Custom Made Instrument and Switch Panels

Since we’re on easy tech this morning, here’s another.
This particular panel designed by Grandson for his Ranger.
He received it as seen and took the brushed finish to the end.
Made for a nice looking panel and a touch different from his friends trucks as well as you can’t buy these anywhere.

All this one takes is a bit of layout, a few drills and a hole saw to match the instrument size.
The big secret is what it’s made from.
Not billet per se although not far from it.

Note in this first pic the basic layout for the panel is on an aluminum box for want of a better word.
The box is 3/16" aluminum of a fairly good grade.
The aluminum takes a brushed or buffed finish quite well.
The box is open ended, usually about 24" long and quite a few instrument panels and switch panels can be made from it.
What’s great about cutting panels from the box are the nicely rounded corners.
Better to me than the commonly available sharp edged 90 corner on angle aluminum although if you find the right kind of angle you can knock out some good switch panels from it.
Using angle aluminum to make instrument panels works, but in most cases it’s either too thin or not deep enough to support the 2 1/8" or 2 5/8" gauges.
I’ve used the stuff in 4 x 4's to make combination switch/instrument panels, but a piece had to be Tigged on to make it deep enough for the instruments.

As you can see I’ve cut more than a few panels out of this piece.

You can get the aluminum boxes at electrical supply houses.
I don’t know the exact name for them, but the ones I’ve seen in use were in the power industry and used to bring control cables in the switchyard out of a cable trench, through a cement wall and up into a switch or transformer control mechanism.
They’re usually put in place when the cable trench cement wall goes in.

Some more pics and info coming, so hang in there.

 

This shows the basic layout done with pencil and Sharpie.
Most times it’s a good idea to extend the switch section out a bit to allow for future expansion, but Grandson had a limited area to work in so the panel was made to a specific length.

 

The drilling and hole sawing are pretty straight forward.
In lieu of a hole saw, a series of 1/8" holes just inside the instrument hole works well.
Hit em with a small cold chisel to bridge the holes, knock out the plug and then bring it to finish size with a coarse grit sanding drum on your hand-held drill motor.
A good half-round file works well too.
I’ve done it both ways.

This pic shows the upper flange where it mounts under the dash.

 

This pic shows how the panel will look once mounted under the dash.
All except for the final brushed finish.
What you see here is how the panel looked after being run flat on a bench belt-sander and the outer face cleaned up and leveled.
A little hand sanding by Grandson and it was a done deal.

 

The nice part about using these electric boxes is something you can’t see in the pics.
Namely, a square piece that’s extruded with the box during the manufacturing process.
The piece is about 1/4" square and used to accept a machine screw for a lid or filler piece around the cables.
The square piece is useful for instrument panels because you can use it for alignment purposes.
The square piece was cut off of the panel above.
This second panel has the square piece left on and the upper lip made longer so I could bolt the panel in my 32 to the 1" square tubing across the cockpit behind the dash that supports the steering column hanger.
Reason for the extension was to put the 32's auxiliary panel closer to the firewall and out of sight from the casual viewer as well as hang several toggle switches on it.

The 32's aux panel is to the left of the steering column in this pic.
It’s not easily seen by the casual observer, but in plain view of the driver.

 

Another great post, C9!!!

Simple, home-made parts...the CORE of traditional hot rodding!!!

 

I'd like to see a pic of that.

Sweetie wants a cupholder in the 32.
I've been mulling a few ideas over, but it wouldn't hurt to see what others have done.

 

Man that thing came out great. I've taken more than a few of these boxes to the recycler. No more...