I've also been working on the dash for the car. In my opinion, '33-34 dashes are hard to make look good in anything other than stock form. I had an old '32 3w dash that was in a hot rod at some point in its life. Someone had remade the bottom half to accept an Auburn panel (along with a 5" Stewart Warner speedometer and tach), and after sitting it in the car, I thought it was a cool look: Unfortunately, that dash panel was a little too far gone to make it worth while for the '33, so I picked up a new Brookville flat 3w dash to use. Here's an idea of what I wanted to get at:
Surprisingly, a '32 3w dash was about 1 1/8" too wide to fit into the '33, so I was going to have to narrow the dash. The other bigger challenge was making the upper dash rail package around the windshield regulator. A stock '33-34 dash is humped out in that area, which I did not want to do with the '32 dash. I decided to cut the raised section of the upper dash rail out, and shrink the flanges. The shrinking allowed the upper dash rail to get a nice sweep to it, and by cutting it out first, any length lost due to the sweep could be trimmed down to fit the soon to be narrowed dash. I had to make filler pieces for both the upper and lower flanges of the dash rail due to the sweep as well:
Once the upper rail work was about 75% done, I moved onto lengthening the lower area to accept the Auburn panel. I added 1 1/2" to it, and got the hole cut for the Auburn panel. As of today, I got the welds hammered and rough ground enough to do a mockup in the car. Overall, I think I'm pretty happy with the concept. I'm going to make something to finish off the transition between the upper rail and windshield crank knob, and maybe put dual gloveboxes in the dash to balance out the space. The dash still needs quite a bit of finish work, the Auburn panel needs to be repaired from the current gauge sizing/spacing, and the cowl vent handle and spring need to be moved a little to clear the gauge panel as well......
I spent some time this week working on the glove boxes for the dash. I used some 1/4" blue tape and came up with a shape that complimented the Auburn panel and lower rib. From there, I traced the profile on a piece of paper so that I could scan it and trace it in CAD. I took that profile in CAD, and came up with a door that has a raised rib around the perimeter to compliment the Auburn panel. I designed a ring (green in the pics) that will be machined from mild steel so that it can be welded into the dash. It has the provisions for the hinge and a couple rubber bumpers. The door and hinge are getting machined from aluminum. I'll also be using some '60s VW glove boxes latches as they're very compact and look pretty cool too.
Continuing on the dash..... The windshield crank looked like it was hanging out in the wind on the '32 dash rail, so I thought it needed something to finish/integrate it a bit better. I decided to model something in CAD rather than try to fabricate it. Using a contour gauge, I captured the profile of the dash rail and transferred that to a piece of paper. Then I scanned it so that I could trace the profile in CAD. From there, I took some more measurements of how much the crank moves vertically during the sweep to make sure I captured that in the design. I built a raised surface, with a design that was flexible for any errors on my measurements: I got the center piece machined from mild steel so that I could weld it into the dash. Here's shot of it laying on top of the rail. After scribing the dykem on the rail, I cut the dash so that the center piece could be set in place and welded:
Thanks for sharing. For some reason, I never considered having pieces cad-cam designed and machined for a hot rod or custom. Is it very expensive? Sent from my VS835 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I do my own CAD work, so it's "free" like any other work I would do. I farm out the machine work, so that is cost, but I justify it as time I get to spend working on something else for the car. That center piece in particular was around $200 to machine. I didn't think that was bad, considering it's steel and a very difficult shape to hold/fixture while whittling it out. If I had to fab it by hand, I'd likely have quite a bit of time in it, and it wouldn't have turned out as nice.
what a waist of a great original body should of started with a plastic one already chopped. Saw Zalls are for WOOD henry wood not approve
I appreciate the constructive criticism! Quick question - where is the sawzall ok? Mustang II applications? Figured you would know since those are up your alley! By the way, my sawzall has only cut 2x4s.
Hahaha ... ( Shaking my screen ... banging my keyboard. Nope. Not the AACA forum. ) Cut that sum' b*tch up. Hell, whack the fenders too. Bob 'em & louver the sh*t out of everything ! Just to spite everyone ... & make it look b*itch'n.
Thanks, CT. "Constructive criticism" Good one... LOL. Sent from my VS835 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Your builds are always outstanding and I "watch" all of them just to see what amazing things you do next.
The pieces for the gloveboxes came in this week, so I was looking forward to getting them installed in the dash. The main ring was machined from mild steel, so that I could weld it into the panel. The install was pretty straightforward - scribing the dash, cutting out the hole, and welding the ring in. Once that was complete, the doors and hinges simply fastened together. I had to fabricate some strikers for the latches to hook to, but the mounting provisions were already on the back of the steel rings.
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