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Greg-J · 05-23-2009, 05:42 AM

Working on the dash now.

First an explanation of why I'm bothering. I'm a designer and a developer (programmer) so I stick with what I know and play my strengths. My dash will house a gauge cluster and a single 8" touch screen monitor and the car will be controlled primarily via a PC with a dedicated battery with a 7 day standby time and a 36 switch usb relay controller. In our area we have clearwire as well, so the car will have dedicated broadband on all the time. When it's all said and done I'll be able to control everything (everything)in the car through the dash, use my iphone to control the car, music, video, etc. Not that it's a major goal of mine, but if I want to I'll be able to start the car, turn on the AC, roll down the windows and change my fuel to air ratio - from across the globe.

Kind of ridiculous I know, but the ability to do that is really just a byproduct of what I do want to be able to do.

On do the dash...

Using a profile gauge I got the profile of the dash in the middle and on the sides and made several templates out of 1/4" MDF to end up with the final profile I wanted.

Originally the plan was to mock up the dash wire-frame in wood MDF and 1/4" dowels as a proof-of-concept and then build it out 1/4" steel plating and round bar. After doing so I decided to scratch the mockup and build it out of MDF, fiberglass it and use aluminum for the face and sides. It saves me several hundred dollars in materials and waterjetting and it's more fun to me. I've always been better with wood than metal. Here's a shot of the new dash components next to the old one - which suffered from a slight fit of frustration..

A few shots of the profile pieces to get an idea of the profile of the dash when it's complete.

Here is the side profile:

The middle profile:

The side fabricated

The middle fabricated

1/4" dowels worked great for the wire-frame. It gave the overall shape and I was happy with it save for some minor tweaks. After deciding to do it out of wood I turned to many, many strips of 1/4" MDF in widths ranging from 3/8" to 7/8". My starting materials:

Today was spent mostly clamping, gluing, waiting. Wash, rinse, repeat. Not wanting to breathe resin or epoxy all day I chose to take it easy and use plain old wood glue. I did however reinforce some of the mounting points with either resin or epoxy, whatever was closer to me at the time. Here's what I have so far:

And that's what I have so far. Tomorrow I'll get the top profile of the dash done. I need to take out the steering column to do the bottom, so we'll see how far I get. All in all I'm enjoying myself and happy with my progress - which is what this is all about right?

05-23-2009, 05:42 AM	#10
Greg-J Join Date: May 2009 Vehicle: 1967 Ford Mustang Coupe Spring Special Location: Oregon Posts: 16	Working on the dash now. First an explanation of why I'm bothering. I'm a designer and a developer (programmer) so I stick with what I know and play my strengths. My dash will house a gauge cluster and a single 8" touch screen monitor and the car will be controlled primarily via a PC with a dedicated battery with a 7 day standby time and a 36 switch usb relay controller. In our area we have clearwire as well, so the car will have dedicated broadband on all the time. When it's all said and done I'll be able to control everything (everything)in the car through the dash, use my iphone to control the car, music, video, etc. Not that it's a major goal of mine, but if I want to I'll be able to start the car, turn on the AC, roll down the windows and change my fuel to air ratio - from across the globe. Kind of ridiculous I know, but the ability to do that is really just a byproduct of what I do want to be able to do. On do the dash... Using a profile gauge I got the profile of the dash in the middle and on the sides and made several templates out of 1/4" MDF to end up with the final profile I wanted. Originally the plan was to mock up the dash wire-frame in wood MDF and 1/4" dowels as a proof-of-concept and then build it out 1/4" steel plating and round bar. After doing so I decided to scratch the mockup and build it out of MDF, fiberglass it and use aluminum for the face and sides. It saves me several hundred dollars in materials and waterjetting and it's more fun to me. I've always been better with wood than metal. Here's a shot of the new dash components next to the old one - which suffered from a slight fit of frustration.. A few shots of the profile pieces to get an idea of the profile of the dash when it's complete. Here is the side profile: The middle profile: The side fabricated The middle fabricated 1/4" dowels worked great for the wire-frame. It gave the overall shape and I was happy with it save for some minor tweaks. After deciding to do it out of wood I turned to many, many strips of 1/4" MDF in widths ranging from 3/8" to 7/8". My starting materials: Today was spent mostly clamping, gluing, waiting. Wash, rinse, repeat. Not wanting to breathe resin or epoxy all day I chose to take it easy and use plain old wood glue. I did however reinforce some of the mounting points with either resin or epoxy, whatever was closer to me at the time. Here's what I have so far: And that's what I have so far. Tomorrow I'll get the top profile of the dash done. I need to take out the steering column to do the bottom, so we'll see how far I get. All in all I'm enjoying myself and happy with my progress - which is what this is all about right?