240ZED 3rd evolution
Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2021 4:12 pm
Car has been off the road for sometime since sponsor retirement so I haven't been all that driven to get it back in competition mode.
Volunteering in Tarmac rally events and watching others is providing enough drive to get 240ZED back into shape so here begins some occasional posts as I work my way through making the car lighter, faster, more predictable, more reliable and more comfortable for two occupants over the course of a days competition. The dash shape in a Z is part of its classic appeal so I decided to remove the AIM digital screen and original heavy dash. first up below is my fitment of Speedhut gauges to a dry carbon fibre dash shell. I didn't like the look of many aftermarket gauge installs because of the size of the heavy surrounds and the forward mounting of the gauges.
The two big gauges are fitted inside the original plastic gauge binnacles using friction fit nitrile gaskets, Binnacles are glued to the carbon with urethane. The small gauges, as always, are more of an issue and I cut alloy tapers to size and opened up the dash holes before gluing from behind with urethane. Tapers were etch primed and flat black painted. This probably wouldn't work on an original dash with the taper opening out but could be possibly done on an original dash by reversing the taper? The gauges are pushed onto the tapers from behind with a fabricated, stepped alloy bar held at each end by hooked anchors attached to dash via epoxy brackets. Sounds simple but its taken a few hours and I can understand why most folk flush mount the gauges! When I get time I will reshape the aluminium tapers to get closer to flush with the dash.
Note the new offset for the steering column.
Volunteering in Tarmac rally events and watching others is providing enough drive to get 240ZED back into shape so here begins some occasional posts as I work my way through making the car lighter, faster, more predictable, more reliable and more comfortable for two occupants over the course of a days competition. The dash shape in a Z is part of its classic appeal so I decided to remove the AIM digital screen and original heavy dash. first up below is my fitment of Speedhut gauges to a dry carbon fibre dash shell. I didn't like the look of many aftermarket gauge installs because of the size of the heavy surrounds and the forward mounting of the gauges.
The two big gauges are fitted inside the original plastic gauge binnacles using friction fit nitrile gaskets, Binnacles are glued to the carbon with urethane. The small gauges, as always, are more of an issue and I cut alloy tapers to size and opened up the dash holes before gluing from behind with urethane. Tapers were etch primed and flat black painted. This probably wouldn't work on an original dash with the taper opening out but could be possibly done on an original dash by reversing the taper? The gauges are pushed onto the tapers from behind with a fabricated, stepped alloy bar held at each end by hooked anchors attached to dash via epoxy brackets. Sounds simple but its taken a few hours and I can understand why most folk flush mount the gauges! When I get time I will reshape the aluminium tapers to get closer to flush with the dash.
Note the new offset for the steering column.