stove enameled by a company on the Wrexham Industrial Estate they looked so much better afterwards that i decided to have the Chrome Wing Mirrors and the rear number plate lights done with the same process , although they had only been on the car for a year they were rusty . I have no doubt that if you spent plenty it would be possible to buy newly chromed parts that would last . I dont have a decent photo of "before" but they look a hell of a lot better and hopefully will last , Geoff .

Evening all , i don`t know if any of the following is true but i am sure it was on the net somewhere! Back when Enzo was getting the first pre-production SWB ready , it was the day it was planned to work on the dashboard , but the Italian version of the Metal-Workers Union decided to have a days strike/holiday . So as not to slow down the work on the SWB Enzo decided to ask the guy who had been fitting Kitchen Units in his Villa to nip down to the Italian equivalent of B+Q get some ply and knock up something for the car , any way i have copied as best i can please see photos







Instruments next , Geoff .

Good morning i have know finished and installed the 4 BMW/Smiths/Jaeger instruments , not the easiest task really fiddly , but all 4 are working , Geoff .

Good afternoon , when i replaced the seats in mine i ended up buying a set of long seat belt arms and bolting them down to the floor using the existing seat bolts , the actual arms were quite difficult to find in the length i wanted but also where they fit into the existing BMW buckle they are a unusual size ,

2 of Rigid 28cm Seat Belt Extender - Black, E4 Safety Certified, Type B (25mm wide metal tongue) - Clicks Right In! Sold by: Seat Belt Extender Pros III , i bought them from Amazon but that company no longer offer them . Hope that helps , Geoff .

Evening have just checked on Ebay and the sort of extender i was trying to describe is as follows ,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNIVERSAL-CAR-AUTO-SEAT-BELT-EXTENDER-EXTENSION-BUCKLE-SAFETY-CLIP-31CM-x-24MM-/221540684440?hash=item3394da9298:g:QZMAAOSwIBBUZf47

Do you check the dimensions carefully , thanks Geoff .

Good morning i am sure that the following has been resolved with ref to the SWB , it is in ref to installing splash guards within the front wheel arches , i could do with seeing any pics and if possible the plastic sheet used and where purchased from? thanks Geoff .

Thanks Jag for that , i have know found it , and thank you Richard for the info , Geoff .

Thanks for the offer MK is a bit far from Chester , Geoff .

Cheers Andy , Geoff .

PM sent , Geoff .

Morning all have decided its time for the MDF to go so have one of these on order from Tribute , will be with me by end of next week! Geoff .

Chris would be your contact point for price/delivery details , Geoff .

Good afternoon i have been working away all week , but i was aware that a large parcel had turned up from Tribute , any way i have just got home to find a huge amount of cardboard and tape around a dash shaped object , i can only assume that Chris has started employing somebody new to wrap his parcels as this was really well done! thanks Chris .













Just need to persuade Jeff to visit his mum up north with some filler and a spray gun , Geoff .

Its got to be a good sign when your cat sits on your dash , Geoff .

First trial fit , just to see , Geoff .

Evening Steve yes the two curved sections need removing plus a section in the centre , not sure ref the centre console as i no longer have one and will be using something more appropriate , i have different door cards in my car so can not answer your last question , if you can hold on till tomorrow i will get the MDF dash on EBAY Geoff .

Good evening everything was going really well until i had a Paul moment , i was spraying my new dash on the patio with the dash sat on top of the Workmate , i had sprayed about 6 separate coats with not a great deal left in the can when i decided to move the position of the Workmate slightly , the final coat was sprayed on turned around to put the can down and the dash fell off the workmate the final coat was still wet so the dash was now marked not easy to see in the photo ,



there are couple of marks on the edge just above the 5 holes for the small dials ,these marks were rubbed down with wet and dry and now need spraying , so i have ordered another can of this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PROXL-Textured-Plastic-Bumper-Car-Bike-Paint-Large-500ml-Fine-Coars-Nozzles/171524297236?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 , really happy with the dash , very little prep work reqd , Geoff .