The Ruby is coming together! Hasn't been on the road since 1967.
While waiting for several parts to arrive i've been cleaning up the instruments and stripping rough brushed paint from the dashboard, so a couple of questions.
Was the instrument panel held to the dashboard using roundhead setscrews with nuts behind?
And was the dashboard held into the car with nuts and bolts or something that showed less?
Mk2s are more my area but I'll attempt to answer and maybe once it's at the top of the list again someone more knowledgeable can add to it.
Yes the instrument panel is held in with round head screws. (see pic of a Mk2). Nuts on the back? yes, although on some I have seen a steel frame on the back into which are tapped holes.
I believe Mk1 dashboards are part of the bodyshell, (sprayed either body colour or black?) Some deluxe saloons had a cover panel which was printed with a wood finish the same as Mk2s. This cover panel is held on to the fixed dash panel with 2 roundhead screws at each end.
I'm no expert but aren't the screws "raised" head rather than round head? Its difficult to find round head countersunk set screws or wood screws whereas Raised head countersunk are freely available.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 532 Threads: 46
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5 Location: Oakley, Hants, UK
Car type: 1929 AD Tourer, 1930 Rosengart LR2, Rosengart LR4 Van 1938 APE Tourer (Opal)
as always I stand to be corrected.
The instrument panel I believe was fitted with roundhead set screws , not countersunk at all, with nuts on the back. The separate full dash panel on the Mkll clipped over the body moulding at the top and was secured under the bottom edge again with Roundhead setscrews.
Just looking at Rinsey Mills Original Austin page 60, the two screws shown on the right side, I believe are incorrect.
I am always interested in any information about Rosengart details or current owners.
Mk I dash panel is separate - the pressing underneath is a doved, I guess that the paint effect wood graining was done elsewhere in the factory and then fitted on the production line, it would be hard to do this in-situ, so it made sense to have a clip-on panel.
I used vinyl wrap to replicate the wood-grain, looks quite good.
I used slotted round-head screws and I used rivet nuts to secure the panels, I think that is what mine had, whether this was original or not I don't know
02-05-2019, 10:14 PM (This post was last modified: 02-05-2019, 10:30 PM by andrew34ruby.
Edit Reason: photo
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Thanks for the contributions. I'm happy using slotted cheesehead screws for the instrument panel, but not sure about how the dashpanel was held into the car.
Mine is an early mk 1, has a separate dash panel, and has the rather ugly screws as on page 60 of the Rinsey Mills book. i think I will fasten it back with screws in that position again. There seem to be some cars without screws here, as in Peter Naulls photo above.
Mine does not clip over the body moulding at the top, so it does need some screws.
Also it appears to have been a plain darkish brown, with no sign of woodgrain at all. In the sixties the dash was painted white, then an off-white, with household paint and a rough brush!
Photo is page 60 of the book, it has screws like mine, but I can see other differences!
