[Mick O'Malley]

Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet, cut my dashboard to match the scuttle's profile, and temporarily fit it.

I first made a cardboard copy of the dash as the real thing's a little unwieldy, removed the scuttle and hung it over the workbench. I was then able to easily manoeuvre the cardboard until I was satisfied that it sat correctly. I then marked the top corner cuts and the mounting bolt holes and, after returning the scuttle moulding to the body, transferred the marks from the cardboard to the real dash.



I clamped the dash to the worktop and cut as much as possible with my jigsaw. The size of its shoe meant that I had to complete the longer of the cuts with my padsaw. I then filed the cut edges smooth and drilled the 5mm mounting holes.



I stuck the dash to the scuttle with loops of gaffer tape, carefully marked through the holes, drilled the fibreglass and loosely mounted the dash with M5 bolts.



Next job was to make a cardboard scuttle brace as a template before cutting the folded aluminium that will be the real thing. I stuck in in place with more gaffer tape.



I tidied everything away as I'd arranged to pick up an eBay item I'd won. It's a rear hub puller I need to replace the off side bearing on the A352 which was an advisory last test. The seller (and his wife, who immediately took some pictures) was very impressed with the beast. He opened his garage to reveal an Elan +2 in metallic blue with a silver roof. Beautiful! As ever, I hadn't taken my camera with me - sorry!

Regards, Mick