By Corky Guenther

One of the seemingly endless number of tasks in the (hopefully) inexorable refresh of the MGB was designing and fabricating a new faceplate to be mounted in the original radio speaker console.  The original radio mounting space will be used for face level vents for the air conditioning.  This faceplate will house a new, cheap, “mechless” (no cd/tape player) radio head unit as well as controls for the AC unit plus an independent switch with indicator for the condenser mounted fan.  Auxiliary light switches and indicators (Fog & Driving), a Hazzard light switch with indicator and an intermittent delay WS wiper control are also included.  The radio speakers will be another project.  Disclaimer: this is not a high-performance audio installation and undoubtably will not see much use however, the antenna is on the car so I figured I might as well have something to attach it to.

After deciding what to include in the console, I made a drawing of the plate.  A friend in Raleigh provided a drawing of his similar plate.  I used that as a template.  He had his fabricated locally from .060 aluminum, so I started down that path sending out RFQs.  Not surprisingly, I got few replies and the ones I received were way over my budget.  One response however resulted in a conversation including a suggestion that because I intended to powder coat the plate, steel might be more appropriate than aluminum.  He also suggested that if I was a DYI guy, (who me?) I might do it myself and forwarded a link to a video.  That video reminded me of tools (air and Dremel cutting disks) that I already have (duh) which could be used to cut out the mounting hole for the radio head (the major issue).  I had made a couple of tries with metal cutting blades in a jig saw to no avail.  After rough cutting the hole with the disks, filing accomplished the final fit (a mechanical designer at a long-ago company had a favorite saying “file to fit, paint to hide”).  Next up, drilling the holes for the switches and indicators, a straightforward process using a straight edge clamped to the drill press table as a guide.

The speaker recess in the console where the plate will be mounted has radiused corners requiring a complementary radius on the corners of the insert plate.  Those corners are the obvious place to fasten the plate.  A framing square clamped to the drill press table located the mounting holes.  I didn’t want to use exposed screws and bought 8-32 PEM concealed head studs.  These studs when installed correctly are flush with the surface and will be invisible when finished.  So, how to install?  They obviously need to be pressed into the sheet metal but to do that without distorting the plate required fabricating a tool with a hole the correct size to allow the stud to pass through and provide enough surface area to prevent distorting the plate.  The corners require a 3/8-inch radius so placing the stud at the center of that radius seemed logical as did making the installation tool from ¾-inch stock allowing it to also be used to form the radiused corners.  For stock I used a ¾-inch bolt from a local hardware store.  After cutting a piece long enough and squaring the ends it needed a hole drilled through the center.  Dave Ahrendt has a newly acquired mini lathe and we inaugurated it by boring the hole to tap at 8-32.  After tapping, it was countersunk and counterbored to a depth longer than the stud.  Next, the studs were pressed into the corners using a vice as I don’t have a press.  The vice could not seat a stud fully but the application of a large hammer to the vice jaw after tightening it securely, “seated it right home” as British manuals are wont to say.    Well, not quite home.  A little “filing to fit” flush finished the task.   Hopefully, the powder coating will serve to hide.  After threading the tool on the studs, the corners of the plate were sanded and filed to match its radius.  The plate is currently at the powder coater, so we’ll see if I’m successful.