@FWJ posted:Thanks Larry for that information.
@panteradoug: You have changed to a single pod. Did you change the center console as well or did you find a different way?
I did not change the console. It does not need to be. What happens is that it just attaches to the new dash a little differently. The single pod dimension of the face is shorter then the dual pod on the passenger side by around one inch and the corner of the Ac/heater exchanger box is exposed.
What is different is under the dash. The ducting hoses and the a/c vents need to be cut into the front of the sheet metal and a new defroster hose needs to be run to the drivers side.
What I did discover is that you need to drop the steering column down in order to run the left ducting and connect the dash to the mounting brackets.
One of those is only accessible through the hole for the speedometer. So the speedometer is the last to install, once the dash is bolted in. Everything else can be installed into the dash before you bolt it in place.
After the dash is in place, then the speedometer installed and the retaining bracket accessed from reaching underneath through the space where the steering column will be mounted. Then you put the steering column back in.
The only additional components that I needed to buy were the defroster ducts and a 20" piece of defroster hose.
I reused the original dual dash A/C blower outlets. The square sheet metal registers that attach the grills to the dash needed to have the edges trimmed.
The later Euro GT5's use a different register for the AC outlets. You can get those now from Wilkinson.
I covered mine with leather sleeves and rolled the edges to give them a finished appearance.
The top edge of the gauge panel in the console fits into a groove molded into the bottom of the dash. You reuse all of that.
I didn't like all of the black, Darth Vadar look of the interior and inlaid oak veneer into the dash.
That thinking continued and I just made a new instrument panel with a new gauge arrangement, and relocated the switches, but that part isn't really necessary. You can reuse the entire gauge panel as is.
I did this with the fiberglass dash that Bob Byers at Procession Proformance made for me so I can't speak to any complications you would have using the '74 molded plastic dash.
I would say that switching to the fiberglass single pod dash, is likely beyond what any novice should attempt? It is more then just a "bolt in" and it is likely you may get hung up on certain details, unless of course you have done one before?
Of course in my case, one solution often suggests going further with another. I made the new gauge panel out of a solid piece of clear tiger grained oak and while the steering column was out, decided a quick steering wheel release would aid working under the dash.
Since it was easier then to work under the dash and the steering column was out, it became hauntingly suggestive that it was time for an EPS system?
Others probably are not as impulsively motivated by the seemingly obvious?
It gets pretty cold here in the winter and staying warm in my shop helps the winter pass faster.