Discussion
After 4 years of owbership I finally decided to have a crack at that flacky mess that is a dashboard. So armed with Pies details on how to remove said item and the worlds most versatile tool (my brother inlaw Ash) I set about my task.
We removed the steering wheel and cowlings top and bottom (someone had them held on with woodscrews!), no not the steering wheel silly. And finally the indicators and wiper arms were removed. We didnt drop down the steering shaft as Pies recommends.
Starting at the left of the dash we removed the two bolts to the left of the glovebox. Access was easy via a piece of carpet up in the glove box. These were two 10mm lock nuts and came off with a simple stubby socket set. The one to the right of the glove box was also accessed this way and again proved no problem but was best removed with a 10mm ratchet spanner. To the right od the dash we removed the two bolts at the far end with a 10mm stubby long reach socket. So far so good. Now we just that the problem bolt to remove. All I can say is that if you take your time and find the best way through the mess of cables and ducting you will find it easier and wont end up with a hand like ET. We again used a 10mm ratchet spanner on this one which was annoying as again it was a lock nut. In all this took us about 45mins. Thinking the end was in sight we had a brew. How wrong we were. The real problem we had was now removing the heater controls. At first look you would think the knobs would come off the front, they don't. They are held on by bolts at the back so leave them. The issue we had was that some form of bracket had been attached to the left and right of the heater controls to help keep it in place and these were stuck inside the fibre glass opening of the car. We couldn't see them until we had forced it out and bent them a little. Upon bending them that then meant we couldn't undo the nuts holding them as the bracket had bent back covering the sides of the nut. In the end we got a pair of long reach pliers in there and bent them all the way back so they would just slide out of the fibre glass opening. We then refashioned them in a better way to put back! The speedo dials were not connected to the dash in my car but should have been, I think this may have been because they have replaced the speedo twice and got bored putting the bolts back on. Finally the dash was out and we were now up to about 2 1/2 hours.
Dash removed.
To make cleaning of the dash easier we used a piece of 15mm MDF and cut holes for the bolts to go through and then put wing nuts on the other side to hold it on the MDF. This helps as the dash is quite flexible and bending it is an issue. I removed the old veneer with a blunt chisel which came off quite easily. This left most of the old adhesive which I used some Nitromores (other removal products are available) to get off (worked really well came off in about 1 minute).
This then left me with a plain piece of metal. I was originally going to cover it again, probably the cheap route with fablon or similar. However my brother inlaw suggested we polish it and then lacquer it leaving it as metal. So we did.
Putting it back in you would think would be easy and it was easier than taking it out but it still took about 2 hours. Again the heater controls were the problem, the rest took about 30 mins. Here is the finished article with a new TVR badge stuck on. I am going to print out something for the heater controls when I get a chance.
If you want any details just ask,
Pete
We removed the steering wheel and cowlings top and bottom (someone had them held on with woodscrews!), no not the steering wheel silly. And finally the indicators and wiper arms were removed. We didnt drop down the steering shaft as Pies recommends.
Starting at the left of the dash we removed the two bolts to the left of the glovebox. Access was easy via a piece of carpet up in the glove box. These were two 10mm lock nuts and came off with a simple stubby socket set. The one to the right of the glove box was also accessed this way and again proved no problem but was best removed with a 10mm ratchet spanner. To the right od the dash we removed the two bolts at the far end with a 10mm stubby long reach socket. So far so good. Now we just that the problem bolt to remove. All I can say is that if you take your time and find the best way through the mess of cables and ducting you will find it easier and wont end up with a hand like ET. We again used a 10mm ratchet spanner on this one which was annoying as again it was a lock nut. In all this took us about 45mins. Thinking the end was in sight we had a brew. How wrong we were. The real problem we had was now removing the heater controls. At first look you would think the knobs would come off the front, they don't. They are held on by bolts at the back so leave them. The issue we had was that some form of bracket had been attached to the left and right of the heater controls to help keep it in place and these were stuck inside the fibre glass opening of the car. We couldn't see them until we had forced it out and bent them a little. Upon bending them that then meant we couldn't undo the nuts holding them as the bracket had bent back covering the sides of the nut. In the end we got a pair of long reach pliers in there and bent them all the way back so they would just slide out of the fibre glass opening. We then refashioned them in a better way to put back! The speedo dials were not connected to the dash in my car but should have been, I think this may have been because they have replaced the speedo twice and got bored putting the bolts back on. Finally the dash was out and we were now up to about 2 1/2 hours.
Dash removed.
To make cleaning of the dash easier we used a piece of 15mm MDF and cut holes for the bolts to go through and then put wing nuts on the other side to hold it on the MDF. This helps as the dash is quite flexible and bending it is an issue. I removed the old veneer with a blunt chisel which came off quite easily. This left most of the old adhesive which I used some Nitromores (other removal products are available) to get off (worked really well came off in about 1 minute).
This then left me with a plain piece of metal. I was originally going to cover it again, probably the cheap route with fablon or similar. However my brother inlaw suggested we polish it and then lacquer it leaving it as metal. So we did.
Putting it back in you would think would be easy and it was easier than taking it out but it still took about 2 hours. Again the heater controls were the problem, the rest took about 30 mins. Here is the finished article with a new TVR badge stuck on. I am going to print out something for the heater controls when I get a chance.
If you want any details just ask,
Pete
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