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September 2, 2023
Dash Support Install
Continuing with the electrical theme, the last item that needs wiring is
the dash support. It holds the radio and switches for the seat
heaters. The resto-modded dash support itself was already on the shelf:
Before the dash support could be installed, tunnel carpet had to go
in. And before that, there were a few other prerequisites.
The original design of the gearbox tunnel included a rubber bellows-type
boot for the shift lever. This lived under the vinyl gear shift
gaiter that was sewn into the carpet. I assume its purpose was to
keep hot, smelly air from getting into the cabin under the carpet.
But since I'd redesigned the tunnel,
especially in the area of the shift lever, the original boot wouldn't
work. This was a real shame, since mine was in near perfect
shape. I wanted to duplicate the function though, so set out to
see what could be done. I started by making a metal collar that
goes around the tunnel shifter hole.
Using the mounting hole locations on the tunnel, and some positions
around the perimeter of the shift lever retainer, I was able to lay out a
transition piece.
This is a neoprene rubber coated nylon fabric. It's very strong,
resilient, and resistant to weather and organic vapors. I
transferred the pattern to it, adding a little to each dimension so the
final gaiter would "blouse" out a bit to accommodate some relative
motion between the gearbox and the tunnel.
I joined the ends and put a hem around the top of the boot. My
sewing machine was choosing to have an attitude, so the stitching isn't
pretty, but considering its location, I didn't stop to fix it. The
bottom of the fabric was then glued to the collar.
Installed some clip-on speed nuts around the opening, and installed the
boot. A hose clamp fixes the top to the shifter retainer.
The last thing to do before carpet was the speedometer cable. I
had neglected to do this before the tunnel went in, but in an unusual
case of foresight, I'd included a port in the side of the tunnel to
facilitate changing out the cable.
I ordered the cable, and attached the gearbox end. I wish I'd made that hole a little bigger.
Routed the cable up over the bell housing, out into the engine
compartment, and through the appropriate hole in the firewall.
Hmmm, something wrong here.
The cable was clearly way longer than it needed to be. I'm of
course not the first to notice this. There is quite a bit of
discussion about this recorded on various GT6 forums. Consensus is
that a 48-inch cable fits much better than the 72-inch one that I
had. And the consensus seems to be right. The shorter cable
is just about perfect. Most suppliers still claim that the six
foot cable is correct, but some carry the four foot one of you look hard
enough. The shorter cable is apparently specified for a Mini.
Buttoned up the tunnel port.
Now, about that carpet. I'm planning to make my own carpets for
this car. While this may turn out to be a bad idea, I actually
don't have much choice in the case of this tunnel. Its shape is
enough different from original that a commercial piece wouldn't likely
fit. To get the shape, I made a two piece paper pattern,
essentially by trial and error.
Transferred the shapes to carpet, and sewed the two pieces
together. The fit around the tunnel itself was pretty good.
Some of he shapes around the base will need some work, but this carpet
seems to mold fairly well with some heat. I'll do those finicky
fits later.
Next was final prep of the dash support itself. This was mainly just making some wiring harnesses.
I had bought a seat heater kit that included the heating pads that go into the seats,
special switches to accomplish the Hi/Off/Lo heat function, and wiring
harnesses. I had installed the pads, but decided not to use the
supplied harnesses. For one thing, they were too long, and
included an inline fuse that I didn't need since I'd included seat
heater fuses in my Power Module.
I did harvest the switch connectors though, since they were a type I
wasn't familiar with and wasn't sure where to get them.
There is a cable that goes to each seat for the heaters, a cable that
goes to the radio speakers somewhere toward the back of the car, and a
power cable for the seat heaters and the radio that goes to the Power
Module.
The mocked up cables were then removed from the dash support and installed in the car.
And finally, the dash support was fitted. That's so easy to say,
but it was actually a bit of a struggle since it's such a tight
fit. The shifter plinth had to come off to make it easier.
The plinth was replaced...
...and then the radio.
Everything plugged in and taped down, and this job is in the books.
This marks the end of the long and tedious wiring install, but most of it remains untested.
Comments to Ed at elhollin1@yahoo.com
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