| WHERE
TO BEGIN? |
STEP
1. |
Where to begin? Well get yourself a dashboard
would be a start, this might prove a problem
in its own right as the Mk3 dash conversion is
getting very popular. I know because as I have
said a lot of people have asked me about it
and even to do it for them . If you do manage
to find a breaker with a dash try and take it
out yourself, although its not going back into
you car the same way it will show you how the
dash itself is assembled. The most important
part of the dashboard though is the metal
cross member that the dash board bolts to, it
is vital that you get this as it makes
installation into you car a lot easier. |
Your first task is to remove the original
horrible square outdated boring (this could go
on forever) dashboard from your own car. This
is pretty straight forward common sense, but
just remember the two 10mm nuts which bolt the
dash through the bulkhead, they are found in
the engine compartment under the scuttle tray
by the window wipers. If you get stuck though
the trusty old Haynes manual should come to
you rescue, but truth be told if you cannot
remove the original dash yourself I wouldn't
attempt trying to fit the Mk3 one yourself. |
| STEP
2. |
STEP
3. |
Once the dashboard is gone you need to remove
all the heater channels from the front of the
heater unit, there are two one for the screen
and one for the side floor vents (both held in
with plastic 10mm nuts). Then take your Mk3
dash and get yourself a hair drier, warm the
top outer edge (where it meets the window) of
dash and gently pull the vinyl till it start
to peel away. You need to clear the entire
front edge of the dash and also the corners
where you need to cut. |
Now trial fit the bare dash into place, you
should now see just how much requires cutting
from either end. Holding the dash in place
keeping it as central as possible (a second
person helps) mark both ends where it meets
the A posts of the windscreen. Remove the dash
and cut along your marks about an inch at a
time, cut either side equal but remember to
trial fit into the car after each pair of
cuts. You should slowly sink the dash in
towards the windscreen, but it wont go all the
way so be careful, as your bulkhead now starts
catching underneath and the outer edge of the
dash also start catching with the windscreen.
So you have start removing plastic from the
underside and cut about an inch from the front
centre of the dash so that it fits the shape
of the windscreen. |
| STEP
4. |
STEP
5. |
Once the dash is nice and tightly fitted into
place you can remove it and start
concentrating on the finer details. First up
are the heater controls, the standard Mk2
cables are not long enough so I used Mk3
cables which are practically a straight swap
with a few alterations. |
The next bit was probably the hardest and
trickiest bit to get correct, heating vents.
To do this correctly I used a plastic welder
and fabricated a box section from the
windscreen vent to match up to the vent from
the heater matrix, this ended up giving me
more airflow than I originally had with the
old dashboard. So basically I went from Fig 5
to Fig 6 cutting away the original dash and
welding in more plastic to build a box section
and kept trial fitting into the car until I
had it spot on with the original vent. |
| STEP
6 (fig. 5) |
STEP
7. |
After the box section for the windscreen was
fabricated and trial fitted to ensure it all
lined up it was time to look at the side
vents. These were slightly more tricky to do,
and was over come by matching the Mk2 vent
tubing to the Mk3 vent tubing using fiber
glass. Although its not pretty it worked just
fine. I have intentionally left out the top
centre vents (you can see the vents plastic
welded in fig 7.) as I plan on using them in
the future to hide some of the intended
stereo. I quite fancy an Alpine screen and
this position higher position up on the dash
will be a definite bonus, plus I can hide the
screen which does not have a its own clip off
facility. |
With all the heating ducts sorted, you can
move onto fitting the dash into place.
Although you could get some of your wiring out
of the way now as I did, but I did it this way
because it was the middle of winter and I
didn't fancy having both doors open in the
snow! To mount your dash you need to assemble
it onto your metal cross member, but first
this cross member will require some
alterations (like you didn't see that one
coming). If you fit the dash to it you should
see just what needs cutting off, both ends
need removing were they overhang the dash and
the largest of the brackets (the one that goes
to the floor in a Mk3) needs cutting of also. |
| STEP
8.(fig. 6) |
STEP
9.(fig. 7) |
Once complete trial fit the dash into the car,
it should sit in quite nice now. If it doesn't
now is the time to make some further
alterations. I used a couple of wooden beams
to hold the dash tightly to the windscreen
while I made up some brackets to match the Mk3
cross member to the standard Mk2 brackets. |
With the brackets done it was finally time to
put the dash in for good but you must remember
to re-glue the vinyl back into place as you
wont have chance once its in . My dash was
welded in (Fig 9.) although you could bolt it,
but I thought that welding would hold it
firmer and stop the dreaded squeaks (which it
doesn't do). Even with the dash welded in it
is still possible to remove it as you have
only welded the metal cross member in place
and the dash can be unbolted from this in the
future should the need arise. |
| STEP
10. |
STEP
11.(fig. 9) |
With your everything now in place, you can
start assembling the dash itself, i.e.
switches, glove box, even your radio etc. This
should leave you now with just your clocks,
ignition cowling, centre console, and a
million other fiddly little bits which you
think you will never get done. |
The centre console also required quite a few
alterations to get into place, but this I
think is mainly due to my car a Rallye which
has a raised floor pan. Therefore for all you
Mk2 owners out there you might not have to do
as much, but I am not sure. Even the rear
section of the centre console require
modifying as the handbrake sits slightly
further forward than in the Mk3, therefore in
the Mk2 when the handbrake is released it will
not go down all the way and therefore leaving
you brakes engaged. I did fit the Mk3
handbrake to try and overcome this but it
didn't work, although I did leave it in as I
think its more factory looking. |
| STEP
12. |
STEP
13. |
Well you are nearly at the end of you dash
installation and hopefully you can now confuse
people when they stare into you car. Your not
in the clear yet though, as I have left the
best till last, THE CLOCKS!!!
For those people who know me or have seen my
car will understand straight away my dilemma
on this matter. The wiring of the clocks is
pretty easy, but its when you get to your
speedo and rev counter that things get
complicated. You see a Mk2 has a cable driven
speedo but the Mk3 has an electronic one, this
was the easier of the two problems to
overcome. A vehicle speed sensor (VSS) is what
was needed, once this was bolted in and wired
up the speedo came to life (It even reads in
reverse!). |
This leaves just the Rev counter, or should I
say this is where I leave you with your rev
counter. Except maybe those people out there
running a G60 engine, you see the G60 engine
is an 8V block therefore require an 8V rev
counter but due to this engines amazing
capabilities it also requires a 16V speedo
(160MPH reading). Since I have used Mk3 16V
clocks the rev counter doesn't want to
co-operate, so I am currently looking into
this myself.
Well I will leave you with just a few simple
things to do, indicator stalks (I used Mk3
ones which are a direct replacement for late
model Mk2s), Ignition cowling etc but I think
I will let you sort that lot out yourself,
because at this rate my brief little article
is about to become a book!
Even though the dash still is not finished in
my car (just that rev counter to sort), it
took me about 6 weeks to install working
mostly weekends and a few cold winter nights.
After your over the initial shock of a bare
wiring loom clad bulkhead and an obviously too
wide Mk3 Golf dashboard that you will think at
first will never fit in, its pretty easy to do
with a lot of patients and a few beers. |
