2 door softdash + interior + 200tdi

I have a 1976 2 door that is nearing completion of a rebuild. It already had converted in it 1988 4 door dash, electric leather seats, heated screen, 3.9v8 auto, fibreglass panels, brooklands bodykit, electric windows, late style electic opening fuel filler, arb's, and all sorts of other bits. It was rotted right out so have done all that, and someone had done the wiring not very well and hence there is a horrible mass of spaghetti wiring loom everywhere.

It will be ok for the road for a while but next summer i want to rip it all out and put a softdash in with the full loom to go with it, stick heated leather seats in etc, all on just a standard loom to make it nice and tidy and simple. I will then also do the bodywork (will be a rather high quality finish metalic nightfire red). Ill need to put a 4 door gear tunnel in as the on in there at the mo is just a mixture of the 2door bottom and a 4 door top riveted and bonded to it (not great) which means the centre console at the mo isnt a great fit.

Carpet wise i know how different all the bits from the front seats back are due to the different floors so ill get some made at some point when i have the money.

Will the softdash fit the shell? Is there any other issues such as if the plugs for all the lights and things changed, or will my current lights plug in. Dont mind doing a bit of chopping about with wiring as I know a thing or 2 about it, but less is best obviously.

many thanks

Max

hi, I will send you an invite to our two door owner group on here

a couple of the guys are messing or are going ot be messing about with dashboards soon so may know

Hi, Have a look at the build photos of my nearly finished 2 door soft dash, the bulkhead is different from a hard dash model mainly around the transmission tunnel and windscreen so you will need to make some mods here depending on the ancillaries required. I have fitted the soft dash air con and a full soft dash loom, but the dash will fit ok + if you intend to use the soft dash loom you'll need to modify the footwells for the relays etc. see photos. The soft dash loom tends to use different connectors from the hard dash .. I have a full soft dash wiring diagram if required.

You will need to graft the baulk head from a soft dash or a 300 series disco not a easy job as most soft dash will be roted out so wil need a 300 series which will not be mush better

Thank you for the replies. Sorry its a bit late, but having seen this I started doing some more research and concluded, yes it would be best to swap the whole bulkhead. Thought about doing this, then concluded its just too big a job to be worthwhile. You start getting into various other issues along the way, heater issues, pipes not matching, door hinges being different and therefore needing door pillars altering to take 2 door hinges, or changing the doors to take later date hinges. The scuttle panel probably wont fit too well either so that would need modding. Windscreen join at the bottom is different.

The list goes on.

My new plan is to replace the gear tunnel with a 4 door one and make my hard dash and 1988 carpet trims fit properly, and change the trucks wiring loom to a complete, standard one and do away with all the **** bodged wiring and dodgy alarm, and complete loom of spaghetti from a previous owner and start a-fresh.

Cheers again though. My advice to anyone thinking of fitting soft dash.. good luck, your in for a big one

I love the old dash anyway ,although I may be in the minority

cityslicker said:

Hi, Have a look at the build photos of my nearly finished 2 door soft dash, the bulkhead is different from a hard dash model mainly around the transmission tunnel and windscreen so you will need to make some mods here depending on the ancillaries required. I have fitted the soft dash air con and a full soft dash loom, but the dash will fit ok + if you intend to use the soft dash loom you'll need to modify the footwells for the relays etc. see photos. The soft dash loom tends to use different connectors from the hard dash .. I have a full soft dash wiring diagram if required.

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very nice!

It is nice I must admit