DKW Meisterklasse Project Update - January 2021

Happy New Year and welcome to 2021.

The Christmas shut down at my work allowed me some time to concentrate on cleaning up the front end of the DKW. There were decades of grime, dust and oil to scrape away. It's tedious but the end result is pleasing. After cleaning up the steel, it was time to look at the engine mountings. These were invariably in poor condition (this should not have been a surprise).

As an example, here are the front engine mounts. They broke apart when the engine was removed so could not be reused in any case. The rubber is decomposing and rotten.

I found online replacement mounts that were fairly close. They do look a little taller than the originals, but that could be due to the originals having flattened out as they have rotted.

I think this will do for the moment. I am still looking online to see if I can find anything a little closer.

With a little lick of chassis paint, the front end is looking good. It's small step forward but it's good to be putting things back on the car rather than simply taking them off.

In cleaning up the engine bay I identified there was some rust under the steering column. It took only an hour to remove the left hand side panel.

Now that the wing panels are off I'm having thoughts about painting them. I think the original colour of wine green.

Trial fitting the rear stop lights.

Yeah, looking at the peeled paint, I am thinking more and more... repaint.

I also found time to look at the dashboard. The instrument panel face has completely deteriorated.
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I had been fiddling around with the instrument panel for some time, trying to maneuver it out without damaging the fascia. Because the fascia pivots forward in the same way as the glove compartment, it was hard to get in there.

But then it just came out without hardly any trouble!  I did have to cut a couple of wires, but these are probably shot anyway and will all be replaced.

The instrument panel will be completely replaced with a NOS instrument.

There you go.

December project update: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/12/dkw-meisterklasse-project-update.html