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.

Very impressive! Nice work and nice write-up. Thanks for sharing it.

WOW Jeff

that was an excellent job and neat way to place the gauges..

I'll have to look more closely next time.... lol

first time I've seen behind a 1303 dash too...

and all those wires... YIKES..

Lucky We don't have all those under Our NON 1303 dashes.. lol

cheers

LEE

People bitch and moan about Lbug dashes but there is so much you can do with them.

I started building up a custom one a while ago, its just been on the back burner while i fiddle with other projects but end result will be fairly similar to Jeffs.
I mainly just want better A/C outlet vent and gauge placement.

I have a good mate who is a fibreglasser so if i finally get around to finishing it off i was thinking of getting a mould made if there would be enough interest to sell a few

trying to incorporate the door glass defroster vents is proving difficult to make look decent.

I'm still playing around with different designs, but it will be fairly Porsche looking



This one isnt mine but is pretty much the same thing I'm building

I have a lot of extra wires to the way it came from the factory - I have the extra guages, power windows, remote central locking, alarm, extra radio speakers etc, hands free phone, and in those photos, 2 CB radios. There are possibly a few other things as well - just can't think of them off the top of my head.

Joel,
I'd definitely be interested as well.

Custom made dash's look awesome, as much as I dislike the original one, the stuff I have seen people to with them is crazy!

looks great jeff well done

never been a real fan of the "L" bug dash but ur's looks grand jeff, well done like that a lot...

steff..........

OK, I have found the other photos I was thinking of - I have fitted blue LEDs to the guages.

4 of the small ones and the tacho took them straight in (wedge style), but the head temp, oil temp, and speedo took original style bayonet globes, so I went to the wreckers and got some wedge style globe holders, and modified these guages to take them.

I only replaced the 2 standard globes in the speedo, but found when the needle was horozontal (in line with the globes), it got a bit hard to see, so I modified the back of the speed to take 2 more of these globes, so it now has 4 of them - much better.

Here is a night photo - unortunately, I left the flash on. Bugger.


So here is one with the flash turned off. This is on the Newell highway, just North of Parkes.


I have found the blue backlighting is much easier on the eyes when driving for long periods at night - and I reckon it looks heaps cool.