Just an idea and I don't know if this would work but what about a PVC pipe wedge to get the angle? And if that works and you're painting the aluminum you could paint the PVC wedges the same too.
Yea, the PVC is a good idea, I'm thinking I will try that first. I have a few things I really need to get done to the car before the AZ meet. Don't have a second car so we'll see what I can get done. I think I will have something rough before I drive out with Bryant.
Gonna try and see if I can change the angle at which the front of the dash sits. Made some cuts that should allow me to bend the face up towards my eyes. In order to do that I had to cut the top off which I wanted to do anyway since I want to be able to R&R this thing easily. In this picture the top is cut off. I will later figure out how I want to attach that back to the dash. There will be an angle there now so I might use some metal tabs. The pictures are not really showing it but the extensions needed to be cut on both sides so that when I tilt it up I maintain the same mounting locations. It still is surprisingly sturdy with these cut out. I also made one cut over the part that attaches the dash to the steering column. So tomorrow I will try to test fit and see what else needs to be done. On another note, if I decide to keep the stock angle of the dash I will use these aluminum tubes, cut them at angles to get the proper angle in the gauges. I got a foot of each which set me back $25. But whatever we don't use should come in handy. I have an aluminum dash insert so I might try to weld these together if I go this route.
So I installed the dash that I modified and it was sitting fairly straight up but seemed like I still needed to tilt it up some more. After looking at the work needed to make it work we decided to try a stock dash and just use the pipes cut at angles instead. So here is the dash I modified installed. You can see the face no longer points down and actually sits perpendicular to the ground. Here is the dash cap in place. I installed the faceplate for the dash I made and the gauges would face my body and not at my eyes. Which means I would have to still tilt the dash up some more. I think the nicest thing about the dash is that it is sleek and points down at an angle. Making it face straight forward takes that away. So the executive decision was made to scrap this project for now and install a stock dash and just use the angled pipe pieces to tilt up the gauges. That just looks better I think. Stay tuned for more.
Today I drilled some holes through the dash to use a rib nut tool. Here is the riv nut installed. Here is a mock up with the screws installed. I could use allen bolts but these will do for now. I layed out the angled cuts (25 degrees) over the holes. Then marked the areas that I had to grind out. Here I ground out the holes. Here is what it would look like. I had a person who works next door to Bryant's shop just put some quick tack welds down. He said that it would have been a lot nicer but the aluminum was pretty dirty and also very thin so it bent very easily.
Wow, I hope you'll have enough time to look up at the road every once in a while monitnoring all that stuff. Great fabbing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice lookin work. I am lookin fwd to seeing it finished. I have never seen a riv nut tool. What keeps the nut frm spinning when it's inserted in the metal?
thankyou mashori, it is a nice kusstum cluster and i don't mind that you repost it. Im just sorry the process of making more to sell is taking longer.... but still being worked on with the blank proto-type, but as far as now, the one that exsist is in my car=)
it's a pretty cool deal, there is a little shoulder that folds and grabs the edge of the metal. It certainly can slips but with the burrs that are created when you drill a hole it keeps it pretty steady most of the time.
I'm very confussed,in another thread someone say'n they were your daughter said you had passed away? http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=71782&page=5
