Fibreglass dash - progress

[stephen low]

G'day All

Had started to think on what I wanted the dash to look like over the standard dash that came with my car.

I wanted to use the dash style that infills down to the tranny tunnel and was going to mod. the aluminium GF version I had but ended up using this as a mould to spring a fibreglass version off.

The first pic shows the original aluminium version I have, test fitted into the car.

Attachment 12678

As well as not infilling as I want, the traditional gauge locations means the rev counter is tucked away almost out of sight to the right. Paid too much money to have the Cobra style VDO's not on show so this and how I would hide the shroud / dash interface were the other reasons for a new dash.

This pic shows the first layers of glass taken off the aluminium version with extension added and shroud/steering cut out added.

Attachment 12675

Copied attachment points and rolled edges off GF dash as these were nice features and help to locate and affix dash later, these are shown in the next pic.

Attachment 12676

Decided on shroud surround look by looking at various forum pics. - thanks guys for the inspiration and it has finished up no too bad.

Attachment 12677

Anyway still to put a few more layers into the dash to make it more rigid and have also moulded the glove box off the old dash and whilst I was at it made my heater air collection box for the red dot heater I picked up earlier in the week.

Hopefully I should stop scratching from the fibreglass in a day or two.

Cheers

Steve

[Gav]

Well done Slowy,
What is your new layout going to be?

Gav

[stephen low]

Gav

Refering to the aluminium dash, I'm thinking the speedo will be in the same left hand large hole location with the rev counter diagonally down and to the left. Will still try and do invert triangle for the 5 small gauges I will use (no clock) perhaps just a touch further left on the dash.

Still looking towards a more contemporary style finish but one that is functional for all gauges and puts them all out there on show.

Haven't yet thought about globes and any other switches needed. The beauty of the f/glass is that if I drill holes in the wrong location, I can fix and relocate.

I will eventually face the dash with a timber finish.

Cheers

[BJ's Snake]

Hi Slowy,
Done much the same with mine but used MDF to get the right shape then fibreglassed over the top which has made it very strong.Decided on a triangle layout then painted same colour as stripe,the good old keep it simple way.

Cheers BJ

[stephen low]

Yep BJ

I think it was your dash that led me towards simplefying my shroud cut-out as I was trying too hard to get a close match all the way around and it was looking stupid for a while.

The returns I've made in this area around the shroud receed some distance backwards so that the interface between the dash and shroud is lost into shadow/dark.

I'll laminate a thin wooden veneer onto the front for the look which will also strengthen the overall structure.

Whilst I'm thinking about it, can anyone point me at the source of the dash foam impact padding I'm sure I'll need for engineering?

Cheers