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
New Dashboard installed