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Well, one item that most cobra replica’s do not have
“Dash board Chassis Struts”, what?
Look at diagram above, the arrow points to the chassis brace. How did we
make this well the following, three easy steps below and you can have the same
for £3.97.
Obtain a piece of wood (400mm*300mm) and follow the plan below, next to
the plan is a picture of my plan.
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· Full
Height; The height from the bottom to top of dash is 330mm;
· Bottom
Width; the width of the metal plate is 220mm and 30mm across
· Top
Width; the width at the top used to obtain angel
· Pipe
Width; Use 20mm width pipe and measure from the middle line drawn from bottom
to top
· Pipe
Length; The length of the pipe is 115mm.
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The following is a trick to get the angle on the pipe correct,
use tape to mark the angle then cut a straight line, the following figure shows
the tape marking the angle before cutting.
Now this may cost very little if you can weld, or about £5 pound if you
can not. I do welding, so I just did it. Make sure that the pipe is against the
metal cross member and the pipe is hanging half way over the cross member as in
the picture in section 1.
Tip : So the
two pieces do not moving during welding. Use some nails to hold the three metal
pieces in place, I have always done this and it will not move.
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The last few bits drill two holes in the metal plate
and paint the item using black paint. The picture below is when fitted in car,
some cuts will be required in the carpet.
Like many enthusiasts, winter is the time
of year when I catch up on all the jobs on the car I have been putting
off. One of my projects last winter was rebuilding my 289 dashboard to
give it a more authentic look and feel.
Many of the parts, such as instruments, are
readily identifiable and available, others less so. One that fell into
the latter category was the headlight dipswitch. I had a few photos of
dashboards from original RHD Mark 2’s but it was not clear what the switch
itself actually looked like nor how it functioned. Luckily, Gerry (as so
often is the case!) came to the rescue when one of his many contacts remembered
that the switch was taken from a Rover that was in production in the early
60’s.
A few hours research with the reference books
and the internet revealed that, indeed, the switch was taken from the P6 Rover
(I thought it looked vaguely familiar, I used to drive one!) though, in that
application, it was mounted on the steering column rather than the dash.
Armed with this information it was then a
simple matter to track down some specialist Rover parts dealers on the Internet
and source a switch. I actually bought two so I could experiment – one
from Wins International in Lingfield and one from JosephP6 spares in
The part in question is Lucas 39614 and it
comes in two variants, the difference being the type of electrical connector
block used. As I have already mentioned, in the Rover it was mounted on
the steering column so the next question was how best to mount it in the
Hawk. On the original Mk 2 Cobras, the switch stalk protrudes through an
aperture in the dash, approximately half an inch in diameter, in line with the
circumference of the steering wheel.
I thought about, and tried, a couple of
alternatives ways of mounting the switch - incidentally the end of the stalk is
splined and the knob is simply an interference fit and so can easily be removed
using a suitable drift and a small hammer. In the end I settled on
a simple 2” L-shaped bracket firmly bolted to the “lip” that extends backwards
under the dashboard.
I also used the barrel from an indicator lamp
to provide a neat aperture through the dash. One word of caution, you do
need to be a little careful in positioning the switch to ensure that it doesn’t
interfere with normal operation of the steering wheel. So, hey presto, no more
fumbling around trying to find the dip switch on dark cold nights. Now,
what’s the next job on the list….?
I recently fitted a ”period” luggage rack
to my Geraldo. Gerry saw it and approved and suggested that I provide some
details for the Newsletter.
Photo enclosed – in essence it is a stainless
steel ”Mille Miglia / suits MG Midgets” rack from Europa Specialist spares, 38
x 70 x 10cm, part # R9005 and cost £66 delivered.
It was dismantled for chroming to match the
other bright work and reassembled. The original finish was good so it did not
need polishing, but the chroming still cost another £52.
It is mounted on the boot lid using four of
the hollow aluminium ferrules Gerry supplies to fit the side screens to the
doors. The threaded legs of the rack project through the ferrules and are
secured inside with domed nuts, so the thing can be removed and the holes
blanked off if required. Crummy sketch enclosed. It looks fine with brown hide
straps to complete the vintage effect – but rubber bungees are probably safer
and cheaper.
Having squandered
so much on this fitment I cannot now carry anything on it except the finest
monogrammed pigskin valises and cases of bubbly: consequently it remains
unused.
Iain Henderson
(Another ed’s note: I was once told by an MOT inspector (the guys
who inspect the testers) that bootracks should be fitted the other way round
from shown here. Apparently, and it makes sense if you think about it, if
things are tied on properly they’ll never fall off the back. But in an
accident, that nice suitcase will break its straps and take your head off from
behind. Just a thought… ed.)