No Quarter.....1973 TA Build Almost there!

[1973ta]

Awesome work. That black with the multi-spoke rims looks drop dead goregous. What gauges are you using?

Thanks... I really wish I had the ability to do this kind of work myself, but it has been really cool getting to know the guys building the car and seeing them get excited by the same stuff as me on the car. It's so exciting to see this thing come to life. The finished product has only lived in my head until now... it's starting to resemble the picture that's been in my head and keeping me awake at night. We went with Classic Instruments for the gauges. They have a gauge set that has an aviator look. Iv'e seen them on a few other cars on here. The dash insert was difficult because I knew I wanted the machine - turned gold look but also wanted a "custom" dash (non-factory holes, switches, etc...). It was difficult to find someone who would do both the dash in the right material and the machine-turning and THEN get it sent off to get anodized. The guys at GTS ended up fabbing up a dash insert themselves for the gauges we bought and we used a really nice vinyl that has the EXACT color gold machine-turned look to it. I was really skeptical at first about the idea of vinyl at all but it turned out looking really good. They used it for the head unit block-off plate as well. In person the vinyl reflects light like machine turned aluminum can't. (it's also WAAAY cheaper).



I also found (after A LOT of searching) a company that sells the exact BBS light gold color. It's a company that does subaru stuff called Grimmspeed. They have made a spray paint that is the same color used on the BBS wheels that come on Subarus. I have ordered a can of it so we can paint a piece of scrap metal and have the paint suppliers match the color. BBS doesn't have/ won't give out a paint code for their "proprietary" color. I am thinking this color with a satin clear on the wheel centers.

Heres how the dash came out...

[LeighP]

Hey, I think you have great taste in gauges.......
I don't know, maybe I'm biased.

My 71 -

[WS6]

Looking good Kyle. Welcome to the site.

[1973ta]

Hey, I think you have great taste in gauges.......
I don't know, maybe I'm biased.

Very Nice!! Great minds think alike! What are you using the panel on the left side for? (where the vent would be on an a/c car)

[LeighP]

Light switches and trunk release....I tried these little billet switches that looked like a good idea, but when I had them in the car I found them to be finicky to operate and not particularly positive in the switch action. To go with the aviation theme, I switched to a couple of guarded aircraft toggles for the lights, and moved the other switches to guarded toggles on the centre console.



My car was an A/C car (long gone), so no dash vent fitted.....looked like a good place to fit some switches.

[1973ta]

looks good. I am using smaller toggle switches for my window switches... found some three way toggle switches that will spring back to the middle. We moved them to a billet plate mounted where the head unit used to be. I see your gauges are new also. 2/10's of a Kilometer!

I was trying to figure out a way to wire a small LED to the center hole (between the blinker indicators) on the gauge bezel to use as a Shift light. Do you know if this would be possible with these gauges without too much difficulty? It would look A LOT cleaner than a huge shift light on the dash.