After one year from the start of the project my new dashboard in elm with a recovered Moto-Lita steering wheel in elm and magnolia faced instruments is finally in place.

The dashboard is the fruit of my ideas crossed with a design that Borghi has for the GDI Plus 4. I had the 4 new small instruments made to my face design and the faces of the original speedo and tacho were also changed.

I also had Borghi make a new rim in matching elm for my Moto-Lita steering wheel. It is thicker than the original to give a better feel.

I wanted a different layout of the warning lights and also a switch for the front fog/driving lights. I found a Chinese supplier of LED warning lights who, provided I ordered 100, would make the warning lights to my design.

Smiths (Caerbont Automotive Instruments Ltd) were very willing but sometimes slow to complete the order. There were also a couple of small problems with colours of the LEDs and slip rings (the inner bezel which hides a direct view of the illumination) not all being the same. Also I had erroneously thought that there was a problem with the calibration but it turned out that there was a small resistance in the new wiring and perhaps a problem with the fuel gauge sender in the fuel tank that caused incorrect readings. Certainly the delays were not all their fault.

It has been a project completed with some difficulties encountered but in the end I am happy with the result.

Here are a few photos:

The original dash and steering wheel in walnut


I made this rough design to get an idea of what my concept could look like.


The final design from Caerbont Automotive Instruments Ltd (Smiths)


The new Smiths instruments with magnolia faces and the new faces for the original speedo and tacho.


New dashboard in elm with magnolia faced instruments at Borghi's ready to install.


New Dashboard installed




Driver's view.


Passenger's view.

Peter

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