VW Beetle Repair
and Photos

The gauges are VDO. They're ok. Next time I consider VDO Nightvision and Stuart-Warner gauges. Ha! if there is a next time. Either the temp gauge, or the sender is bad, and the Ammeter is a different make from Brazil. Gauges from CB Performance, whom I'm not recommending. It's a long story. They have offered to take back the temp gauge and sender for testing, but I'd have to pay the shipping.

This is mostly done. It worked well, except for the temp sender. This past weekend I welded a nut onto the outside of my oil drain plate, and installed the temp sender there. It worked. I took photos and will have them ready in a week or so, perhaps. 

I removed the speaker grille, speaker, and with some difficulty cut a large hole in the dash. The cherry is about 3/8 inch thickness (9.5mm). It is not plywood, and as a result is pretty delicate. The circle in the photo is around a crack that happened when I tightened down too hard on that screw. This mounting does not take into account the curvature of the dash. More on that below...

I mounted the tach more or less the same way. I took out the radio, and cut away quite a bit of the dash pad. It's not a very neat job, and I may redo much of this later. I'm going to mount a newer radio/tape deck below the dash, and mount a single speaker with it.

The dotted line is around a thin wedge glued to the back of the wood trim. This helps compensate for the curvature of the dashboard. This made a big difference in the fit of the whole assembly to the dash. Mounting this with hidden screws would be a real chore. I may change over to nicer black trim screws. The old radio hole, and much of the dash will get some more cherry trim. I need to add a nice clock, maybe an outside temp. gauge, and perhaps a cylinder head pyrometer.

Tools: scroll saw, (jig saw or coping saw), files, sander, drill.

Parts: your favorite fine grained hardwood, wood glue, sheet metal screws, varnish?