I am looking for a metal dash.
Monte - welcome to the site. You might need to give more information about what you're after. Most members of this board are USA based, but we also have several Aussie's and Brit's. Not sure about European or Australian market cars, but in the US, 72-76 B's had a padded dash. And you might need to indicate whether you're after left hand or right hand drive dash.
Yeah, I believe the UK market got the steel dash until the end. Or, possibly every market, but the US market.
As you can tell, I am a newbie....And I dont know much about MG's. ( as you have already deduced )
I want to convert my padded dash 78 (left hand drive), to a metal dash.
I probably should be asking a different question.. What dash should I be looking at?
A little about this project....
My best friend in high school had this particular 78 MGB. Long story short, I met a young lady while in this car back in 1988. In 1996 I married this beautiful lady. The car was long gone by then. I was fortunate enough to track the car down in 2000. The car had been sitting in a barn for the past several years. I bought the car and got it running. For the next several years my wife and I would use the car for special events, dates, first Dr. appointment when we found out we were expecting our first child and such. Jump ahead to 2016, I decided to build it. After tracking down Rob Ficalora in Texas and seeing and riding in his car, I was hooked on putting a 302 in the MG. What an awesome guy Rob is! What an incredible car! Currently the car is sitting on stands stripped down to the tub. Fast Cars front end is installed and a ford 302 w AOD behind it. Current plan is for a 4 linked, 9in ford rearend.
I hope to have the car on the rotisserie within the next 3-4 weeks to work on body mods and additional undercarriage support. My wife and I are nearing retirement and we want this to be our 'fun' car that will be dependable. Lots of great memories in this car......we want to make LOTS more!
Monte -
You'll need a dash from a '67 or earlier B, and the process is pretty involved. I have one in my '69 GT, thanks to the efforts of my friend, the late Tony Barnhill from whose estate I bought the uncompleted project. Here's the writeup he did back in the day: http://www.mg-forum.com/installing1964dash.htm
And here are a couple of pictures of the finished product after I completed the build:
GTDash.jpg
PICT0518.jpg
Thank you for the info and the pics.
Your dash looks great.
Thanks - wish MG had kept that design here as they did for the European market...
Welcome Monte!
I'm doing the same conversion to a '79 B.
Finding a suitable steel dash is problem 1, but they do turn up. Sometimes they have a whole parts car attached.
Once you find one, you can order all the necessary sheetmetal conversion bits from Kilmartin in Australia. Direct bolt-in for the late B sheetmetal. The price isn't too bad, I think it was $250 or so for the cowl and support brackets, with shipping to USA. Their pieces are a perfect fit, which can save you hours of fab time. Some guys install everything with just rivets. I think there's some threads on mgexp that will show the details.
Good luck!
Dave
Hi Monte - sorry, I didn't connect the name earlier but remember you well. Check with Andy Jennings @ mg@andyjennings.co.uk. He used to sell a very good quality fiberglass replica of the steel dash. He also had a fiberglass piece that modified the cowl as required (the metal dashes are straighter than the padded ones so there will be a gap between the dash and cowl that has to be filled). Also, search MGB on the Houston Craigslist. There's a guy in Katy who parts out MG's. I'm confident he'd have at least a few metal dashes. His ads always show "HOUSTON/KATY" in all caps as the location. His name is Tim. Just use the contact info from any of his ads to connect with him.
Glad to hear your project is happening.
By the way, also check out BritishV8.org. There's a gallery section with write ups on a lot of cars (including mine) showing how they were done.
Just looked & he's still in business. Web site is: http://www.mg-cars.org.uk/andyjennings/. The good thing about his dash is it takes care of both the cowl & the steering column so you don't have to change or modify any steering column fit to the dash.
" What an awesome guy Rob is!"
I know a whole lot of people that will agree with that statement, including myself.
There are a lot of awesome guys on here, including you Carl Floyd.
I appreciate all the help and advice....
I have printed off several of the build write up to use as references. Rob's is currently sitting on the fender of my mgb. I refer to them often. I have been in contact w Kilmartin in AUS. If I can find a dash ( I prefer meta ) I will order his install kit. If I cant find a metal dash, I might try building my own. There is indeed a bunch of beautiful builds on this site, wish I could have made it to Dayton this year, but family comes first.
Rob
I will hit craigslist, I frequent the Houston area a few times a year, for Tim.
Thanks to all!!!
mgb.jpg
Fixed your subject line for ya, Monte, since it is clear that you are not looking for a 72-76 dash. Best o' luck.
"There are a lot of awesome guys on here, including you Carl Floyd."
Thanks, Dan! So are 99.9% of all the people at our annual British V8 Meets. What a group!
I have a couple early dashboards. I ended up purchasing a Andy Jennings conversion for my BGT V8. I have not installed it yet but went that way because the gauge size is correct for my 74.5. I do not get to this site very often. My regular email is mgragman@aol.
Bob
Thanks to everyone!!!
I have fender and bumpers coming from the craigslist KATY/HOUSTON guy, Thanks Rob.
I have a dash on its way from Bob White. Thanks Bob!
I have headers on the way (a side conversation from this thread).
Monte