Another small milestone reached

[Roger King]

Installed the final instruments today. Rather pleased with the look - dash covered with skived black leather, BM4 ammeter, Zodiac clock, everything as correct as I can get it...

[clive]

I know we pull your leg about how anal you are Roger, but I must admit that looks good!

[French BRA 289]

well done

[Marsh]

Fantastic Roger - I can't wait to see the finished car, though I might not be so happy to park next to it!

Lee

[Roger King]

Thanks for the kind comments - leg-pulling helps my creaky joints - the time this thing is taking, should keep Phil in articles for the next few years, I reckon!

[nikbj68]

Erm... grey 3-core blue/brown/earth with spade terminals.... Hmmmm???

Oh dear.

[Roger King]

Erm... grey 3-core blue/brown/earth with spade terminals.... Hmmmm???

Oh dear.

Aha. Well spotted. My cars get used on long-distance classic tours like the Euroclassic - the Hawk went to Madrid, Venice, Rome, etc. and as a condition of being allowed the funds to build things like this, my dear wife insists that each car has an electronic rally trip to allow for some proper navigation. So CSX has fittings to allow use of a Brantz International, all of which is completely removeable to go back to original. That grey 3-core simply connects the speedo cable sensor to the Brantz unit, which sits in the glovebox lid. Just means I've had to make two glovebox lids...



...so another cow bites the dust (2 hides to trim this car, not including seats! One split (skived), a second full thickness).

[peterc]

Roger
I am still interested in a a source of authentic looking switches ( as I'm sure are most of our members )
Are you willing to divulge the supplier?
Last time I believe you sourced them from a number of classic cars and then engraved the knobs yourself
Any help would be appreciated as my dash still has a bit of a mixture
Peter C

[Roger King]

Hi Peter,

Switches and knobs are all now commercially available, but you do have to look quite hard for them. Correct wiper switches will only work with the correct harness and the correct DR3 square-case motor - they will NOT work with the more common DR3A square-case - so may be of limited interest. The park and operating system for these is completely different from the round-case motor. These can be sourced from a few specialist Jaguar outlets as they are the same as Jag XK120-140. Be warned, they are NOT cheap! There are some wiper recon specialists on ebay who occasionally have the correct motor at a couple of hundred quid or so, but you would need a complete rewire of your wiper system.
I got around this on the Hawk by modifying and using the rotary wiper switch for a Triumph GT6, which can be made to work with the round-case motor.
Light switches can be found occasionally on ebay, or possibly Jag suppliers again. The rheostats are available from Holden etc. but again are typically £60-80 each. The knobs can be bought from Aston outlets, but again silly prices. It depends how far you want to go!

The only knobs you cannot get anywhere are the correct fresh air knobs with 'PUSH' and 'AIR' as originals. Variations can be bought but they are not correct, as judged by Rinsey Mills' book.

Roger

[peterc]

Roger
Thanks for info
Obviously I haven't been trying hard enough or looking in the correct places. Looks like a good job for the cold days when the garage is not inviting.
So you must have spent significant time trolling the web to find these bits and no visits to the dentists needed this time?

Sounds more expensive than I expected but I guess that if I buy only 1 at a time I can sneak it past the management
Peter