Features The Hot Rod Dash... Again...

Boggles the mind with all the combinations and they all look good! HRP

 

Hahahaha, totally resonate with the TSA stuff; let's just say that we've exchanged unpleasantries a time or two.

Excellent dash pics! I agonized over mine for months as it sorta makes or breaks the driving experience, IMO.

 

Thank you for the ideas and inspiration.Dashboards make a car,as well as gauges.From the machine turned dash on my old Cord to the space age dash on my 61 T-Bird,they are works of art .I've had my eye on a couple of older Austin Sebring kit cars,but most all of them cheap out by using a plywood dash with cheapy gauges.I guess it's a fabrication opportunity for me,I guess,but a sale buzzkill for the current owner.As I said on the previous dashboard article,you're going to be looking at it 100% of the time you're driving it,you might as well like it.

 

I see validation in these pics for the '35 dash to find its way into the '31 Tudor! Thanks! (I think....)

 

Dashing!

 

Great, thanks.

 

Nice pictures ! I did not like my dash for one it what not OEM and second I did not like the OEM any ways so I built my own from scratch

 

I was watching throttle pedal location/mounting, as that's what's next for mine.

 

nice stash of pics.

 

Thanks for the great dash photos....Lot's to check out here. Some nice steering wheels for sure.
Could not get over how many had a 40 wheel.

 

Great looking dashes. It is amazing how many bad dashes you see out there in hotrods.

--louis

 

The going without food and clothing wasn't the difficult part...the butt-kicking the wife administered was, haha!

 

you forgot the Mexican road race dashes of the early 50's Lincolns! talk about guages. and I have to mention the stock dash in my 1939 Ford deluxe coupe. even stock, it is a hotrod dash. Thanks Ryan.

 

I have been going round and round with this exact thing for my '36 dash going in my A coupe. Hunt up a set of original gauges? Find some period aftermarkets like SWs? Or buy some new gauges, probably form Classics Instruments. It is the little details like that which make or break a car. The shot of the '36 dash in this article made my heart beat faster.

--louis

 

and that is the reason I haven't ever been able to fill my dash full of gauges...... just not worth using if they just aren't right! Now , looking at some of those dash pictures, to me it looks like some hotrodders have more than their fare share of bitchin gauges. Some day.

 

Amen brother!

 

Drill the holes now and fill them full of new SW's from the Speedway catalog. Then as you find the vintage SW to replace it, do them one at a time. Nobody will fault you for that.

 

Yay! The Austin Healey 100-4 has a traditional hot rod dash! (third row, right)

 

The 35 36 dash is just the best looking dash for an A, for me nothing else compares..


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I've always dug the highly modified '40 Merc dash (with quirky '56 Stude speedo) in Brian @Bass' HEMI-powered '29 Model A Coupe:

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NOTE: The construction of Brian's custom dash is documented HERE.

 

Thanks for the file dump on dashes. Lots of ideas for most of us are shown somewhere in those photos. The price of the "real deal" SW gauges just went up another 20%. How high can they go?

 

Here's the dash in our old Deuce Roadster project ...

... as Mike Russell built it:

'32 Ford roadster dash with engine-turned insert & simple SW gauge layout​

... as Glenn Mounger "re-did" it::

'32 Ford roadster dash with integrated Auburn instrument panel & rare gauges​

 

Here's the dash in our Coupe (circa 1973):

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Fast forward to today ... and the same dash & gauges are still there:

Stewart Warner "WATER TEMP" ( 100 - 250 ) gauge
Stewart Warner "OIL TEMP" ( 100 - 270 ) gauge
Stewart Warner "OIL PRESSURE" ( 0 - 100 ) gauge
SUN electric tachometer "R.P.M. THOUSANDS" ( 0 - 8.5 )
Stewart Warner speedometer "MILES PER HOUR" ( 0 - 160 )
Stewart Warner "VACUUM INCHES" ( 0 - 30 ) gauge
Stewart Warner "AMPERES" ( -60 | +60 ) gauge
Stewart Warner "FUEL" ( E | 1/2 | F ) gauge​

NOTE: I plan on swapping the wood-veneer insert for an engine-turned insert.

 

I sure would love to see more pics of the '32 roadster with the real Auburn dash in photo number 5.

 

56 DeSoto gauges 57 Lincolm Premier Wheel ..keeping it simple

 

There's a few more pics of that dash in @Ryan's TJJ Blog from September 22, 2014 ... see "Breaking Bad" .

 

The dash in my Roadster!!