My car had some nasty aluminum tape with a sticky black backing (possibly sound deadening) over the big hole in the bulkhead. I got so frustrated with it being all over the place and over the hole for the choke cable, that I ended up peeling it all off last night and now need to find another better solution to use as a blanking plate. My car is a 69 Cooper that has the center three gauge binnacle.
Per the topic title, I am trying to understand all of my options and ultimately pick something that cleans up the look in the engine bay, does a reasonable job of keeping sound and vapors out, and also looks interesting.
Since I have the center binnacle, my understanding is that the original style blanking plates with the dished area will not work with my car, is that correct? If so, that would be kind of a shame, since I had been looking at the plate offered by Carbonweezel and like the CF look. It also looks like this style is installed from inside the car, which would be more complicated. I would be super nice if they made a flat piece to install from the engine bay side, but doesn't look like they do.
I am also looking at the style that is offered by Classic Minis Japan. This is attractive to me because it seems to be easy to install and definitely cleans up the look but is kind of a blah-looking black plastic. Does anyone have first-hand knowledge of sound and vapor levels after installing?
If I understand the original spec correctly, the cars with the center binnacles actually had this area essentially left open in the engine bay and essentially relied on the center binnacle itself to keep anything out of the engine bay. Is this correct? Is there any logical reason whatsoever to consider an option like this where I try to make sure the center binnacle is sealed to the bulkhead and then look at something like some of the sound insulation foam from the engine bay side that is offered by most of the big parts vendors?
Are there any other thoughts or options that I am missing? Any interesting products offered by some other companies that I should be thinking about?