OK gang here's some more tech from the Strange Days Garage...How to make a beautiful dash for less than five bucks...I'm assuming you have some gauges. If not , go get some and then we'll start the five buck deal. My car is an early coupe, and most have little panels on the dash that can be converted. On my 34 Plymouth there is a glove box door that I'm gonna convert for the purpose of this tutorial. Here's a picture. There's an identical panel on the drivers side and a larger oval in the middle. First I removed the glove box door and cut the center out of it on a scroll saw. I'm a woodworker,so I just hacked through it with a wood blade.. It worked. Then I cleaned the edge up a bit with a file. This is the new trim ring. Then I went to the local sheet metal shop and pulled some small scraps of aluminum out of their trash. I'm guessing they are about 16 gage. Then I cut an aluminum piece to fit behind the trim ring I made earlier. Now were gonna "jewel" the aluminum. Make a table for your drill press with a fence on it . Mine is a piece of 3/4 plywood with a 1 by 2 screwed along the back edge. Place a black line at the center of the fence Then I took a piece of white particle board and marked off a line every half inch. The picture shows this better than I can explain it. Screw the aluminum to the lined particleboard. Use the gauge centers for mounting points and set the screws so they are flush to the aluminum. I use a polishing disc that has kind of a "Scotch Brite" pad on the bottom. I know most people use smaller discs, but its the 1/2 in spacing that determines the pattern more than the diameter of the wheel. I put a little valve grinding compound on the wheel, and we're ready to go. Drop the wheel onto the aluminum, lift, move to the next half inch line and repeat again and again.. Here's a picture of a row of swirls. Then I place a half inch shim between the fence and the particleboard and do another row of swirls. . Remove the half inch shim, put in a one inch shim, and repeat another row. Increase the shim by one half inch each row until you have gone over the entire piece of aluminum. Unscrew the aluminum from the particleboard, clean it off, and VOILA ! a custom dash panel. Drill out the screw holes with a holesaw of the appropriate size for your gauges, Mount the gauges, and place inside that cool trim ring you made in part one. There ya go. More stupid tech from the Strange Days Garage ! Its traditional, its easy, and best of all its CHEAP !
Chaz, You are a man after my own heart, something that looks good at a good price. The dash looks good, thanks for the "how to tip". I have spent the last two days modifying a '41 Ford dash for VDO gauges for my '47 Ford Club Coupe. I'll post a pic of it, if I ever figure out how to get a pic small enough to attach.
Great Tech ! I was just thinking about doing something similar for the dash on my '46 1/2T and this makes it a lot easier to visualize.
Here's another dash I did for my bumpercar several years ago. The dash frame is solid cherry with similar aluminum insert.
This post needs to be in the ToM!!!!!!!! After reading this a couple times yesterday I found a few spare minutes. You job inspired me to do this little piece for my switches ont he Touring. Not as nice as yours, my first time and I kinda just wung it (is that a word? )
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