Dashboard progress

After coming back from a few days of vacation on the Dutch island Ameland, I finally got back to work on the Morgan. After fixing the passenger door problem, a slightly modify dashboard is the next priority. Three small but important changes had to be incorporated.

First, the edge just above the door had to be a few millimeter shorten. Second – and more importantly – the lower line of the dash had to be changed as mounting the wiper stalk (which is on the left in a Morgan) wasn’t possible. Last but not least I moved the steering column as far up as possible and slightly to the left. This has a few benefits. A) adding about 1,7cm more space from the lowest point of the steering wheel to the seat – making getting in out out much easier – and B) making the steering wheel perpendicular to the dashboard.

The basic shape on the top was a quick and easy job with a copy bit on the router table. After tracing the outline of the scuttle frame to the back of the new dash – it became clear that the position of the main 100m Smith gauges will be a challenge. After playing around with a few options – I decided to have the vertical centre line of the gauges exactly line up with stalk cover. This way there is still a 1cm of wood at the bottom. I knew that there will be 3mm of the frame that would interfere.

A few minutes with a file sorted this problem. Next up was putting the indicator and wiper stalk back of the steering column. The stock Lucas SQB119 indicator stalk is bend in the Morgan factory. Trying to replicate this already failed once. I was able to do a bit smooth bend on the wiper stalk. By adjusting the line of the dashboard towards the steering column – there is enough clearance now.

As I had to go back and forth between garage and my wood-working tools in my basement a couple of times – I lost a bit of time and haven’t finished the cutout for the glove box and instrument cluster – but hopefully that will be done by tomorrow evening.