Day 23
Going forward I'm going to update the thread on Saturdays when I get home from working on the car.
Back to the dash. With my table saw back in action I was able to finish cutting and shaping the MFD filler pieces for above the aluminum trim. The shape of the glove box piece is really complex and the ability to shape the material accurately was a major reason for choosing MDF and it did not disappoint.
Anyhow, with all of the pieces complete it was time for a dry fitting. I drilled several holes through each aluminum piece and countersunk them to receive a machine screw. I had to drill into the dash metal as well and happily, my alignment was spot on. The aluminum dash pieces will be bolted to the car and the fiberglass filler panels will be spot adhered to the aluminum. This way they can be pried off if ever needed… The filler pieces above the trim will be adhered to the car just like the factory ones which weren’t ever meant to be removable.
I chose to wrap the top filler pieces in black vinyl and after acquiring nearly 20 samples I settled on the least offensive one. None of them, including the so-called Porsche patterns were a perfect match and the biggest issues were the color and sheen. Luckily this is a dark area that will be overshadowed by the other parts. Ha, see what I did there… (work with me guys, I was up at 4:30am again)
I mentioned earlier that I eschewed the HVAC bezel because I thought it too busy and well, predictable. While I respect others’ feelings about basket weave, it’s not for me. With respect to the lexicon of design in the 911, it’s an outlier. It’s a pattern that doesn’t exist elsewhere and doesn’t reference anything else. To that end, I don’t find it special enough to break a rule of design. On the early cars with a wood dash, it referenced the wood steering wheel and felt really special; real organic wood in a car. I considered a veneer- I have rosewood, ebony, walnut, and a bunch of others but they didn’t feel right, maybe for a 356 or 901 but not this car.
So, sitting in the car I looked elsewhere for cues and I found them above and below me.
The headliner and the seats in my car are both perforated, one vinyl and white, the other leather and camel colored. Though the pattern, color and materials are different they point to each other and in that, there’s a harmony of design.
After requesting and receiving samples of perforated vinyl from 9 different vendors all claiming to have the correct pattern (only one did, World Upholstery) I was able to get some old headliner from another pelican (thanks 911Group!) and began finishing the glass inserts.
So now that I’ve written a thousand words, here are few thousand more….
I'm digging the perforated black vinyl accents and given that I have yards of it... well...
Dry fitting before vinyl and everything looks good
Dry fitting after vinyl and everything still looks good!
From a distance, or an acute angle it looks like plain black vinyl, but up close or an obtuse angle the perforation reveals itself.
With the HVAC face covered and the bezel, radio, ashtray and upper knobs deleted, the dash is minimal and clean.
The switches and dials are a nod to the great HiFi systems of the 60s and 70s
The simple appearance of the HVAC controls betrays its mind bending complexity...ha! the knobs still need a polish but that can wait until my hands are clean.
Yes, I have plans for the ignition cover... now, where's that lathe...?
Up close, the color peeking through the hols reveals itself as gold... in the right light they shimmer a bit. A nod to the brass work that will appear around the car.
And there it is. Still just a dry fit so alignment isn’t perfect but it will be. A big change from the mid-year dash I previously had which was a mishmash of mayhem, and a subtle difference from the predicable backdate dash. I think it fits in with the car well, is understated, clean and most importantly, makes sense. Oh, and nobody in the world has it
