Dash Fittment

Ron Earp · 05-17-03, 07:49 PM

Who has fitted their leather dash into the RF GT40 car? I'm trying to get my to fit, but it seems to be quite difficult. The padding keeps the doors from closing and I don't think I can get the dash seated far enough forward under the spider to get it all together.
Any ideas? Did you releif the back part of the dash to make it fit better to the frame? remove padding?

Thanks,
Ron

John Schneider · 05-17-03, 09:09 PM

Sorry Ron,
I can't help you with that. I haven't installed mine yet. What I can tell you is that Hershal even not covered was a tight fit. We actaully had the spider loose to kind of help slide it in. I am not looking forward to mine after seeing how we had to man handle his. I hope you or someone has any easy solution. Best of luck.
John

Bill Bayard · 05-18-03, 04:21 AM

Ron,

How about a liberal dose of K-Y jelly on the

tight spots?

Bill

ChrisL · 05-18-03, 06:49 AM

Ron,

You definately need to cut away slots to allow for the wiper spindle and washer hose. If you do not, then it will sit about an inch or two too far back. The cutaways are quite apparent in the manual. Once the slots were cut, I found it necessary to manouvure the leading edge of the dash in 3 dimensions before it actualy found its spot. It then slipped in ok.

Also, I needed to trim a little (5 mm) off the leading edge on the driver's side (right side here in Australia) but I'd always assumed that I'd just fitted the spider a fraction too far back. Having said that though, the manual seems to show a dash that was trimmed in the same location.

If you need some pictures let me know and I can email them.

Ron Earp · 05-18-03, 07:33 AM

Hey Chris,

Is yours leather? Drop me some photos, it would help (mine is right hand drive too, the WAY ITS SUPPOSED TO BE ;-)).

I was aware of the cutouts but for the life of me I cannot see how the doors will close with the leather padding. I have the dash all the way up to the vertical metal piece and the right side door still needs a few centimeters.

Best,
Ron

ChrisL · 05-19-03, 10:06 AM

Ron,

My dash is vacuum-formed vinyl with about 5mm padding in the pillar area.

I’ve emailed some pictures that will give you a visual of the location of all the relevant body parts relative to the frame. Just as an indication though, the distance from the leading edge of the door to the flat steel mounting point for the dash pillar is 50mm driver’s side and 55mm passenger’s side. I found that the 50mm clearance allows fitment of the dash with a little to spare.

Just as a footnote… In order to line up the spider roof height with the door insets, I needed to push the spider apron back some distance (20mm???) which would have, in turn, located the doors back by that much relative to the frame.

My apologies to everyone else for not posting the pictures on the forum (the two hosts that I normally use are not accepting pics any more). If anyone can suggest a good free host, I’ll post them the next time I’m online.

[ May 19, 2003: Message edited by: Chris L ]