So I'm out in my garage huffing spray paint when I decided I may as well get some work done while I'm having my fun. I finished sanding the dash and got a coat of primer on there as well as undercoating on the back side of it to help eliminate a little bit of noise. They didn't sell chrome undercoating so I had to settle for black.

I hit the back side of the Lexan with a gloss black just so you could get a little better idea of what it'll look like. In retrospect this was a REALLY stupid idea on my part as now I won't be able to see where my backing is when I drill holes to mount the Lexan. Stupid is as stupid does. It was my original intention to leave it like this and it does look cool, gloss black glass almost. BUT you get those super fine scratches that irritate me plus it reflects the sun like a mirrow which would probably blind me long enough to total a Honda (not a bad thing). The front side could either be painted or covered with another material which is what I'll do when the holes are cut. Pictures are below, it will look a bit crooked because I don't have any screws holding the panel in place so the ends are flopping about.

The only other thing I really have to work on is the dash pad. I trimmed about 2" off where that middle piece comes down in the front. I still need to clearance a bit on the back of it because it's pushing the pad up about 1/4" in the middle. I'll work on that later and when I'm satisfied the pad will get a coat of a special vinyl paint so I can match the color to my truck.

I ordered Torx head screws today for the panel. I also picked up a new bling heater control and a template for the stereo. I may cut holes for them tonight . . . or maybe not.









Backside of the dash, you can see the undercoating and the opening left for guages, etc.

 

bling bling dude....that's lookin awesome! there's no way to rid of small scratches from lexan? cause that would look pretty tricked out if you could leave it like that!

-cutts-

 

Yea, I dig it. I wasn't sure how it would look but it kinda of has a mica look, sweet. Hopefully you can polish out the scratches. I'm still waiting for a modulating light thingie on there like KITT had so your truck can talk

 

hell yea, here ya go Ivan....that's all for you bud,

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/ProductDisplay/c-10101/s-10101/p-219586/mediaCode-ZX/appId-387520

-cutts-

Edit you'll have to cut and paste cause computers suck! lol

 

Ivan, you know you NEED it. Good find fishy

edit: I may be anti-bling but now I'm thinking about it that thing might look good behind my grill...kinda make my truck look like an angry Cylon

 

I'm thinking I'm going to carbon fiber the dash for a rice look. It would look awesome left blacked out as it is now but the glare would blind me. The dash is ready for paint so if I can get it shot this weekend I'll start installing it next week and then we'll see how it looks with all the guages and junk in there. I've got some carbon fiber stuff coming this week incase I go that route. Normally I'm not too big on the look but I think it may turn out alright with that panel.

Good find Fishy! I had been looking for one of those for quite a while and forgot I saw them in JC Whitney.

 

lookin good ivan, when you first posted it i wasnt sure, coulda gone either way. i like that quite a bit. i've had too many icy refreshing carbonated beverages to offer nay advice for what you could do with the backing, except that i like stainless. if it were me i'd go with that.

 

I'm going to use either stainless or polished aluminum for my switch plate and around my heater controls but it comes back to the same "blinding" thing for the guage panel. I'll cut into it a little on Wednesday or Thursday and get the radio and heater controls mounted. I need to check Summit to see how progress is going on my speedometer.

 

eh, just suck it up and dont be a crybaby. lol. is brushed all that reflective? is there any way you could put a flat clear coat on it or something?

 

Any progress made on the dash?

 

Well the rest of my guages showed up today. I'm at work so I haven't seen them yet. The 70+ hours I worked last week cut into my project time a little so I didn't get a whole lot accomplished yet. The dash is painted and turned out pretty nice, with the exception of the column cover that he forgot to remove when he shot it. But with the cover in place you'll never know the difference.

I have cut holes in the Lexan for the radio and heater controls. I need to build a new bezel for the heat controls as the one I made this weekend didn't fit quite right. Using an eighth inch sheet of aluminum I constructed a bling bling plate for all my switches to attach to. If I change switches or anything later I'll just build a new plate . . . simple enough. I have hole saws for my guages so tonight when I pick them up I'll make a mock guage panel to make sure I like the fit of everything before I hack into the Lexan.

The only thing I haven't decided on yet is what I'm going to use for blinkers and high beam signals. There's the good old fashioned LED's but I was thinking it would be trick to have the actual emblems on lenses like most cars. I have a few lenses but don't know if I want to deal with the hassle of constructing it all.

I'll probably have some pics of my progress tomorrow.

 

Alright, here's what I got. I hacked a piece of our cupboard door to the same dimensions as the guage panel for my dash (Katherine doesn't know yet. Shhh! ). I had planned to have 6 guages but I accidently cut a wrong hole and liked the way it turned out so this will leave me room for 2 other guages . . . nitrous pressure maybe or boost guage when I have a blower. I also found out Autometer makes diff temp guages . . . not needed but they're bling. The only thing I'm missing is my temp guage. It's mechanical so it's still in the truck as you can't just detach the sending unit. The black guage won't be staying (look familiar Pro? ) but I used it to get an idea of what it would all look like. This is mocked out to go where the panel to the left of the aliminum section is on the bottom picture. Turn signals will go above the 5" guages and indicator lights will be dead center.

What do you guys think? Any ideas on changing placement of the guages or anything? I want to get it all figured out before I hack up the Lexan.

 

I would try switching the tach and speedometer around, i've always thought the tach in the middle looks better.

 

Hell with the lexan, just keep the cupboard door

 

Hahaha! Pro just told me the same thing. The line between the speedo and tach is actually the center (steering column) so they'll both be centered perfectly. I was thinking of going with a vacuum guage so I know how bad my truck sucks and maybe one of these if I can find it in an Ultra-Lite: