If anyone is still reading along on this (if not tell me to shut up):
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This is what I had to work with at the beginning of the year with professionally zip-tied instrument mounts.....
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By June I got to this point...sourcing lamp holders for the hi-beam indicator and alternator warning bulbs being effectively impossible.....the only option was to buy incorrect ones that were similar size and hack they apart to get the original bulb assemblies into then (which is what I did for the green turn signal indicators) and even then they would be the wrong colors.
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As of last weekend - almost starting to look like a usable front panel now. I did a repurposing (without modifying or damaging the factory harness) of a redundant seat belt warning lamp to become the overdrive selected indicator in the center panel. It was part of the harness but requires seats with the pressure sensors - my seats are from an earlier year without any sensors. I just patched in a wire from the overdrive solenoid (using factory connectors) to that lamp. The custom solid brass lamp holders for the hi-beam, alternator warning and (now) overdrive selected indicator bulbs are actually old mobile home plumbing fittings that took a quick ride thru the lathe to turn them into a flush front flange. The bulb assemblies fit perfectly into the backside like they made for this (even though they weren't) and they are much more durable than the unobtainable factory plastic parts. I just need to get some colored plastic to make lenses for them and I might redo the turn signal indicators the same way just to keep it all consistant.
I made a blanking plate where the original (and I don't have it) AM radio was supposed to be, and put the OD indicator, a second 12V outlet, clock and voltage gauge there. These cars didn't come with a voltage gauge which was always to me a shortcoming. I couldn't find an affordable genuine Smiths UK gauge from a different model car, so I went with something that looked close (and was the correct size) from the local parts store. The clock is an actual factory clock from the 1976-1980 year cars, prior to 1976 no clock was provided.
At this point everything with the exception of the heater controls is functional (including all the backlights). The right hand switch in the center panel is for the map light above the clock, but I chose to use a factory headlight switch (same size) instead of the basic on/off switch. Now I can connect the map light to the first click connection, and then add some (also never provided in any year on these cars) footwell lights on the second click connection and have footwell lights without losing the original map light functionality (and again no modification to the hactory harness). The harness for the center section was already pretty chopped up by multiple previous owners but I've been using factory style bullet connectors for everything I changed which tie back into the undamaged main panel harness. The hazard lights wiring was just chopped out completely (I suspect someone 'harvested' the original 6 pin connector that is no available for purchase), so that wiring is not original style - but not visible either.
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Thanks to the tips I got here, I have the low-profile battery terminal for the positive side all set up on a custom battery cable. The stock cable was too short because this is not the factory battery configuration, there would have been a 6-volt battery on each side of the driveshaft tunnel originally.
