forum2.trikingsportscars.co.uk

I should have mentioned this way back.
In the early stages of building a T2 or T3, do NOT glue the glovebox in position.

Fix the dashboard in position then butt the glovebox up to it in the correct lateral position.
Drill a couple of M5 holes through it's front flange and the chassis cross rail to temporarily bolt in position.

This will then give the option of sliding it forward a bit and dropping down to give access to the nearside (on rhd model) windscreen wiper and washer jet fitments.
Even if you have electrics bolted to the box there will be enough flexibility for movement.

Future maintenance will be so much easier.

I make my dash from solid hardwood. Black walnut in this case. Doesn’t look black, depends where it is cut from the log. Finished thickness is 14mm.
Shape cut from the standard blank supplied by Al, plus another 10mm at the bottom.
To get it to locate on the chassis cross rail, I routed a 7mm deep by 21mm wide grove across, 10mm from the bottom edge.
This gave positive position for all other cutting.
Glove box aperture was positioned from Al’s template. Cut with a jigsaw using a fine blade (T101ao on the Bosch list). Initial penetration slot 2mm wide drilled at one of the hinge positions.
1.5” Brass butt hinges carefully cut into bottom edge. A bit of hand work needed to chamfer the top edge of the lid to clear the panel aperture without loosing the fine gap detail. This then gave me position for the glove box shell. With the inner face of the dash being 7mm further forward, I needed to adjust the rear flange of the shell by slicing off with a disc cutter and Lamination back on at correct angle..
Then the fixing holes on the glove box front flange could be drilled though the chassis cross rail.
The toggle switches have limited thread for fixing so an ally panel was rebated in from the back. Big advantage when wiring.
The instrument holes were cut with a router. 6mm cutter with sleeve guide, plunged through in increments. The guide template was cut from 6mm MDF using the jigsaw and finishing by hand. Test hole cut in scrap before cutting the dash! This then gave repeatable accuracy.
The glove box lid catch is a simple 6x3 magnet glued into a flat bottom hole, striking onto a mild steel plate screwed to the rear edge of the panel.
Masking tape pulls the lid open at the moment, a pull knob in the hole top left will push the lid open when I am certain no further adjustment is needed to the wiper mechanism.