1982 Eclat Riviera restoration......

[soldave]

Yeah I have. The push switches come out fairly easily; the sides of the switch have a bit of raised plastic that keeps them in position. If you get your nails on the top and bottom of the switch and wiggle/pull, they should come out. The light controls are a little more complex and the heater controls require the console panel taking out to get at them; same with the radio I think.

[Gray14]

Excuse me jumping in but I’ve (just) “been there, (just) done that.”

It’ll be the plastic straps holding the fibre optic lights in place that are stopping the switches coming out easily.

In the centre console if you pull out the 2 air vents, just inside in the top corners are 2 retaining nuts (10mm IIRC) holding the console to the centre moulding. The vents are held in place by flat metal retainers and can be tricky to pull through the console plate.

Take these off and it should release the console enough to remove the plastic straps surrounding the switches. These hold the fibre optic lights to the switches and need to be removed to be able to remove the switches from the console plate.

It might be easier/looser if you disconnect the 4 nuts holding the heater controls panel, 1 in each corner.

They switches on mine just pulled through easily.

Fibre optic cables available on ebay which is also where I sourced some ‘Fablon’ wood grain sticky back plastic.

Drawing below shows location of nuts as small circles

[Benco]

Thanks both, and very happy for anyone who’s been there to jump in! 🙂🙂

I have some free time later today and can’t wait to get stuck onto this, great advice thank-you!

[Benco]

On 20/07/2022 at 22:57, Gray14 said:

Excuse me jumping in but I’ve (just) “been there, (just) done that.”

It’ll be the plastic straps holding the fibre optic lights in place that are stopping the switches coming out easily.

In the centre console if you pull out the 2 air vents, just inside in the top corners are 2 retaining nuts (10mm IIRC) holding the console to the centre moulding. The vents are held in place by flat metal retainers and can be tricky to pull through the console plate.

Take these off and it should release the console enough to remove the plastic straps surrounding the switches. These hold the fibre optic lights to the switches and need to be removed to be able to remove the switches from the console plate.

It might be easier/looser if you disconnect the 4 nuts holding the heater controls panel, 1 in each corner.

They switches on mine just pulled through easily.

Fibre optic cables available on ebay which is also where I sourced some ‘Fablon’ wood grain sticky back plastic.

Drawing below shows location of nuts as small circles

Hi - again thanks for this, really helpful. Just a quick question:

The two nuts just above the heater vents were wing nuts, so very easy to remove.

However trying to reach the others up / around the heater controls are really tricky to get to…. Any advice/angles that might work better?

 Thanks 

[Gray14]

Hi, After removing the 2 nuts holding the console in place it should loosen it up to be able to slightly turn it both ways so that the nuts holding the heater control in place can be accessed and loosened.

The heater control cables are what are making it difficult to access.

[Benco]

Hi Graham, thanks for the advice, very happy to say that the panel is out!

Now I’ve been able to access the rear of all of the switches and try to see if I’ve power to them. 
 

1) No power to the light switch, so I’ve remade the connection at the positive post of the starter motor. This still didn’t help, so I found the loom connection in the drivers footwell and found that contacts there were corroded. Once these were cleaned up it was great to have power to the light switch. As I had all of the switches out I’ve given them a good clean up, with 1200 grit paper and degreased them. However this switch is behaving badly still, so will try and find another that will hopefully be in better shape.

2) I have power to the fan switch but sadly no life here. I’ve gone through and mapped how the switch worked and interestingly the wiring diagram for the 2.2 Eclat is different to how it is on the car. I know that I don’t have air con, and I can see these wires taped up on the loom. So I connected it up as the diagram, only to find a little smoke coming out of the grill. I guess the fan motors are seized? These can only come out with a dashboard removal? 
 

Good news is that headlamp motors, lights are all working. Now only the wipers, and indicators as well to get working!

[Benco]

Small things!

Its nice to have a couple of ‘milestone’ moments while all of the bigger stuff is still underway 🙂.

1. Radio (well the cassette player) now works pumping out sounds I’ve not heard for a while (well not really pumping with some 20W of raw stereo power 😂)
2. As the centre console is out and as the plastic ‘veneer’ was completely cracked/missing in places, then I’ve replaced it all with some real wooden veneer and I’m really pleased with how it looks. Just need to decide what coating to put on, clear polyurethane or a hard wax …. Any recommendations?

[EXCEL V8]

That's going to look great!  How about finishing it with two pack epoxy?  I've had a couple of engineered veneers delivered recently as well - I quite like the ebony.

Pete

[Gray14]

+1 for 2 pack epoxy, 

[Benco]

Thanks both, will look into that!

[Excel SA]

The hard wax and the polyurethane will likely give you two very different results in terms of colour.   The wax will normally bring out the colour and the grain in the wood much better than the sealers.  A two part epoxy or polyurethane will give a harder, easier to maintain finish - a primer used first can also affect/help with the final colour.  The gloss levels of the finish will also differ - hard wax will be matt, 2-part sealers will normally come in a range of gloss levels - from matt to gloss.  The hard wax will also be a fairly thin protective layer, the others are much thicker....

Neil.

[jep]

I prefer a matt or satin finish, my still original Excel is a subtle satin and when I do see gloss woodwork in Excel, perhaps a restored finish, it doesn't look quite right to me. For me, gloss woodwork belongs in 50s 60s cars, though I still prefer the more matt veneer in the very early Elan's. 

I personally wouldn't use wax, a varnish would seem more appropriate for a car interior. Very thin coats, built up slowly. 

Justin

 

[Benco]

Had a very successful time reassembling the centre console, after re-veneering and satin varnishing.

I also went to another level trying to repair the switches, because even though I’d cleaned them the light switch was still very unreliable. When it was fully apart and after removing the switch lever, I found that it wasn’t working properly for 2 reasons.

1) One of the pins that push the copper strip onto the centre contacts had completely worn away, so I made a new pin head that I push fitted into the holder.

2) Even though the contact was being made between the copper strip and the contact I found that the ‘riveted pin’ that joins the contact to the rear connector block - was spinning and not connected. Good news is that this is easily solderable. The effect on the car lights was fantastic, understandably with a much lower resistance they are now so so much brighter!

So I then checked and repaired all of the other switches as I put them back into the console, there weren’t any more worn ‘spring pins’ but quite a few high resistance poor riveted contacts that needed a drop of solder.

I think one of the best improvements was on the rheostat, that had the same problem (2), with the measured resistance fluctuating continuously, until I had cleaned and soldered the rivets, and once done was repeatedly 0-4 ohms. 
 

 

 

 

[Don.Hasi]

On 15/08/2022 at 22:06, Benco said:

 

in my Riviera was the identical Radio installed.