Dash Details

[Kendo]

Now that my car is off being painted, I am looking at the new dashboard I have, with a view to painting the back. But first I want to see if all of the relief details are right. It has relief cutouts for the eyeball vents and the one light switch. Are those the only three items that need that treatment?

[BDA]

I believe so but you might want to make a trial fit for the fan and hazard switches to make sure they won’t need relief too.

I would also suggest that the rheostat that dims the dash lights is useless. I can’t imagine setting it at anything but full bright since they are so dim in the first place. I replaced the instrument lights with LEDs (which I very much doubt are dimmable). I deleted the rheostat and put an oil temp gauge there. Truth be told, the oil temp gauge isn’t very useful so you might have another idea. Of course if originality is important to you, you’ll want to keep the rheostat anyway.

[Kendo]

I will eventually check the existing dash and controls. But they are currently at the paint shop, inaccessible, so I thought I’d ask for advice. Even after I finish the back, I can cut further reliefs. But if I somehow get it right the first time…

[Bryan Boyle]

The rear of my replacement dash has the following:

#1: routed out for the Hazard switch, which is a bigger body switch than the rest.
#2: Fan switch has a shim piece glued to back to pull the switch into the dash so the center between the rocker ends is level with the face.  You can always stack washers under the mounting ears to accomplish the same thing; no one except you will EVER know, because 1) it's at the top of the dash, and 2) the mess of wires underneath will never be inspected at a show.  And if some judge is crawling around under your dash...he (or she) better be a good friend...)
#3: Light switch is routed out so the fixing nut on the front has enough threads to attach it.

The ends are routed out to account for the thickness of the air vents.

HTH

[Kendo]

Thanks Bryan. It looks like #1 and #2 I need to address.

[Kendo]

By the way,

I got this dash from Madera concepts, https://maderaconcepts.com/ and had them add a glove box door. But they didn't include a latch for some reason. So after thinking about it a while and making a glove box door mock-up to try an idea, I settled on using 1/4" diameter neodymium magnets from McMaster-Carr: https://www.mcmaster.com/products/magnets/neodymium-magnets-7/od~1-4-1/?s=neodymium+magnets specifically 3/16" long in the door and 1/8" long in the top rail. You can see them in the closeup photo below. The biggest trick was figuring out how to drill clean holes in each location.

[BDA]

That looks like a very nice dash! IIRC, they made the dash for Jay Leno's "super" Elan. Very strange they didn't include a latch!!

[Kendo]

Last time I was on their site, they had a page showing Leno receiving his dash for his Elan. They seemed proud of that. 

[Pfreen]

When  I did my dash, I added the glovebox door as well.  I used Triumph TR4a wood dash parts for the latch/lock, hinges, pull and check strap. 

However, your solution looks great.

[Gary t]

I also added a door and used a push to release magnetic latch.