Hello again....
The next day i took off the clothespegs and was looking at a nice black vinyl blank
The only interesting thing was that the top edge had taken on these little impressions of each peg's pressure in the 1/8 " foam backing....
That eventually lessened with both warmth and time.
I went to cut the holes using a sharp and pointy exacto /hobby knife. I was not going to be cutting it into a million little ears to be pulled thru the hole and glued and the opposite side. Instead I cut my holes with the knife blade on a slant giving what essentially looked like a bevelled edge. From the front side of .
for the
oil and water temps the dash the holes would be 1/8 or so smaller than they were on the backside. That way when I snugged my gauges in, they would stretch and pull the outer vinyl edge in nicely and the chrome bezel would cover and clamp nicely when I sucked the gauge down
I also chopped out the 5/8" holes for the lucas toggles ( in the same bevel cut) The 3/4" igniton switch, the 5/8 "push button momentary start button, and my 4 13 mm indicator lamps.
Looks great, the only I don't like is that my cutout for the steering column looks dumb until we have the dash back on and the wheel in place.
The wiring comes next, then I hookup the mechanical side of this gage pack...yuck.
I hate mechanicals for that reason...1/8 " pressure tubing and filled thermal systems