Series 3 Interest: Fibreglass dash boards

Good evening all,

I've spent a little time trying to find a good dash to replace the bag of rust that came with my series 3.

As I'm sure most of you know, there arent many about! I eventually got one that I will be preparing and galvaanising before refit. But then I got thinking about the possibility of having a batch of fibreglass dash boards made up, assuming there was interest.

I'd look to provide my repaired dash for a mould to be made, then have each section replicated in fibreglass. They could be passed on either as they are, bare with no dial holes cut, etc. Or finished ready to accept dials, vents, and recovered in foam backed vinyl.

Cost, unfortunately I have no idea at this stage, but I cant imagine it will be much more than some people are asking for rusty original dash boards.

Would there be much interest, has this been attempted before? Any ideas, criticism or feedback welcome!

Sounds interesting.

Col

It will cost a lot to make the buck to cast the mold and then thats the only one you can make...not worth it in my opinion as cost to high...

Sounds bonkers and not standard. All things are restorable in today’s world why bugger up a classic vehicle with a non standard modification.

Which piece of the dash are you referring too ?
There is a lot of components to a Series 3 dash, the top panel is also a crash pad.

It’s hard enough swapping the originals with bulkheads and the like being something of a little unique. I’m sure it would be a mare getting the fixing holes to line up with all the slight variations in a hand built car.
I like the idea of customisation but don’t like off the shelf bolt on bits. Having said that just how many of those vile centre consoles have been sold over the years. If you could make it look like checkerplate for the genitaly challenged You could be on to a winner.

John S said:

Sounds bonkers and not standard. All things are restorable in today’s world why bugger up a classic vehicle with a non standard modification.

Click to expand...

A lot of the originals have rusted away to nothing. When I restored my Series 3, most of the bottom half of the sheet steel layer behind the vinyl fell out as rust flakes.

I have also thought before that there is a possible market for newly made replacements. These would benefit from being made from something corrosion resistant.