ERA 294 winter upgrades

[sracer5]

Been working hard upgrading #294 this winter. I’ve added Avon tires ( had a set of BFG Euro TAs 20 + years old !) , Smiths mechanical gauges , 16 split rim steering wheel and a new plate to keep the club cobra badge company !

[RockBit]

Nice upgrades!

[Alfa02]

Yours wear our badge proudly nice plate too! Cheers.

[vntgspd]

Very nice. I did the Avons and the steering wheel last year and love them both! I have the gauges on my list but that might take a while to get to...

I love the mods you touch, feel, or see every time you drive! Enjoy.

[Karl Bebout]

Our madness just never ends, does it?

Please post a picture of the bracket you used for the club badge. I've procrastinated making one since SOMEBODY has been promising some nifty billet bracketts for months.
Beginning to think its TOMMYROT.

BTW, nice additions.

[1985 CCX]

Very nice!

[66AC]

A few questions:

What size Avon's in the front?

Also,

How hard was it to replace your assumed SW gauges (in those days Smiths were pretty much unavailable) with Smiths. I assume the oil pressure, water temp, oil temp and speedo lines needed to be replaced? Did the holes in the dash need to be enlarged?

If you could elaborate on the process of the gauge change, I would be very thankful.

Looks good.

Art

[strictlypersonl]

Originally Posted by 66AC

A few questions:

What size Avon's in the front?

He used 245/60, but these are my official recommendations:
Tire selection

How hard was it to replace your assumed SW gauges (in those days Smiths were pretty much unavailable) with Smiths. I assume the oil pressure, water temp, oil temp and speedo lines needed to be replaced? Did the holes in the dash need to be enlarged?

The small gauge sizes are the same (2-1/16"). The Smith tach and speedo are larger (3.875" vs 3.375") so the hole must be enlarged. Not easy.

[Whodeeny]

Originally Posted by 66AC

A few questions:

What size Avon's in the front?

Also,

How hard was it to replace your assumed SW gauges (in those days Smiths were pretty much unavailable) with Smiths. I assume the oil pressure, water temp, oil temp and speedo lines needed to be replaced? Did the holes in the dash need to be enlarged?

If you could elaborate on the process of the gauge change, I would be very thankful.

Looks good.

Art

It might be easier to just buy a completed dash from ERA with Smiths gauges already installed. How does one make the larger holes in the dash that are required for the tach and speed?
BD

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Whodeeny

How does one make the larger holes in the dash that are required for the tach and speed?
BD

Ooooh, that is not easy. If it were me, I'd just order a new dash from ERA with the correct holes cut and the vinyl glued on. Making your existing holes bigger would require pulling the dash (which means removing all the gauges, switches, etc., and then, from the back side, scraping the cut portion of the vinyl back off from around each hole, cutting a new perfect circle-hole, without going through the vinyl on the front, for each gauge, and then re-gluing the vinyl back down on the back. Forget it, that's a ridiculously difficult job.

Now, what you might want to try to one hole before you order the new dash is to remove your existing gauge and then use your Dremel to make numerous radial cuts around the perimeter of the hole and then "press fit" your new gauge in that hole and see if, with a lot of circumference cuts, you get the edge to "bend back" and the bezel around the gauge look flush on the dashboard. I don't know if that would work, but if I was going to order a new dash anyway I'd give it a shot.

[sracer5]

You guys are wrong ! Upgrade was easy. I used a 100mm paper form I measured and made to relocate and enlarge the holes for the speedometer and tachometer. I then used the paper hole that was aprox. 105mm that came with the gauge to mark the hole position then used a dremel tool with a drum sanding disc to follow the marks.Quick , but dirty. I wouldn’t try it with a leather covered dash , no problem with vinal . I didn’t pull the dash or steering wheel. I spent no more than 3 hours total start to finish. Only downside is that it was messy. The smaller gauges are slightly smaller in diameter , but work fine. I’ll post pictures ! BIG THANKS TO ROCKBIT FOR HIS MEASUREMENTS FROM HIS ERA WITH SMITHS GAUGES. I WAS ABLE TO GET TO LESS THAN A .25 INCH FOR THE TACH AND EXACTLY THE SAME ON THE SPEEDO.

[sracer5]

I installed 245/60/15 fronts and 295/50/15 rears. So far no rubbing.Center wheel to fender lip is 26 front and rear. No rubbing noticed so far after 200 miles

[sracer5]

I used a bycycle seat post reflector and modified it to fit. It’s stiff nylon . I put a thin rubber band around it to protect the chrome on my bumper. Deflects easily if bumped but doesn’t move during driving.

Originally Posted by Karl Bebout

Our madness just never ends, does it?

Please post a picture of the bracket you used for the club badge. I've procrastinated making one since SOMEBODY has been promising some nifty billet bracketts for months.
Beginning to think its TOMMYROT.

BTW, nice additions.

[patrickt]

Very nice. Mechanical gauges are a nuisance to pull, electricals not so much. Nice work.

[66gtk]

Originally Posted by sracer5

You guys are wrong ! Upgrade was easy. I used a 100mm paper form I measured and made to relocate and enlarge the holes for the speedometer and tachometer. I then used the paper hole that was aprox. 105mm that came with the gauge to mark the hole position then used a dremel tool with a drum sanding disc to follow the marks.Quick , but dirty. I wouldn’t try it with a leather covered dash , no problem with vinal . I didn’t pull the dash or steering wheel. I spent no more than 3 hours total start to finish. Only downside is that it was messy. The smaller gauges are slightly smaller in diameter , but work fine. I’ll post pictures ! BIG THANKS TO ROCKBIT FOR HIS MEASUREMENTS FROM HIS ERA WITH SMITHS GAUGES. I WAS ABLE TO GET TO LESS THAN A .25 INCH FOR THE TACH AND EXACTLY THE SAME ON THE SPEEDO.

I'll bet it was fun to get all the dust created in the channel on the backside of the dash (: Great rewarding project, though. Much better. Thanks for sharing.

[Whodeeny]

Originally Posted by sracer5

You guys are wrong ! Upgrade was easy. I used a 100mm paper form I measured and made to relocate and enlarge the holes for the speedometer and tachometer. I then used the paper hole that was aprox. 105mm that came with the gauge to mark the hole position then used a dremel tool with a drum sanding disc to follow the marks.Quick , but dirty. I wouldn’t try it with a leather covered dash , no problem with vinal . I didn’t pull the dash or steering wheel. I spent no more than 3 hours total start to finish. Only downside is that it was messy. The smaller gauges are slightly smaller in diameter , but work fine. I’ll post pictures ! BIG THANKS TO ROCKBIT FOR HIS MEASUREMENTS FROM HIS ERA WITH SMITHS GAUGES. I WAS ABLE TO GET TO LESS THAN A .25 INCH FOR THE TACH AND EXACTLY THE SAME ON THE SPEEDO.

I am impressed that you are able to do this modification without pulling the dash out. I recently completed wiring and the installation of the dash on 821. I thought I should write up the steps to remove it if, for some reason, in the future that becomes necessary. After writing this up it is me hope that I never ever have to remove the dash again. This is the first draft, constructive comments are welcome.

1. Disconnect the battery from the cars electrical system.
2. If the car is equipped with an under hood battery the battery should be removed to facilitate disconnecting the passenger side vent control cable.
a. Jack the front of the car up and remove the right side wheel.
b. Disconnect the fresh air vent tube from the battery enclosure panel and slide it forward.
c. Remove battery wheel well enclosure panel by remove the mounting screws.
d. Remove the battery
3. Disconnect the passenger side fresh air vent control cable.
4. Disconnect the driver side fresh air vent control cable.
5. Push the ventilation valve control cables through their firewall penetration holes
6. Remove the lube oil temp sensor from the oil pan by first draining the oil from the engine then removing the sensor from the front of the oil pan.
7. Loosen the oil temp sensing line from its anchor points in the engine compartment so that slack in the line will allow feeding the sensing line through the fire wall penetration.
8. Do the same with the engine coolant temperature sensor.
9. Disconnect the dash wiring harness from the rest of the cars wiring harness by unplugging plugs #27/#54 and #28/#53.
10. Remove the steering column by –
a. Removing the steering wheel
b. Remove the steering wheel hub
c. Disconnecting the turn signal switch wires
d. Remove the turn signal switch
e. Unplug the harness connecting the tail light relay/fuse panel (attached to the upper steering column support).
f. Remove the tail light relay/fuse panel
g. Remove the steering column half coupling near the floor of the car
h. Slide the steering column out through the hole in the dash
11. Remove the radio from the glove box –
a. Remove the Velcro straps anchoring the radio to the glove box
b. Disconnect the radio wiring harness from the radio
c. Disconnect the antennae lead from the radio
12. Remove the MSD control box by -
a. Disconnecting the MSD control box wiring harness plug
b. Remove the screws holding the MSD to the glove box
13. Remove the MSD capacitor from the bottom of the glove box by following the same steps used to remove the MSD box
14. Remove the 2 screws holding the glove box to the firewall. They are visible at the back of the box.
15. Remove the hoses connected to the manual operated windshield washer pump. These are directly behind the dash mounted pump under the dash.
16. Cut all wire ties holding the wiring harness up under the dash to allow slack to extract the dash part way.
17. Loosen/remove the dash anchor bolts/screws to allow the bottom edge of the dash to be tilted out. There are bolts located at the right and left side end of the dash and 3 screws spread across the top edge of the dash.
18. With the bottom edge of the dash tilted out the glove compartment can be removed from behind the dash.
19. The dash can now be removed provided there is enough slack in the remaining wires and temperature sensing leads.
20. Holding the dash in your lap remove the sensing line from behind the oil pressure gauge.
21. The heater fan has a separate wire connecting it to the dash mounted switch. It has short lead and will need to be removed now also if not already done so.
22. If the oil and water temperature sensors have been pushed through their respective firewall penetrations they dash can be completely removed from the vehicle.

BD

[Kit Coyle]

I installed a 6th guage in the blank spot where the clock would normally
go in my dropped dash street 289 car. I first marked the circle I wanted to cut.
I then carefully cut the vinyl material with an exact-o knife and peeled it off. I
then cut a ~ 3" disc out of sheet metal and slipped it under the wiring behind
the spot on the dash where I was going to cut so I wouldn't damage any of the
wiring...and there will be wiring! Then lay a damp towel over the transmission
tunnel and under the dash to catch debris. Now I took a Dremel with a high
speed cutter and plunge cut most of the hole leaving the final ~ 1/4" to be
fine tuned with the sanding cylinder. It took maybe an hour of careful work.
I was also told not to do it because of the risk of ruining the whole dash...but
it came out perfectly! Measure ten times and cut once!

[Karl Bebout]

" Measure ten times and cut once!"

But, I cut it three times, and its still too short!