Started by rough cutting the front out of 10 mm tufnol sheet.
Cut into a nice curve to match the top of the steering column housing.
Cut a channel to take the printed film with the symbols.
Ends rounded and holes drilled to allow indicators to show through.
Rounding the front edges to give it a contempory look and match the rest of the dash style.
Cutting complete.
Used a similar process to produce the back piece that will hold the led lights and pcb.
This is geneally how it will fit together.
Printed circuit boad (pcb) will hold the surface mounting leds and provide electrical connections. Masked the copper board with a combination of dry transfers, track tape and pen.
Etched the pcb and trial fit the leds, the leds are 'Tru-opto' 1W power leds available from Rapid code 55-1839.
Fitted and wired a 9 pin 'D' plug, this will fit in a hole in the dashboard and connect to a free socket behind the dash.
Soldered the leds on, these are surface mounting and need heat sink compound between the base and pcb.
Designed the film symbols, these must be SVA compliant in terms of appearance and colour, but am taking a bit of a liberty with colour variations. I intend these to be printed on my paintjet, but need to buy the correct art film to print on to ensure good density, I will also use two identical layers of film. (does the curvature of the top drawing look the same as the bottom ones? really odd.)
I will continue when I have the printer film.
