New Gauge & Steering Wheel

Dash back in today, hopefully I'll get the other gauge for my birthday in a few weeks to fill the other hole!

New Gauges

My favourite purchase during the restoration of my Herald was the burr walnut dash, it's a beautiful thing therefore drilling 2 large holes in it might sound a little odd. 

At the time I bought it I nearly ordered a MK2 Vitesse one instead as I'd always fancied having 2 extra gauges to the right of the main dials, but as I didn't have the gauges to fit I decided not to.

After some thought and with Christmas & my birthday approaching I decided to get the gauges and drill the holes to accept them. My fear was I'd chip the veneer during drilling and have to get the whole thing repaired, so the following may be useful to anyone thinking about doing the same.

First of all get yourself a good quality 52mm hole saw and arbour, I bought both items off fleabay for just over £10 including postage. You'll also need an off-cut of wood or mdf and 2 or 3 mole grips or g-clamps.

Clamp the off-cut on the front side of the dash, make sure it's clamped in such a way it's tight and completely flush with the dash, this will prevent the veneer/lacquer chipping as the hole saw breaks through the front of the dash.

The back of my dash already had the holes marked, so it was just a matter of finding the centre and carefully drilling until you feel the saw pass through the dash and into the off-cut. As you can see below if provides a nice neat hole for your shiny Smith's gauge to drop in to.

The smaller hole on the right is for a push button to operate the electric washer pump which was fitted while the dash was out.

New Steering Wheel

I have long admired the look of the wooden Mota-Lita steering wheels, but they're not cheap and being hard and thin rimmed aren't any more comfortable than the standard Herald wheel.

Christmas came and so did a Mountney Vinyl steering wheel & boss.....I like Christmas!

These wheels & boss kits are less than half the price of a Mota-lita or similar, admittedly they don't look as good but I'm absolutely thrilled with it. To have a slightly smaller wheel, thicker grip that is slightly padded has transformed the feel of the car.

All I need to do now is connect the new horn push to the original contact brush.

Lights, Fans & Relays (Part 3)

Further to my previous posts from Dec 10 & Jan 11, I finally managed to fit the spotlights I got for Christmas last year. I had all the electrics done by early January, but as I didn't want to drill any of the bodywork I had to make up some brackets that clamped on the grill (good job I had a metal grill and not a later plastic).

They were made from a 3mm steel strip, cut & bent to the appropriate angle with a bolt welded on the back, with another plate inside the grill so they could be clamped in place. Easily removed if I ever wanted to return to the single headlamps.

Here is the finished article....