OK... as some of you have seen my car... it has a full IFR dash... 25 2" gauges in that puppy. I have a fiberglass guy thats done some work in the past and he feels confident he can properly fill in the old holes, and make the new 3 large holes for the correct looking gauges. Now, my question to you all is this.... Where can I find a template to have him put the 3 large holes once he's done filling in the swiss cheese? Thanks a lot folks... Keith
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If you are talking about the size of the holes just buy the gauges first, easy. If you are looking for placement maybe someone with the gauges you are looking at could take some measurements of just pencil in the outlines and compare with photos to get the right placement.
Yes... Somebody is making me a template... I know it's not a correct car.. Just want to get it close
I guess I should have clarified... My dash is a speedster dash and the tach sits higher than the other two gauges. Do you have a cabriolet style dash with the gauges that are straight across?
"Close" is about all most of us are, in the gauge placement. Usually, those cars coming from the same builder will have their gauges in about the same place from car to car (because they probably use a placement template if they're good), but they may vary in placement from builder to builder AND certainly they'll vary between home builders.
Unless you are comparing cars parked very close to each other, no one can usually tell if the gauges aren't exactly the same unless one is really off somehow.
i went to the trouble of measuring gauge placement on an original 356 Speedster and put mine in the same places. Now I wish I had moved the cluster down 3/8" to 1/2" just to give the tach more room at the top, but what'cha-gonna-do?
I think it would make a lot of sense to Xerox copy your gauge faces, cut them out and tape them to the dash and move them around until you like what you see and put the real things there. Make sure the steering wheel is in place because the wheel often gets in the way of line-of-sight, depending on which wheel you use (the originals were quite large).
Gordon... I guess you are right... it's the machinist coming out on me.... I am definatley going to run the speedo on the right, simply because it is where I am used to looking! Ha.. although it is correct, it is where I want it.. Thanks Gordon and Rusty
I think Gordon has the right idea with making a template then laying it across your dash to see how it all lines up. That's how I would do it. I am very conservative in my approach when it comes to drilling any holes in the car!
Yeah I am WAYyyyyyyy overthinking this... Ordered my gauges yesterday... and wiring harness. I am going to tackle the hardness myself. I see that I don't have access to the library for the CMC harness anymore... shucks...
I just upgraded to the premium membership which IMO is well worth it considering the large brain trust regarding replica cars on here.
I was a supporting member... I think I will reup.
