That made me laugh!  

HA!!!!!  Choco Milk, and doughnuts, but I get it!!!!  Inside Joke!!!! And some dips and curves!

May not mix well with orange juice and donuts.

CTR

I like the smell and the noise! Don't cover it, discover it! 

As confirmed-  the OEM part will not work with a Center Binnacle Cluster.  I have worked  my own BOHC magic in two different ways.

 On my car -  MK1 - I used a solid Aluminum plate - and used the 4 body mounts to screw the alum plate down.. 1 hole for the speedo cable - one slot to work around the wire harness.   -   i then had a piece of 1/2 foam- with sticky backing .  Stuck to the Alum panel.,   to Seal around the hole, and POOF.  Im sealed up .  It is a very close clearance, due to my 1.75 Carb but it  clears . and with the firewall blanket to cover it all up. Looks completley stock with the blanket on top.  Remove 4 screws - i have access back to my cluster pod.

 Then yesterday - helped another local co mini owner  with a few little projects  yesterday   and he too had been complaining about noise /  stink,. so we decided to try a quicker fix.  He had some leftover noise sound deadening...

 One 10 x 10 piece,  Simple slit for the speedo cable.  Simple knotch for the wire harness -   we put a piece on the back side so the sticky wont stick to everything on the inside, and BAM - sealed up  real nicely around all edges.

He also has the MK 1 Firewall blanket - and covers right over the sound deadening silver and cant even tell its there.

 Sound reduction is simply AWESOME.   Air drafts - and fumes into the passenger compartemnt are VASTLY REDUCED!  Sure- theres a little sticky around the edges, but if we ever need to get behind there to service anything - Easily done. and or easily replaceable .

Highly reccomended!

As I suspected Alex is correct. I got one and being the first in my hand I was able to look into using it.  It's not practial with the center pod. I thought I might get it installed engine side of bulkhead. By the time I cut it up to clear the speedo cable and work the harness though it won't be worth the trouble. I will use it for a race car without a weber. I'm sure I can find a plug for the big hole. Thanks Willie _B.

Steve

If you have the centre binnacle, then it *should* do exactly the same job as the blanking plate - possibly even better.

The single instrument one I took off Betty was foam lined for sound deadening and sealed to the bulkhead with that never setting Blutack-like mastic.  (Actually, Blutack would probably work perfectly !)  The instruments in the binnacle should have o-rings behind the chrome ring so seal them to the plastic.
The blanking plate isn't perfectly sealed as the wiring loom has gaps round it where it passes though, so in theory the binnacle ought to work better.

At the end of the day, filling the back of the binnacle with lumps of high density foam and then sealing the hole with duct tape would probably work as well as anything...

This confirms what I thought. Thanks for the extra effort Alex. Guess I will look at other ways to slow the airflow and noise coming in thru the HOLE.

After discussion with the OP and practical investigation on Betty, we have come to the conclusion that it is basically impossible and deeply impractical to have a centre binnacle and use the blanking plate.

As both fit from the inside using the same mounting holes, the flange on the blanking plate will prevent the binnacle from seating properly, negating any gains in noise & windproofing.
You also can't attach the speedo cable, and changing/repositioning the bulbs in the speedo headwould require removal of the entire dashboard.

If you want the plate Terry, shoot me an email with shipping address so I can get a price.

Hi Alex,

I too need a dash panel blanking plate. You mentioned that you may have a couple of them. If you have any left I'd be interested.

Thank you!

Terry

Thanks, I have one on the way. I just installed a three clock center pod I picked up from P Mustang before he departed for the UK. I may have to do some fitting to get the plate to work. If not we can use it some other place.

Steve

Email replied.

The (at least one) spare I have was bought to fit to Betty as she has the BOH but also a centre binnacle.  I never fitted it as I couldn't get both the blanking plate and a 3-clock centre binnacle to fit properly, and I preferred the Hornet dash to the plate.

I sent Alex from the above post a note, we can see what he comes up with.  I also contacted a couple mini-fab guys in the UK to see if they had some, or would be willing to make some...they didn't have any and had no interest at all in making them--  I heard back from both of them already.  I guess I don't really understand...all cars have the BOH and I would have thought all people want the BOH-F.  Hummm...

As with anything, there are more ways to skin the cat, we have been chasing just one way...what have others of you out there done?

I've seen requests for these out-of-production plates come up a number of times. Seems like this might be a good thing for one of our enterprising Mini guys to fab up a batch of.

Paging Dr. Mini. Any interest Hugh?

Having seen pictures of the this plate, I have yet to see one in person.  As part  of my never ending quest to improve sound quality in my car I'd like to have one. If you have a spare with or without a hole I'm interested.

Steve

In the Rileys the gauges are mounted in the center dash panel rather than in a binnacle. The bracketry that holds the gauges, which also supports the center dash panel, mounts to tabs on the inside of the blanking plate, which is slightly different (and rare I suppose) because of the tabs. That being said, I mounted my Autometer gauges directly to the center panel and had to break the tabs off the (original, rare) blanking plate because they were in the way.

I would have rather kept the original plate intact and just found a replacement one, but none came to light and I was in a hurry, so off the tabs came. Ripped em right off with vice grips. Arrgghhh.

//www.somerford-mini.co.uk/pdfs/Catalogues/Int-Body-Fittings/03-Fascias-Dashboard-UpperFascia-Interior-Mirror.pdf

I see- the plate attaches from the inside of the car- not on the outside (engine bay) ..Which Makes sense.. due to the flange ' lip that the BOH has  -

Having a center binnacle cluster would make using this factory panel more difficult. As it looks like this panel is supposed to be used on LATE MK3's with instrument clusters infront of the driver.

Red Riley --  I now see your posts in search of the same thing in 2010 searching for the same thing. did you ever find ? I know your VTEC - were you able to keep an oriiginal panel like that How did it work?

Thanks for us all!

I think I have a couple of them - shoot me an email as I'm a long way from home at the moment.

Dash Panel Blanking Plate, Factory part number CZH351. Good luck finding one.

That BOH is the Rotodip hole.

So, I'm trying to fix little things to get ready for the CMU 53 event, and one thing that I really want to fix is the Big 'ol Hole.  My other mini friends and I refer to it as the BOH, and I want a BOH-Fixer.  The BOH is the big ol hole right there behind the center binnacle in the firewall.  It seems like most of my engine smell and sounds come in right through that hole and I recently purchased a firewall blanket but I think it would work best if I can cover that hole first.  My friend was recently searching the net and came across a picture of what appears a factory BOH-F.  I need something like this because I have the HIF 44 carb with the appropriate spacer and it makes the carb stick a little bit into the cavity created behind the speedo.  I can't seem to use a flat plate of metal because I need the concavity for the carb.  Anybody know where to find this, or have a solution that works well for them (with a pic)?

The factory-looking BOH-F is here: