JAMES: My name is James MacMath.
I’m a vintage sports car specialist living near Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
Marcos Cars are a small volume British sports car company.
The early Marcos’s were made out of wood to be extremely light, fast and strong.
Today I’m making a dashboard frame for a Marcos Mantula.
The first thing we do is measure and cut out the support baton.
We’re now measuring and cutting out the lower dash panels.
We are now measuring and cutting out the front vertical panels.
Now we are copying the existing dash frame.
We’re using the dash frame as a template.
For the corners of the dash panels we’re using a band saw.
The band saw is good for doing accurate cuts.
We are now cutting out the steering column hole in the vertical panel.
We’re now cutting out the glove box hole.
In between cutting the various panels we are sanding down and cleaning up the edges.
Now we are making a new dash top.
It’s important to reference the original dash to make sure all the measurements are correct.
Now we are gluing the panels to the dash support baton.
This is a spray-on acid.
The acid makes the glue get hard.
This dashboard frame will now be sent out to a customer for their Marcos Mantula.
Every car is unique.
No two are exactly the same.
I have worked on more modern cars but I find this work more rewarding.