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Dash Fabrication – Part 1

Since the interior was gutted, I needed a way to mount critical electronics and gauges. I decided to fabricate my own dash out of sheet metal.

Info

This post was originally published in 2018, and has been adopted to this static-site from wordpress. The build has since been retired.

Current state of the interior when I started the fabrication. The current state of the interior when I started the fabrication.

The dash was fabricated out of 16ga cold-rolled steel. In hindsight, I could/should have used 6061 aluminum for only around 40$ more. However- I was satisfied with the end result, which will be seen in later posts.

Initial draft of the dash mocked up. Here is the initial draft of the dash being mocked up. Ignore the flux-core mig splatter, this work was completed before I owned my TIG welder. Notice the rusty piece of sheet metal in the center. This was the original fuse-box assembly I created.

Cable management hook under the dash. A panel was mounted underneath the dash to hold the ECU and TCU. I created a simple cable management hook to hold the excess wire lengths from the passenger's side floorboard.

Underdash wiring. A image of some of the wiring mess as i was working on doing the electronics work.

Temporary tablet mount. I created a temporary tablet mount for my cheap tablet, out of some of the excess steel I had laying around. This was utilized before I had a proper dash instrumentation.

See part 2 here