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Does anyone see anything odd about my dash insert?

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Displaced Hokie

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Sep 19, 2009
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You have an MG and a 160 mph speedometer. Those don't really go together.


:bounce: Joking...I see that you have an impressive undercarriage and powerplant in there. :bounce:
 
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Jim Stabe

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San Diego, Ca
You have an MG and a 160 mph speedometer. Those don't really go together.


:bounce: Joking...I see that you have an impressive undercarriage and powerplant in there. :bounce:
I hope to be able to go faster than 160 actually but that's not it either. I got the 160 speedo because it is easier to read in actual use (normal road speeds) then the 200 mph ones that Autometer makes. On the very rare occasions that I might try to exceed 160 mph I probably won't be looking at it anyway, I'll get the speed from a piece of paper at the end.
 

ScottS

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Oct 29, 2005
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kansas
Nearest I can tell Jim's car is left hand drive. I did go look at the website. So the panel looks assembled correctly for the application.

Only thing I can see out of place is, It is on the bench and not in the car. :dunno:

Scott
 

BlindViper

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Dec 1, 2009
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York, PA
looks like your work bench is idling at 1k rpm with zero oil pressure...might wanna get that looked at.
 
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Jim Stabe

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San Diego, Ca
Okay, nobody saw what I was asking about. When I was wiring up the gauges I noticed that the speedo is about 3/8" lower than than the tach. I looked at it in the car for a couple years and never noticed it. The turn indicators are the two led's just above and inboard of the two large gauges and they are level. You can see that there is a larger gap between the speedo and the led than between the tach and the light.

If anyone had gone "OMG the speedo is REALLY out of position" I would have taken it apart and made a new insert. Since nobody seemed to notice so it probably won't be an issue. It is less evident with the steering wheel in between also.

ThanksDash 009.jpg
 

Steve from Socal

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Hutchinson Ks.
Jim,

The reason it is not too apparent is the edge distance at the bottom is pretty even; a thought on the turn indicators, find larger LEDs and offset the larger LEDs to mask the difference.

Steve
 

Steve from Socal

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Jim,

I saw it and thought it was a design element; on my old Healey the dash was curved, I can't visualize an MGB dash but a little crown in the glare shield is not uncommon. My only thought was the speedo and tach are reversed but, I am used to Mercedes cluster layouts. With the gauges having fairly even lower edge spacing the upper alignment is not a focal point, it really is unnoticeable.

Steve
 
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Jim Stabe

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San Diego, Ca
Jim,

I saw it and thought it was a design element; on my old Healey the dash was curved, I can't visualize an MGB dash but a little crown in the glare shield is not uncommon. My only thought was the speedo and tach are reversed but, I am used to Mercedes cluster layouts. With the gauges having fairly even lower edge spacing the upper alignment is not a focal point, it really is unnoticeable.

Steve

Thanks Steve

That last sentence is what I was looking for. It's like the bug that lands in your paint and never quite buffs out. You know it's there so that's the only thing you see but everyone else thinks it's a great paint job. Like I said above, with the steering wheel in place it becomes much less noticible also.

Thanks for your help
 

MP&C

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Oct 21, 2009
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Leonardtown, MD
Jim, I didn't notice it until you pointed it out. Now that I look again, it appears that the top of the left side tapers off toward the end of the dash...
 
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T1320T

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Indiana
I saw the uneven top spacing but it didn't jump out at me as a flaw... thought you meant it to look that way.
 

Frank The Plumber

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Chicago.
You could have gotten all four of those gauges in one unit and saved space and money or gotten two large gauges and a smaller tach in the same gauge family and color option and saved 300 dollars. Oh that was not it? shoulda been. It would have been better to place the tach on the right any how, keeps your head and eyes centered as you're gear banging.
 

johno

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I saw it right away, but I'm a very picky person that way.
I doubt most people will notice it, especially with the wheel there.
 

Brad54

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Okay, nobody saw what I was asking about. When I was wiring up the gauges I noticed that the speedo is about 3/8" lower than than the tach. I looked at it in the car for a couple years and never noticed it. The turn indicators are the two led's just above and inboard of the two large gauges and they are level. You can see that there is a larger gap between the speedo and the led than between the tach and the light.

If anyone had gone "OMG the speedo is REALLY out of position" I would have taken it apart and made a new insert. Since nobody seemed to notice so it probably won't be an issue. It is less evident with the steering wheel in between also.

ThanksDash 009.jpg

Sorry, not to be a *****, but I did notice that. I was going to reply, and then decided to scroll down and read the responses, getting as far as yours.

It's weird, because they look like they're level at the bottom, which means the tach is a larger diameter than the speedo.

-Brad
 

56nash

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Sandy, Utah
It's like the bug that lands in your paint and never quite buffs out. You know it's there so that's the only thing you see but everyone else thinks it's a great paint job.

Thanks for your help

My 56 Nash had a really nice set of 6 fly legs under the clear just above my drives door on the roof. The painter apparently just flicked it out of the base white and then cleared over the top. it really bugged the **** out of me but over time the legs have become sunfaded and you have to know where to look. I just really liked the bug in the paint comment. Awesome car by the way, that should be a real handfull.
 
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Jim Stabe

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Sorry, not to be a *****, but I did notice that. I was going to reply, and then decided to scroll down and read the responses, getting as far as yours.

It's weird, because they look like they're level at the bottom, which means the tach is a larger diameter than the speedo.

-Brad
Tach and speedo are the same diameter. The reason that the spacing at the bottom looks the way it does is that I built the part of the dash to the left of the steering column after I made the insert that holds the gauges so the spacing around the gauges is consistent - just higher than the side to the right of the column.

So, if I remake the insert to have the tach and speedo level, the spacing to the dash will be off. I can tell you that I'm hesitant to remake the insert but there's no way in hell I'm going to remake the dash. So as I replied to T1320T above - I meant to do it that way!
 

Az Scooter

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I just figured it was because the dash was curved up. No big deal, unless someone is hyper **** retentive, then they probably have bigger issues to deal with.
 

Skyline

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I would remake the plate. I know it's a lot of work, but if it bothered you enough to post it here, then it will always bug you down the road. The tops of the gauges should be level, parallel to the ground.

Great project btw.
 
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Jim Stabe

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San Diego, Ca
I would remake the plate. I know it's a lot of work, but if it bothered you enough to post it here, then it will always bug you down the road. The tops of the gauges should be level, parallel to the ground.

Great project btw.
Thanks.

I know what you mean about looking at it every time I get in the car. However, in thinking about it I realized that making a new plate with the speedo raised up would create an uneven gap at the bottom that might be even more noticible. To truly fix it I would have to make a new insert and then cut the left side of the dash out from the steering column over and remake that as well. I take consolation knowing that early Ferraris and other hand made cars had much worse asymmetry in much more noticible areas on the car and people still pay fortunes for them.
 

ptschram

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Sep 8, 2006
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Churubusco, IN
I've built a coupla instrument panels and afterwards, there's always something that was missed.

The first one was in a '71 Nova street/strip car. I put the lights for the turn signal indicators too high on the panel and when seated, you couldn't see them!

Fast forward 20 years and I'm making one for a Chevy truck that had a fire. Keeping the first mistake in mind, I wasn't gonna do THAT again. I did however wire the volt gauge backward somehow, or maybe it was the fuel gauge. Either wya, I didn't bother to fix that one either.

Yes, I have put a few together that were right-LOL
 

Brad54

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Jun 13, 2006
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Tach and speedo are the same diameter. The reason that the spacing at the bottom looks the way it does is that I built the part of the dash to the left of the steering column after I made the insert that holds the gauges so the spacing around the gauges is consistent - just higher than the side to the right of the column.

So, if I remake the insert to have the tach and speedo level, the spacing to the dash will be off. I can tell you that I'm hesitant to remake the insert but there's no way in hell I'm going to remake the dash. So as I replied to T1320T above - I meant to do it that way!

I'd have never noticed it in a car... and as a writer for car magazines, I look at details for a living.
I wouldn't worry a bit about it. Had you not told us to look for a flaw, I wouldn't have found it.

-Brad
 
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Jim Stabe

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Feb 18, 2009
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San Diego, Ca
I'd have never noticed it in a car... and as a writer for car magazines, I look at details for a living.
I wouldn't worry a bit about it. Had you not told us to look for a flaw, I wouldn't have found it.

-Brad
Thanks Brad. Hopefully by the time I get the car finished everyone will have forgotten this thread and it won't be noticed.
 

DrunkSmurf

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Mar 12, 2011
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NorCal
I noticed it, but as others have said, I wouldn't sweat it too much personally.

It's hard to tell how much play the trim ring gives you, but you might be able to egg out the top of one dash opening and the bottom of the other to get rid of some of the offset. If that makes sense.
 
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