Last Hemi Model A Coupe update for now....Made it to the Lonestar Roundup!

Dude, your drawing amazes me. I wish I could translate my ideas into sketches. You are the man dude.
Jimmy White

 

having gotten a degree in art and always seeing how people accomplish a project, i think that seeing the old sketches and sketch book ideas is fantastic.
i have learned more about alotvof pieces just by seeing the inspirations than any one thing someone has told me...

those sketches just tell a story...from the first one with 157 (magic number?) to the last ink one, to the other ones that we havent seen...

you can tell there is a progression in thought and everything has been planned out and completed in a manner which suits what you set out to accomplish...

-b

 

get em bass! you bad ass!

 

I'm still thrashing away on the coupe trying to get it to the Roundup. Since the motor is still at the machineshop, I used the last couple of days to make some headway on the dash for the car.

I started off with a bare '40 Mercury dash shell that I found at the Pate swap meet in '01 or '02 for $20. I originally just cut it down the center to narrow it to fit the Model A cowl.

Oddly enough I found the glovebox door at the Pate swap meet two years later and it cost almost as much as the dash.



After I got the steering in the car, I realized that the steering column notch and bulge for the gauge cluster weren't going to be centered over the column if I left the dash as it was. So I had to narrow the dash on the left 4 tape lines above. I ended up taking out almost 4 inches to center the notch over the column.



After fixing that, I had to add the 4 inches I took out back to the center to make the dash wide enough again. Once I had that accomplished, I starting filling the unused holes by hammer welding patch panels in.



You'll notice in the pic above that there is one gauge already installed and the other holes layed out. I'm using the big Stewart Warner 2 5/8" gauges.

A while back, my good friend BIG RIC machined some really nice "collars" that the gauges sit in, and allow me to recess them into the dash. I'm really glad I had these, because I would have had a hell of a time putting all the gauges in without them. Here's a close-up pic of one of the collars he made:



And here's a trial fit of the dash in the car....I'm using a '40 Standard wheel and '40 Standard mast jacket:



After trimming and welding in all 6 collars for the gauges, I moved on to the speedo. Im using a weird little speedo out of a '56 Studebaker that I bought from Ray here on the HAMB. I think it looks like a miniature '50s TV set, and is just funky enough to work since I wanted some '50s kitsch in the interior.

Here it is with the first mock-up. You can see that there's a big gap under the bottom that I'll have to fill.



After a making a pattern, cutting some 18 ga., and some welding we have a "stand-off" for the gauge to sit on:



I also stripped the paint off of it, and was suprised to find that the housing was die-cast aluminum....I thought it was pot metal originally. After realizing that, I polished it. Here's a better look at the speedo...it has numbers that go from green to yellow/orange to red depending on how fast you are going...



I still have some switches and levers to add next to the speedo, a tach bracket to make, I have to figure out what to do with the outside corners of the dash, and I have to weld it to the Model A dash rail. But I am making decent progress.



Here's a shot of the gauge recesses....they are recessed a little more at the bottom than the top because the dash sits at an angle.



The glove box will be functional when I'm done, but I still need to either find some '40 Merc hinges, or make some.



Thanks for looking....see you at the Roundup!

-Brian

 

dam fine work !!!!!!

 

VERY nice, Bass....................................Littleman

 

Awesome! You do some fine work!

 

Hero.

 

Very awesome work Bass! I am looking at something similar for our ModelA Good inspiration for me.. The 50 Ford Dash in the Rocky33 got me fired up years ago................

 

Amazing metal work Bass.

 

THIS..is one of the few reasons i read this board. real craftsmanship bro.

 

Here you go again, Bass...thinking out of the box...again !

Damn fine work, love the speedo !

 

All around excellence. The speedo is awsome, very unique. A work of art. I love it.

 

Incredible work....but the style...I like your style!
can't wait to see it running in a couple of weeks!
John Joyo...

 

everything on and in this car is just right. keep it up. i need to swing by and check it out and check on the progress.

and is that daniels truck in the back still not done.

 

Damn!

Nice original idea and beautifully done.

Cheers

MAIKI

 

Hey man dash looks great. Love the speedo...that totally rocks.

But are ya really gonna mount the tach up there? Seems kinda like an afterthought like that...

Olson

 

It's been wonderful following this build along. Great stuff.
I too am wondering about the tach. You've done such a wonderful job of integrating all the other gauges.

Mike

 

You work fast, it didn't look like that on Sunday.

Nice work.

 

Beautiful work! Very innovative use of an old speedo, Stude on top of that! Looks awesome, can`t wait to see more!

 

Man that speedo is cool.I don't guess I've ever been fortunate enough to see one before.
Now I'll prolly spend the rest of my life lookin' for one.
That is some really cool work.

 

Excellant creativity Brian, not to mention the top notch fabrication.

 

Hero ! for sure . That's lookin so right on.That speedo is the kats ass. swaZZie

 

Nice work BASS!! You always do cool stuff and nice work!!!......OLDBEET

 

I love that speedo!

Great work.

I look forward to your next update.

 

really REALLY like it!

Great job.


FONZI

 

Killer........

 

You do some beautiful work!!!

 

Thanks for all the kind words guys. I was hesitant to start on the dash before, because I just couldn't picture it in my head. But after I saw the speedo Ray put up for sale in the classifieds, something just kind of clicked.

It'll look a lot better when it's finished and detailed. The switches and levers will tie it all together a little more. There will be an "airplane style" lever on each side of the speedo. One for turn signals, and the other for high/low beam.

I agree. I just clamped it to the dash rail for the pics so I could get an idea of where and how I wanted to mount it. I've attached a rough sketch (on a paper plate, no less) of what I'm thinking....It needs some kind of chromed and drilled out bracket to bring some of the racecar inspired "hole-iness" (tm) into the interior.

Thanks fellas...