1970 s2 0453R Reassembly

[Certified Lotus]

Put the doors on almost last. Doors are a two man job in order to adjust properly. Seats are last.

[dakazman]

   Yes I agree with that however I just want to assemble them now to clear off my parts shelves. It also helps to help me stop and understand and reevaluate the assemblies. Such as the newly finished dash.
No radio and shiny.🤪

[dakazman]

  It’s been arts and crafts week with a little wrench turning. Reconditioning the dash pad and knee pad.
The steel angle was mutilated near the side mount for some unknown reason by the PO’s sometime in its life. A new aluminum  L Channel was fabricated for both dash assemblies, old and new with only the vinyl to wrap. The dash pad hard cracking vinyl coating removed carefully and installed he foam reglued to hold together  and fill voids. Coating now with some 1/8”foam , sanding and smoothing the surface for the final vinyl coating.
 Installed foam on frame completed . Used my super sharp kitchen knives to cut and found out later while experimenting that shaving are easily done with a high speed 80 grit sander.
  Installed my gas pedal laying upside down with a dremmel to locate and drill out the repaired holes.
Installed the stainless steel pins after cleaning the bobbins, and making a adapter for my dent puller for future removal in the existing threaded hole in bottom of shaft , which also helps with the insertion process by spinning the shaft upward instead of pounding in.
 Polished out my JPS helmet for the last time. 😁
Dakazman

[BDA]

Were you saying that your "bump strip" along the bottom of the dash has only 1/8" thick foam? Mine is about 3/4" square. Of course I have a TCS rather than an S2 so that might have been a change made for the TCs, but I thought I'd mention it.

Keep up the great work, D'man!

[dakazman]

  BDA, I’ll try! Lol
  The 1/8” foam is going over the dash pad. A local expert said to fill the foam with body putty and just cover it with vinyl. Just dashes , a California company posted some recovering tips that I adopted. If I mess up , I’ll just buy one.
   The knee pads are about  1/2”x 3/4 “ square. I also have a leather tooling kit coming to do the sewing.
  Dave

[BDA]

Got ya! That should work pretty well. I had my crash pad covered in vinyl and, of course, it can only follow the contours so well. Adding some foam would probably help.

[Gary t]

Do you have photos of the  ends of the crash pad.  I am up to the refitting and covering stage and am struggling with how that should look.

[BDA]

I had a local interior shop do mine. They admitted beforehand that they wouldn't be able to follow every curve (especially on the console cover) but I told them to do the best they can. I think it turned out pretty good.

[dakazman]

Looks good BDA. I can only hope mine comes out half that good .

Gary , if you need more pics or measurements let me know.

 I’m making the demister out of wood and broke out my CNC tools to make some bullnose for my kick pad ends in the center section.
Dakazman

[dakazman]

  Completed two sets of kick pads for the original dash and a set for new dash . The contact cement works best holding the vinyl to the aluminum as well as itself. The lock tite  spray worked well but took 24 hours to dry. It did allow me to reposition the vinyl fabric after 8hours and was fully secure afterward.
  I also shaved off about a pound going to aluminum L channel instead of the original steel channel.
Dakazman
 

[Rosco5000]

 Nice work on those dash pads. They look great! 

[BDA]

Nice work, D'man! Good work with the weight savings!

[Certified Lotus]

Nice progress and custom work!

[dakazman]

  Thanks guys , they are more work than they look like To reproduce. Looking forward to mounting them up. Gaining confidence and my courage up to cover the door cards and center console. I haven’t sewn anything since my, wood, dope and fabric class building a wing cross section 40 years ago. 😂
 I have a rug sample coming and a few yards of some black microfiber fabric but I haven’t decided where I will use it.
Dakazman
   

[dakazman]

   Both my black microfiber and a sample of black rug came in , I dirt tested, hair and sawdust and vacuumed . Cleaned up nicely, so I ordered 3 yards x 80 inches wide should be plenty.
 The micro fiber on the roof and on the armrest.
 
  It seemed like forever to install the dash pads on both dashes. . Drilling out the holes was time consuming even with the pilot holes. Placing all the attaching brackets and harness clap locations.  I decided to go with the two piece pad on the new dash and will modify it later because the center console will be lowered, cutting out the entire ashtray area.
Dakazman