Diamond in the Rough

As I wait to sandblast the Austin Healey, I am using this time to learn more about my car and track down the various parts I need. To this end, I have joined a local Austin Healey club (Golden Gate Austin Healey Club) to get connected with other Austin Healey owners and experts. I took my family to our first Austin Healey club event back on August 24 in Vacaville. It was an ice cream social at a local Frosty Freeze. We met many other Austin Healey owners, and they were very welcoming and excited to have us a part of the club (even though we all came in a Honda Odyssey). Ironically, one of the Austin Healey owners lived only a couple miles from us.

Also, I have joined a nationwide Austin Healey club. My main purpose for joining this group was to utilize the club's online forum. There are questions I come across that I need an expert to answer. My first forum post proved to yield valuable information on my Austin Healey. I posted a picture of my dashboard:

It appeared as if the dashboard has been cut away or was missing a part. The car had been butchered in other areas that it wouldn't be surprising to learn they cut this too. However, all my internet searches on the dashboard were fruitless. All I could find was a one piece dashboard. I posed this question to the forum.

The forum administrator was quick to answer. He said that this dashboard had two pieces, and I was missing the instrument cluster panel, This panel would bolt on to the main dashboard. Only the first 800 Austin Healeys made had this feature before the dashboard was in manufactured as one piece. And, while this meant the car was rare, finding the instrument cluster panel would be extremely difficult (even more so than the windshield frame). Now the journey to find this part begins!