Tim's Factory Five Mk4 Build Thread

[Jethrow]

Originally Posted by Modena

that's great Tim, looking good, please keep the pics coming!

Thx Ben and Happy New Year

[Jethrow]

By now I was nearing the end of the mechanical installation work and was starting to think about electrical. Which lead me to look at the dash and consider different dash layouts. And if I am completely honest I did not really like either of the standard cobra street dash or competition dash layouts. This because I think the way the gauges are either masked by the steering wheel or how the switches are randomly located did not really cut it.

I hoped to do better.

But of course, before I could do this, I had to install the drivers seat.



I decided to use the lowback Kirkey seats as these are light and thin, again to help maximise cockpit space. I know I need to have headrests and I will add these at a later date, possibly mounted off the body behind the seats.



The seat is on tracks so I have some degree of seat adjustment.



I did need to add some underfloor reinforcement. Feels very stiff so should be good. The seat belt attachments are separate and part of the welded chassis.

[Jethrow]

So with the seat squared away, back to the dash. Now I could sit in the seat and move the gauge and switches around till I was happy. Main goals here were to have minimal gauge/steering wheel overlap, switches located logically and such that you did not have to cover one switch with your hand whilst you activated another, and also located items like horns and indicators close to hand.

An early layout version is below



Then I decided to ditch the radio and the clock because I felt they cluttered the dash too much. Plus, do I really need another clock?

Anyway, more fiddling, plotting out fullsize ACAD drawings etc, I settled on this.



That's an indicator switch on the very right. Not self-cancelling, so I will add a buzzer (as required).

A close up on the switches below, red switch is to crank the starter motor.



And installed with the steering wheel.



Overall, pretty happy. I think it meets my goals and is not so different from original to look in-keeping with the Cobra's heritage.

[Jethrow]

OK, so mostly caught up now - it's time for some serious wiring. I admit this is my least favourite bit, so I tend to stumble along a fair bit here. I do have the engine harness mostly installed and am now trying to hook up the body harness and wire up all the gauges. Yikes - it sounds easy if you say it quick!

[07cob]

Tim

Very nice work. I really like your dash layout idea. I tired something similar in Photoshop but this is simpler and considerably better.



Geof

[Jethrow]

Originally Posted by 07cob

Tim

Very nice work. I really like your dash layout idea. I tired something similar in Photoshop but this is simpler and considerably better.

Geof

Thx for the comments Geoff. It was a low tech method, but did work well. The fanciest bit was sitting the gauges in the photocopier to make the copies. Closing the lid was tricky tho!