Floyd Brothers 70 Challenger

[Stu]

I’d definitely make a thin ally cover for the speaker and wrinkle Bananarama! for no glare. I tend to use Tiger seal to glue on stuff like that which is what I did to block off these vents.

Yes, I think that’s really given me food for thought. Need to mock up and see if I’m happy with the placement, but I like the idea. I see you still mounted the tach on the dash though? Could do with a flat bracket, the one I have is clearly intended for steering column use.

Not sure why wrinkle finish got Bananarama’d May have to order some and play around with it. Looks like I might just be taping the existing wires up for this weekend and using it without a tach while I play around with more ideas.

[Faux-7-0]

Mini gauges just arrived, which was a nice surprise. Can get busy getting them out of their bracket and mocking up for the one to fit them into the radio aperture now.

I'll be watching this element closely - Faux doesn't have a radio and I like the idea of putting mini gauges there instead. Hope it all works well!

[Stu]

Me too, I did toy with the idea of using the ones I had, but they would have been really tight and I don’t want it all to look squeezed in there. Plus I wanted black faced gauges instead of the white ones.

They are discontinued unless you want Bosch written on them, so had to find a NOS set on flea bay, but other than faded packaging they look ok. I’m hoping they will plug and play with the existing wiring etc as they are the same make, just smaller. Maybe that’s wishful thinking.

[Blue]

You’ll need to mod the tach mount to suit a flat surface whichever way you do it.

[Stu]

I’m on the lookout for a flat base mount, I know they did them, but silly price from America for a bit of metal once you’ve paid the shipping etc.

[mygasser]

i've seen the tach fixed to bit of bent over itself flat sheet with the bottom slid under the dash pad, if you get my drift. so the sheet slips tight over and under the pad with the tach fixed to it.
neil.

[Stu]

Yes, I follow you. That’s an interesting idea.

Planning to have a go at making a plate to cover the speaker hole today, so will throw that in the mix.

I’ve found plenty of brackets in the U.S. that would fit, but sod all in Blighty and not paying that much to get a bit of metal in.

[Faux-7-0]

If your speaker cover is past it, you could just fill the gaps with body-filler. This should give you sufficient rigidity to mount the tacho directly and may be easier than making a filler plate.

[Stu]

I don’t really want to mess with the speaker grille, I could drill it for the tach cable as is, there’s enough width in the outer edges, but I quite like the idea of the plate to save the grille if I want to put it back.

[Stu]

Quite a good day today, figuring out how not to do things and working out some issues.

Didn’t realise I’d have to take half the dash apart to get the last panel out, but when I got it out, I had to spend a while getting what looked like 50 years of Bananarama! cleaned off everything. Got it cleaned up and am glad I’ve invested some energy in getting to grips with wiring solutions, as its all held together with a million bullet connectors and tape behind the dash…

Decided to start on the radio plate cover and gave up on the ali sheet quite quickly as it was just misshaping too easily, so turned to steel sheet instead. Spent a while mocking up and trying to get a plate to sit flush with the panel it was going into, with the intention of making another plate to go behind that, but quickly realised that wasn’t going to work, so abandoned plan and got to making a plate that would go behind the whole lot and bolt in via the existing holes.

[Stu]

Now that I’ve got the basic shape, I was busy mocking for the gauge holes and realised two things.

1. I don’t have a 41mm hole saw or step drill, everything but…
2. I’d become obsessed with feeding the plate up from underneath, trapping it between the dash frame and outer panel, knowing that the gauges would be fed in from the front, suddenly realised that I will still have to tighten them from behind, so no idea how I’m going to achieve that, other that growing some extra arm joints and lying upside down in the footwell, so that is a new challenge to figure out.

In the meantime, ordered a click and collect 40mm hole saw for the morning and taking the grinding bits in the hopes I can manage something tomorrow.

[Stu]

Drawn to a halt without the right size ‘oles, I moved to the speaker cover plate and got busy with a jigsaw, as it’s all I’ve got.

Reasonably happy with the outline shape, just need to figure out the curve and how to get it sat at the right height.

I’m hoping that some spacers on the corners to the same height as each corner of the original will draw the curve naturally, but we’ll see.

I’ve ordered some VHT Wrinkle paint for all this on Blue’s advice, so hopefully will get that mid week.

[Stu]

Still pondering on the tach, as there isn’t quite enough clearance to mount it on the plate I’ve made, it transpires. Not unless I want it knocking on the windscreen. Wondering at this point if I can somehow feed the base of the bracket under the dash pad down the edge of the the speaker plate and bolt it from underneath.

More offering up and pondering tomorrow…

[Blue]

If you get the speaker plate flush, is it possible to use a piece of thicker ally plate say 3'' wide, picking up on 2 of the screw holes and extending forward to where the crack in the dash is to mount the tach away from the screen?

[Stu]

Possibly. Not sure which way to go at the moment, going up shortly to do some more pondering and measuring.

Wondering at the moment if I can mount the existing bracket from underneath the dash at the front of the speaker hole. Going to try it and see.

Also just considering buying a universal cup / mount for the tack and having done with it, though it wasn't what I'd wanted in the first instance. I've noticed a small dent in the top of the tach housing now, though, so might just do that and have done. Can't find one the right size in the UK though.

Currently mooching through the garage trying to find something to make spacers out of to get the plate fitting flush.