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Oh Gord, those images really bring a load of emotions back.....It's because of them that my dash is taking so long..........I've roped in Roger who is helping with the faces, besides that the rest of the units are working 100%.

My advice for this topic is to look at making your own gauges. The Chinese stuff is poo, the OEM stuff is stupid expensive and most of the time, needs work. Have someone 3d print the housings and put internals from a reputable gauge maker inside.

I have less than $200 in mine and that's TVR 95mm housing and bezels, Auto gauge internals and some custom work to get them looking good. Oh yeah and OEM Porsche 95mm rubbers for the housings as this really makes them pop.

it was like pulling teeth to get Mike to finish my wheel, but the outcome was fantastic. 390m of Artisan woodworking. VDM GT recreation.

Screenshot_20220104-065753

He is man of refinement and taste.

He wears driving gloves in a completely non-ironic way. They somehow look good. He eats biscotti for breakfast and drinks espresso lattes from tiny little porcelain cups (pinky out). He lunches on salad festooned with dried cranberries and crumbled pecans. He can tell the difference between a Boudreaux and a Burgundy before he ever sniffs, swirls, or swishes. His wife has a purse dog, and he lives in a quiet Chicago suburb and Venice, FL. He jets between offices as the weather dictates.

When he works, it's in a clean and tastefully decorated office in either city, always in starched shirts and appropriate slacks with a crease. Hit footwear is Italian, his watches mechanical, his hair styled and coifed by a gay man named Raul or his assistant (a 23 y/o single mom named Kandi).

His daily driver is an Alfa Romeo. His hobby car(s) have the best looking Lemmert wheels ever made.

He slums with the riffraff from this site as a sort of community service, to give back to the little people.

He is The Most Interesting Man on the SOC.

Stay thirsty, my friends.

Last edited by Stan Galat

I believe around 1957 the diameter of the speedster wheel went up a few mm. I ordered my repro from the guy in Thailand and I ordered the larger one. Obviously, due to the added mechanical advantage the car is so much easier to steer as compared to the smallish Nardi that came on it originally but it also makes it getting in and out of the car more difficult I also understand that on originals the steering wheel was not centered.

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@JoelP posted:

I'm thinking of creating a 1957 Porsche 356A Carrera GT Speedster replica, but I cannot find out what these three knobs on the dash do.  Does anyone know?

I guess it would be nice to know but does it really matter?  

Some have Fog lights, Driving lights, 4 way flashers, auxiliary lights in car etc.

Some had a button but it was a lighter, you know to light up cigarettes

I never understood putting switches where you had to reach through the steering wheel to access them. I’m not sure I would take authenticity that far.  

This is where I usually research such things, but last time I posted it, someone pointed out that the speedster/convertible layouts were often different.

https://derwhites356literature...ittleKnownFacts.html

Who knows what differences a Carrera would have. Closest I saw was one with the light switch on the right (3) and a throttle lock on the left. (1)

Last edited by dlearl476

.

The DerWhite's pages that Dave references above are a treasure trove of useful information about 356's.

If you scroll about two-thirds of the way down, you come to a series of photos of dashboards of the various models with all the controls identified - like this one:

356DashLayout2



A lot of 356's had a manual throttle control, used mainly to help with cold starts, as those carbs (just like our Webers and Dellortos) didn't have mechanical chokes. This did basically the same thing as holding your foot on the gas pedal - it opened the butterflies - but you could lock it on until the engine warmed up enough to idle reliably in cold weather.

I'm guessing since the Fuhrman motor was a high-revving racing design, it was probably harder to start in the cold than the standard motors.

There's no dash diagram for the GS/GT on the DerWhite pages, but it's pretty likely one of those three knobs was a hand throttle - and it's probably not too practical an idea to try and duplicate that function just for the sake of being 'authentic'.

Maybe use the knob to turn on the digital sound generator that pipes four-cam whine through your sound system.

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Last edited by Sacto Mitch

Agree with @DannyP: Two of the small pull switches were for left and right coil. As in an aircraft, you could start a Carrera engine with both pulled (on) and then turn off one and listen for a slight RPM drop. Third switch was fuel pump.

If you place them correctly, and use the right switches, it will look perfect no matter what the switches really do. And not one guy in 10,000 will notice. But you'll know, and that's what matters.

On my Spyder I have the fuel pump on the left over the ignition key (as original) and to the right of that is the Accusump pre-oiler instead of the coil. The switch above is dedicated to the wipers.

@dlearl476 posted:

I never understood putting switches where you had to reach through the steering wheel to access them. I’m not sure I would take authenticity that far.  

I don't think anybody reached through, you can get to the three little switches from the backside, there is at least 4 inches between the wheel and the dash. Anyway, as Ed and I agree, on the Carrera they're for fuel pump and ignition. The pushrod motor cars didn't have them.

The 3 numbered switches of the OP aren't switches one would access while driving at all. Start and shutdown, hopefully the car would be stopped for both?

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