I've seen them done before on similar dashes and they looked good. Layout is everything. The dash should have been brought in with a template taped to it or even had the pattern laid out on masking tape. Bob
What a waste of time. I love it when a thread like this pops up, and questions are asked and lots of knowledgable people give thoughts only to find the OP never to check back in after posting. Yeah, I know it has only been 30 hours or so. I like the idea of the round stock replacing the pilot bit in the hole saw. That is a neat trick. WE NEED PICS!
Well at least they got it kinda symmetrical....that said even if they had gotten it right it still looks like crap.....not really sure what your going for here.
hmmm, after seeing the hole work done by your "machine shop", I would suggest using a machine gun to shoot a bunch more holes in the dash, so the cock eyed work they did, won't be so obvious. The easy fix might be to cut the hole(get it?) area out and put in a patch that covers the hole(get it?) thing. Otherwise, small circular cut outs, and a boat load of welding and grinding. I would also be talking to the shop owner to see how he feels about buying you a new dash to replace the one his employees destroyed. Its not even close to symmetrical. There are six holes to the right of center line, 7 holes to the left. The hole locations relative to the top of the dash are all over the place, hole sizes appear different in size and shape. Theres no way I'd be paying a nickle for that, and I'd damn sure be pushing to have my dash replaced at their expense.
^ ^ ^ If you can't repair that you must be paying for everything you have done on your car. ^ ^ ^ This can be repaired and saved but my question is.... You paid a machine shop to hole saw holes in a dash panel????????? W.T.F.!
Seriously, this is the second thread where you are giving people shit about not doing EVERYTHING on their cars themselves. I am sorry that we all don't do every little thing ourselves man. But why not lay off of us guys that don't have the skills or tools to do this stuff ourselves. I have tried. I even have a lot of the tools to do things myself, but frankly every time I try to learn from my shop owner friends I screw something up, so guess what? I pay the professionals to do the work. Just because we don't have the skill doesn't mean we can't enjoy the hobby. Do you have any friends who own shops? If so, how the hell do you think they stay in business?
Looks like someone was going for the ratrod look. It's been overdone to death man. Holes are great but you gotta have good taste when you decide to drill them. That dash is not in good taste. Time to reasess your goals I would think. Just saying.( And oh by the way. The machine shop did not fail you. You did that all by yourself)
Sometimes a bright assed idea doesn't work out as well as it sounded when one of us was thinking it up and this may be one of those. After looking at the dash the proper thing would have been to lay it out yourself and drill 1/8 inch pilot holes for the shop to use their hole saw on. Hole saws still can walk and the work probably needed to be done in a mill to get it the way you wanted. You can still probably sell that dash to someone over on Killbillet for a premium as it looks right up their alley.
It was an acme hole and Wile E. Coyote sneaked in and moved it when I wasn't looking! HAH! The spacing is so screwed up, it optical illusioned me into counting an extra one.
Please read my post. I stated that my tools are in storage hence why i took it to the machine shop....
First off, I just went back and checked my last 50 posts and as far back as 8/29 I didn't see anything close to me giving any shit to anyone regarding someone not doing their own work or having to pay for work. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you are dead wrong. Secondly, measuring and drilling "simple" holes is just that, SIMPLE! Thirdly, I do not see any compound curves in this dash only a slight curve. Therefore this is simple sheetmetal work. Cut out a round slug, put a slight curvature in it, tack weld then stitch weld it in, grind it, skim coat of filler, prime & paint. DONE! This job is novice work that doesn't take a ton of knowledge or specialized equipment. v v v This is a general statement and NOT directed to the O.P. If we all threw out every single car piece that had some form of damage everybody would be driving kit cars instead of the real deal. Also if someone (IMHO) can't do the simple things on a car these days then maybe they should take up knitting. Now this statement probably will bunch up some panties but if a "car person" can't do the simple things they really shouldn't own an old or older car or call themselves a "car person". I am all for keeping old cars on the road and going forever but let's face it, they take a little common sence and at least "minor" knowledge. If you have neither you better be driving something with a factory warranty.
Drill a bunch more holes in all different sizes, randomly spaced. That will make your rat rod dash really sweet! :sarcasm: I am with the others, what 12 gauges are you planning to put in those holes?
I think I would just cut a new piece of metal to replace the piece with holes in it. BTW the holes look like shit. Next time try louvers.
These days you need to spell out what you want done. The holes should have been marked and maybe even center-punched before it went to the shop. I run a good size machine shop and I will not take work like this in. It gets in the way of everything else and all you end up with is someone bitching about why it cost $__ to drill six holes in his dash. You get what you pay for. Not worth the aggravation.
Draw a thick paper pattern that is abit above and below the holes that will remove them all. You cut or have someone do it out of say 16 gauge and drill the holes in this piece, then transfer it to the dash, cut the area out and weld it in. Better yet find another dash that is the same or of the same vintage that will fit with not too much work and swap it in. I have some dashes in the stash pile if you want to go this route. Holes look like sh@t? Louvers are just another type of hole
The machine shop DID fail. I deal with machine shops all the time and any machine shop worth its salt would never put out crap like that. Regardless of how little instruction given, just buy the nature of the business there are certain common sense things a good machine shop will do. One of which is to not do a job if they don't understand what the client wants. The machine shop drilled the holes....if they didn't have good instruction they should never have attempted it. I'd say they own it .
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