I modified the dash on my L Bug a number of years ago, and a number of people have asked me about it since, so I thought I should put it all together in a thread so you could see the sequence.
My old dash had the usual cracks etc. in it, and had screw holes from guages being mounted on it. I bought a 100mm VDO tacho and planned to mount it low on the dash, and cut down a section of padding off another dash to go over it, but was struggling to find anything large enough.
About that time, our club was sent a flyer from Dashboard Restorations in Brisbane, so when I was up in Brisbane a year or 2 later, I called in to see what they could do for me. He could make a pad over my tacho, or do whatever I wanted. He could re-pad & cover a custom dash if I wanted him to.
That opened up my options greatly.
Luckily, at that time I had an old L Bug shell in the back yard that I was getting parts off, so I used to to check site angles through the steering wheel etc. as I customised an old dash I had aquired. I cut out the speedo area, and made it so I could fit the guages in a separate plate to make them easier to work on.
I finally ended up with the dash metal work ready for the guage pad.
So when the guage pad went in, it looked like this.
I then took it to Brisbane when we were there on holidays, and dropped it in to Dashboard Restorations. The bloke that ran it then was a kiwi that was also a bit of a VW fan. We discussed how he would re-pad and re-cover it, then when it was done, he shipped it back down to me, looking like this.
This is what my old one looked like when I took it out. The cover hid a lot of sins.
I then fitted my guages into my guage pad.
While I had my dash out, I had the usual rust in the fresh air box repaired.
And thought maybe the wiring behind the dash could do with a little bit of a tidy up.
and
So that it looked like this.
I then re-fitted the air ducting.
and
Then fitted the re-covered dash.
And fitted the guage pad, glove box, radio, etc.
Then re-fitted my console and CB radios.
And carpets etc.
and
and ended up with a reasonable array of guages that I could see around the sports wheel.
Since then I have done a few other small mods, but I will post up the photos as I find them.
beetleboyjeff Custom Title Time!
1,790 posts · joined Feb 2009 ·
From your ole' mate Jeff
