Thread: Classic Rangie dash - does anyone make them

Originally Posted by POD

Given the fact that the RR binnacle is a stand-alone pod, it would be a very simple matter to make something to take it's place. It's the heater unit and it's controls that really let the interior of these vehicles down, and would be vastly improved by swapping in a D1 dash. .

You are spot on. The heater doesn't even work on mine ( I had to reroute the pipes after getting a leak behind the dash) which is one of the reasons I was going to remove the dash. But all my heater controls and that area is actually in pretty good condition.

Originally Posted by PSI250

wouldn't be hard to knock up something like this, but exxy and you loose your warning lights.


disco dash involves unpicking a section off the disco firewall and welding it to the RR.

Thats exactly what I need, where did you find that pic? Re the warning lights, there are only about 5 that are still used so I thought I would just put in LED globes with labels.

I had another look today and I was thinking I may be able to remove the guts from the existing binnacle and then attach a sheet of aluminium to the lip where the clear plastic cover is. I already have engine oil temp, auto oil temp, oil pressure and voltage gauges in other areas of the dash so I just need to put Speedo, tacho and water temp in the binnacle.

Originally Posted by POD

Given the fact that the RR binnacle is a stand-alone pod, it would be a very simple matter to make something to take it's place. It's the heater unit and it's controls that really let the interior of these vehicles down, and would be vastly improved by swapping in a D1 dash. The soft-dash version is a huge improvement if for no other reason than the heater. Many components of the RR soft-dash- vents and such- are not a direct swap for disco parts even though they look similar.

Is the heater *that* good? - up to the standard of a Jap car ??? - Mine is out of commission due to the alloy pipes being eaten away at the firewall...and I suspect the aluminium matrix is'nt much better.
At the moment I'm relying on the heat coming through the firewall/floor, with the air-con for demisting.

I was'nt impressed with the '89 Classic's binnacle either, unreadable at night, and ugly during the day ! Biggest reason I went for a 'softdash'... (and the differant windscreen)

I was'nt impressed with the '89 Classic's binnacle either, unreadable at night, and ugly during the day ! Biggest reason I went for a 'softdash'... (and the differant windscreen)

Er that is the first time I have ever heard of someone saying the 89 large binnacle instruments are unreadable.

Which part pray tell? The speedo with its good lighting and fibre optic lit needle? The very large square warning lights?

Maybe you just liked the soft dash better or maybe the lights were out and you couldn't find the rheostat , which is under the lower dash on the left.

The big criticism (mainly by journalists ) was that the heater controls were hard to understand, and this usually takes about ,Oh, a day or so to work out.
Now I know that the Walker is talking about the instrument binnacle , not the entire dashboard , of course it is possible to mock up something, but again there are no after market products AFAIK. And Of course there are also bits and pieces around everywhere for Defenders as they are a "tabula rasa" just waiting for someone to develop.

And that panel looks great, but I think you will find it is much more work and expense that you originally thought! LOL eg tacho does not work off dizzy as usual but off the alternator. 89 on also has a circuit board to run the low water light and IFAIK the fuel gauge inter alia.

Regards Philip A

I had a play with a Disco 1 instrument cluster in my 87 RRC. They are similar in size and shape, but nowhere near a direct swap. The wiring looked to be a nightmare too, so I just put the standard cluster back in.

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Er that is the first time I have ever heard of someone saying the 89 large binnacle instruments are unreadable.

Which part pray tell? The speedo with its good lighting and fibre optic lit needle? The very large square warning lights?

.....Maybe you just liked the soft dash better or maybe the lights were out and you couldn't find the rheostat , which is under the lower dash on the left.
.
.......And that panel looks great, but I think you will find it is much more work and expense that you originally thought! Regards Philip A

The instrument lights were very, very dim at night, even after I sneakily replaced them with new bulbs (all were working). Possibly the dimmer was done-for.
Daytime was fine, ok to see and recognize. Thought Rover could have done a better binnacle on what was a premium vehicle, or at least was touted as one.
My own reasoning is that the dash visibility should (be able to) match the outside lighting, such as found in city/well-lit freeway enviroment.

Aesthetically, I have a problem with speedos that go to a gazillion km/h, when the vehicle is only capable of 180 or so. ("safely"). Not that anything over 110km/h is legal in any of the civilised states, so excess of 161.935 km/h is purely for bragging.

Put it another way, there's over NINETY km/h wasted... or nearly half the dial face of a common or garden 220km/h speedo. (my 95 softdash) All the useful and legal numbers are crammed into only 'half' the available space/angle.

I could live happily with either binnacle, daytime at least.

Anyway, the classic-Classic dashboard lends itself to adding several more round gauges into the front face, leaving the binnacle for the 6 usual ones.

There's a couple of reasons why its done, but that's another rant.

Never had a problem with the heater controls in the ex-bossees '88/89... nothing worked, except it was always very warm inside, especially around the footwells... Bit of a pain in summer...

Originally Posted by walker

Thats exactly what I need, where did you find that pic? Re the warning lights, there are only about 5 that are still used so I thought I would just put in LED globes with labels.

I had another look today and I was thinking I may be able to remove the guts from the existing binnacle and then attach a sheet of aluminium to the lip where the clear plastic cover is. I already have engine oil temp, auto oil temp, oil pressure and voltage gauges in other areas of the dash so I just need to put Speedo, tacho and water temp in the binnacle.

I just searched autometer gauge cluster. It's not an RR Cluster but the same style would work and be easy enough to adapt. I have a spare cluster that I use for parts for mine if you wanted to dummy something up before you pull yours apart.

Autometer / speco etc would do speedo would just have to sort out drive for it.
If you want to get fiddly you could cut The warning light covers out of your cluster and use them in the new one. I think that hole middle section comes off too.

If you look on you tube there are some videos about making instrument pods from fibreglass. They make it look pretty easy. Might give you some ideas.