[Tigers] refinishing instrument panel

[rande]

This is not meant to sway you from refinishing your original panel, but...

I, too, have a Prestige Autowood dash, about 10 years old now. You need to drill
the shallow holes on the back that with screws hold the cubby compartment/glove
box to the dash. In addition, if you want to keep the grab handle function of
the original dash, you need to transfer the triangular piece of wood that's
glued to the back of the panel and helps fill out the piece of black vinyl that
wraps around that and the panel itself. I used a piece of dental floss to remove
this piece rather than a chisel or thin screw driver.

On my Prestige dash, the hole to the left of the tach that would be used on
an Alpine for the overdrive warning lamp was already drilled, and you should
have the chrome plug that the Tiger uses to fill it .

Bill Carroll, in his book, indicated that the Tiger I, and IA's up to car #800,
use the same part number dash, and IA's #801 through the Mk II use a different
number dash. I've compared my original dash and the newer Prestige one, and
saw no difference.
The parts catalogue just shows different tach and speedo for the Mk II, but
no VIN break for the Mk 1A.

Rick at SS is the one who told me about Prestige. I don't know if the dash he
offers is sourced from Prestige, though the two businesses are near each other.


Interestingly, Prestige indicates they now offer new dashes that have the already-faded
look, as an option.

Finally, if you stick with refinishing the original dash, kudos to you. I call
that the Bill Harrah system of restoration. i.e. he didn't want his cars to
look 'like new', he wanted them to be original.