it's not too bad, it has a hardtop roof that's convertible. it's in primer all over. bryant is putting in an engine and T5. They were just working on the rear end and drive shaft. it's gonna be nice when done.
They are called retractable hardtops. Only made in 57, 58, & 59. I have a 57 Ranchero and 57 2 door wagon. My favorite cars. Sorry for the detour, now back to your regularly scheduled thread.
saw a very similar dash insert as Don's custom insert. Looked great. But this guy had some other stuff, I asked his permission for pics so I hope it's ok to post . . . This is how I like my gauges to look. Bryant and I are thinking of putting similar inserts into the dash. Hard to see in this view but the metal work is impressive. We may have figured out a way to do it a little easier. we'll see
I took a new approach and so far I like how it turned out. You can't see it in this pic but I cut out the entire inner part of the dash and used some cardboard to get the right dimentions for an aluminum insert. I kept the cardboard template in case anyone wants it. In this pic you can see the insert installed, no bolts holding it in place. Going to probably use riv nuts to hold it in later. The dash behind it is how I cut out the entire center section. We used whatever we had laying around to figure out the layout. We made some outlines with a sharpy and then used a punch to mark the cuts. I had to buy a hole saw for the drill 3 1/4 size which was expensive. Looks nice doesn't it? The center ones are for the tach and speedo 3 3/8" and the other smaller gauge will be 2 1/16" for the other gauges.
Only problem I see is that you might want to put a satin finish on the aluminum with a scotchbrite pad or something. The sun will glare off the shiny aluminum, probably at the worst possible time! I had a stainless bug shield on a truck one time. Most of the time it was fine, but at certain times of the day when going the right direction, it would blind you with the reflection!
I don't really like the look of aluminum as a dash, it's a personal thing. I prefer to paint or actually powder coat it, I think it will match the interior more and look nicer. What do you guys think?
how do I countersink the holes? I didn't think about the angles, thanks for pointing that out. It should give it a more 3D look if I put some PVS angle pieces. What I don't like too much about this dash is that it's so flat. It could use a bend and a curve . . .
