The dash started with a ton of hours looking at cars in the wrecking yard trying to figure out what style. I picked a style that I though fit the maverick and would be easy to make. I bent some welding rods to finalize the shape. This way I could measure the rod and figure out how big of sheet to start with. I cut some 18 ga steel and bent it up to the welding rod template. I set the bent up sheet in the car and cut the windshield radius in the top with my plasma. Once this was done I cut the sides to clear the doors. Next I cut the spot for the thunderbird gauges. I set them on the steering column support. Next I made a cardboard template of the gauge pod. Fabed that out of steel. The glove box took a little time because I needed to decide how to make the flange. I took the easy route and tacked on a piece to make the flange. The glove box copies a new car using the back wall as the stop. The latch is from a KC-135R crew entry latch that I had laying around. The real hard work was next, making the stock A/C heater box connect to all the registers. The outer registers use a flexible hose so no problem there. The center was a different story because the register and the defrost ducts needed to be together. I cut the stock defroster vents from the stock dash and welded then to the bottom of the new dash. This let me use the tabs to connect the plastic defroster. On the top side I made some billet vents that press into the maverick stock vent holes. For the center register I made a square box to connect it to the dash. At first I was going to use Nissan 240 vents but now I plane to make my own using the Maverick horns in the bezels. Next up was what to do with the light switch and wiper switch. I looked at different types but settled on the stock ones. I made a small pod and tacked it to the dash on the left side of the column. One thing I wanted for this car was a start button. I bought a Honda s2000 button from e-bay. This also took a while to find the right spot. I ended up putting it opposite of the lights and wiper. But the pod needed something else in it to make it look even. The answer was a 12v auxiliary port. I cleaned up the welds and added some stiffeners. Then bondoed and painted the dash. Talked to some guts at the upholstery shop and got some direction. I also picked the vinyl foam and spray glue to cover the dash. Covering the dash has been a huge learning curve. My first attempted is what you see in the photos. The vinyl wasn’t long enough and I made some mistakes cutting the defroster vents. I also have decided that some of the pieces need to be sewn. I will pull the dash in the next couple of weeks to redo the dash. Using a heat gun this time and sewing some of the seams should make it look a lot better. Sorry for the long post but that dash took some work to create.
Truly AWESOME car. You are THE MASTER. I am humbled. By the way, what do or did you do for a living ?
Cool my dad used to work at March, and i used to work across the street at the Fresh and Easy Distribution Center.
