Wow, that's a lot of gauges. But I agree that the new design looks better than the old. The old one looked "art deco" to me, which is fine for your living room but not for a car.
I'm curious as to how you'll handle the ventilation?
Wow, that's a lot of gauges. But I agree that the new design looks better than the old. The old one looked "art deco" to me, which is fine for your living room but not for a car.
I'm curious as to how you'll handle the ventilation?
Art deco....hadn't really thought of that, I'll have to take another look, although, it probably would have looked different with paint and vinyl. I don't have A/C and probably won't be installing it, so the ventilation is a relatively minor issue. I have space on the ends for the ducts there, and the center vent, well, I could put it below the LCD screen, or split it and put a half a vent on either side. On the ends, I'll divert some air flow to vents in the doors as well. I'll be making door panels that will mate to the dash (I hope). As for gauges, there are 7 aux gauges, including fuel level, fuel pressure, oil pressure, temp, volts, trans temp, and vacuum. I'll most likely add a wide band O2 gauge at some point, but that may have to go to the A pillar.
Did a quick test-fit of the plug tonight. I like the way it sits. Obviously still have to finish the sides and make some small section for underneath. The top including the lip will be vinyl, which will cover the end piece as well, but only about half way down. The bottom half will be painted. The face of the dash will probably be mostly polished or aluminum. I'm still working that part out.
This is what the drivers view is. This shot was at my eye level sitting in the driver's seat.
Another shot just looking over the dash, obviously a clear view.
From outside the car. I think I like it.
The speaker pods are too high, but I suspected they may be, so I already have a plan for dealing with those. Basically, I'll cast as-is, and when the final part is made I'll cut those out, and switch sides and mold them back in upside-down so they're recessed instead of extruded.
I'm still on it. I actually cut it down some so it's not quite so high. Not a lot of time to work on it lately with the holidays. I'm going to (hopefully) get a little time on it the next couple of weeks before Christmas.
No recent progress. It's been too hectic over the last couple of weeks, and there's no sign of letting up until after Christmas. We're taking a vacation to Key West between Christmas and New Years, so I won't be back to work on it until after then I imagine. Hopefully January and February will be productive on my projects, including the dash build.
I like the last one best myself John. My only suggestion might be to make the whole front face angled upward a little to make the gauges easier to read. It looks to me in the pics that the face is nearly 90* to the top. A sloping face would look better to me astheticly than straight up and down. Just something to think about. If youd like it, it shouldnt be that hard to remodify. You wouldnt even need to completely cut them apart. Just a cut 1/2 way thru clear across and bend it, clamp and reglass it.
I like the last one best myself John. My only suggestion might be to make the whole front face angled upward a little to make the gauges easier to read. It looks to me in the pics that the face is nearly 90* to the top. A sloping face would look better to me astheticly than straight up and down. Just something to think about. If youd like it, it shouldnt be that hard to remodify. You wouldnt even need to completely cut them apart. Just a cut 1/2 way thru clear across and bend it, clamp and reglass it.
The visibility is actually really good with it more or less straight up and down like that, although, I did cut some off the bottom front edge to make the whole face a little shorter all the way across, and lowered the front an inch or so and re-angled the face a bit. It has a much sleeker look now, not being quite so high overall. No pics at the moment but I'll grab some. I'm still on this project, I just get very de-motivated in the middle of winter, it really drags me down. But now with summer fast setting in I'm starting to feel my energy return. I'm hoping to get some stuff done on the whole project this year, including the 4.9 install.
It's been a long time coming, but I'm starting to get fired up about my dash build. I've spent a lot of time lately getting my shops organized so I could get back to work. I pulled the dash (which will actually serve as a plug when it's done) and got it back on my work table. I cut it down some, as it looked a little slab-faced to me. It doesn't look like much from this angle, and a crappy cell phone pic, but here it is at the moment anyway:
You can tell I cut about two inches off the bottom. I'm working on the re-placement of the gauges. From the beginning I said I wanted a very simple design, and I keep having to remind myself of that, as I tend to move into more complex designs without intending to. At the moment, I'm teaching myself Google Sketch-up in order to try and get a more accurate rendition of the end design. So far it's been a lot of trial and error (including two completely trashed dash designs) which has taken a bunch of time, wasted effort, and dollars needlessly spent on wasted materials. (Huh, design *before* you build....new concept to me) The fact is, I usually design as I go, but this probably isn't the best project to use that approach with.
Anyway, I'm fired up and should be working towards some good progress over the next couple of months. Once I get the design/plug/mold/part process down I have some cool ideas in mind for the rest of the build, including some trim pieces for the 4.9.
