Greetings Im looking for someone in Southern Cali to have my dash inserts engine turned. I have been told I can find aluminum sheets already turned and will use this as my last resort, but I would rather have the process done on the panels of my 57 GMC. Anyone know someone?
It's very easy to do yourself, there's a few how to articles out there. I use a 1/2" dowel with some fine sandpaper in the drill press. Practice for 5 min, you should be good to go Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
wooden dowel with abrasive compound paste (like valve grinding compound, if that's still available).....even hand cleaner with pumice would work. the thing about an abrasive paste is you might get better consistency than with sandpaper that wears out quickly. You might experiment with different diameters before doing the actual part as the diameter changes the appearance, especially in smallish/confined areas.
Pre- turned stuff is mucho dinero. I use a soft bristle wire brush (3/4 dia.) in the drill press and it works well for the stuff I build. I dig the look- use some scrap steel "leftovers" and practice on them. Hardest thing is to keep the lines fairly straight and the overlap consistant.Put on "Dark Side of the Moon" and go for it! Good luck . Mike
I didn't want to fork out $180 for a dash insert, so Here's my DIY version: I found a 7/8" grinder arbor at a swap meet. The smaller diameter you go, the more work (but the cooler it looks!) I couldn't find 7/8" cookies so I put a 2" cookie in the 7/8 arbor and cut around it with a scissors. I prefer to use stainless over aluminum so I picked up a 12x8" sheet of .048" stainless for 25 bucks through a local supplier. I then drew up a grid after doing a couple test runs and finding the Center-Center dimension that I liked the best. The grid will keep you on target for the most part. You'll actually find yourself referencing the lines to the bottom & right of the circles rather then the centers. Set the stop on the drill press (if equipped with one) after playing around with it to get consistant pressure each time. I used Blue Magic to grease up the cookies in between rows. I found the magic number for each circle seemed to be counting to 5 and moving to the next one. I'm guessing aluminum would be much less. Mine isn't perfect but it was cheap. Once I made a DXF file and cut the profile of the insert on the laser I didn't even notice the circles not lining up perfect. I'll post a picture of my Dash in a bit, but here's a couple other: Good Luck!
Looks Great! Simple, but clever, method of indexing the swirls. Typical of me, I had a more complex method....Doh!........Thanks for posting.
Although the '54 Ford dash has a engine turned insert due to changing to a different instrument configuration I used the speedway sheet material,,looks as good as the original. HRP
Eamon Keogh in Riverside CA . , he did several pieces on my roadster with excellent results . Enter " engine turning " and his site will come up.
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