A Hopper Dashboard

 

I thought I would share a blog on the re-building of the dashboard from Ian Hopper’s third and final Special.

Remarkably all the parts of the car had remained together since it was last used on the road in 1972.

From the dashboard the original and lovely Jaeger instruments, original Lucas switches and dashboard plaques recording major sporting successes were all present.

 

As found Hopper H3

However the leather-covered alloy dashboard had been painted numerous times and in an array of colours over the years. Although quite badly deteriorated, it was possible to carefully remove the layers of paint and to reveal the original colour of the tanned hide in certain areas.

 

Original leather dashboard covering

The search was now on to find a hide to match the original in colour, texture and thickness.

 

Full hide underside

Eventually one was found that was big enough to upholster both the dashboard and the bucket seats. Fate played a hand in that the hide found was tanned in Scotland and was supplied by Andrew Muihead of Dunn Street, Glasgow. 

 

Andrew Muirhead Glasgow

  

 As the sheet alloy below had corroded quite badly, the leather was removed and the dashboard etch-primed. A section of the hide was selected for suitable grain and not to compromise the availability of the best hide for use in covering the seats. The slightly larger section was bonded to the alloy using PVA adhesive, which was chosen as it would allow the leather to flatten before the glue had set. As this is water-based, it was hoped that it would also tighten the leather as it dried. This proved correct and after a week had passed, the edges were turned and stuck in place with impact adhesive.

 

Leather bonded to etch-primed alloy

 

The openings for all the instruments were carefully cut using a knife, punches of the correct diameter being used to make the holes for the switchgear. The dashboard plaques were remounted in their original positions as was the grab-handle and map reading light. The instruments had been restored over 40 years ago and kept under dry conditions since then. They were re-fitted to the dashboard along with all the switchgear and ancillary items.

 

Completed dashboard

 

The Hopper Special returns.

 

The bodywork for Hopper H3 has now been completed and the task of rebuilding the car has commenced. 

For further reading on the Hopper Special:

Hopper Special - Making a stir on your debut 

Lea Francis: A competition engine

It surely was a grand day when it returned to Scotland and although the sun did not shine for us, nothing could dampen our spirits that morning.

 

 

 

 

 

Great effort had been taken to retain as much of the original Ian Hopper designed bodywork as possible, even when the repair of a panel involved more work than making another from scratch. The panels saved included:- Front-end/Bonnet/Doors/Dog-hatch/Boot/Air intakes.

 

Bo'ness International Speed Hillclimb 1953

 The distinctive duck-tailed mudguards as used on the car were also re-made to the original design.

 

Powder-coated chassis and support members

 

The original bodywork had detriorated over the years in certain areas, the rear-end being worst affected. The alloy skin had been attached directly to the tubular chassis and supporting members of the body and as neither of these had been painted when built, suffered from local corrosion.

 

H3 as found by Mike Cowie in 1977

 

Apart from a few small repairs and fully powder-coating, the chassis was exactly as it had left the Bellshill premises of Joe Potts some 70 years ago.

 

Ian Hopper(second from left) with the completed rolling chassis

Considering the abuse the car was given by subsequent owners, it says a lot for the build quality of the original car. The workmanship in the rolling chassis is without equal and this at a time following WW2 when materials were either unobtainable or in very short supply.  

Hopefully both Joe and Ian would secretly be proud that the car has survived all this time. 

Let the rebuild begin.