Reason for doing

I decided the dash was looking a bit shabby and needed restoration. Although whilst removing it became apparent that if you needed to replace any of the switches you will have to remove the switch dash as well.

Procedure

1. Disconnect the battery as there are quite a few wires behind the dash so better to be safe than sorry. Remove -ve then +ve

2. Remove the radio and mounting frame and place somewhere safe and dry.

3.Remove the two screws at the rear of the transmission tunnel as shown below

4. Remove the gear knob

5. The transmission tunnel can now be gently pulled back, take car not to pull to far or you could possibly pull the air ducts off the rear of eye ball vents. These were already disconnected on my car ,pics below

 6. Access can now be gained to the 4 nuts holding the switch dash on, the pic below shows the top plate removed so you can see where the nuts are located

Below you can see the four studs on the rear of the plate (this is a picture once it was refurbished)

7. To remove the Switches first unclip the wiring block, this also allows you to change the light bulb which shows the switch is on (fog and driving lights only). Once the clips have been removed the switches can be removed ,they come out from the front. When you have removed the switches you can clean them pretty easily, just be careful when dismantling the switch no to lose the copper contactor strip.

Below is a picture of my refurbished Switch plate, the work was done by London Carriage craft. The work is superb the picture does not do the work full justice. It is not a paper paint  veneer, but a decent proper wood veneer although this is quite expensive I feel it was worth it

8.Rebuilding the dash assembly is relatively straight forward but very fiddly. First check all switches and backlights work the cigarette lighter falls of quite easily (note you will need the battery reconnected). Once you are happy all bulbs etc work disconnect the battery and bolt the plate back in place, I found using a tiny piece of blue tack held the washers in place whilst I tried getting the nuts on Then replace the radio and gear knob. Last replace the two screws at the rear of the transmission tunnel

The finished result

Note the fan switch has the following numbers on the rear

Lucas uk .........182SA

33939A.............1991
 

The rear fog light and driving light switches are identical and have the following numbers on the rear

Lucas uk...........182SA

33931A.............2391

 

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