I want to start out this post by saying that the dash has not even close to being finished. I got it in and the new ends on, and then got the cluster in it and that has been it so far. It is one item on my to do list, and it will get finished to a much higher degree in the near future. Unfortunately there is nothing on this truck since coming home from LST that is even close to clean.
I did make one promise when I started this blog and that was to show the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm not a pro at this just a passionate DYI builder. So with saying that let's get into where the dash sits today...
As you can see in the below shots what I did initially was take the dash out of the donor truck and simply fit it to it's new home. Now I did a ton of measurements first, but found that it would fit really nicely. The important part was making sure it would work with the existing steering wheel, and it did that with ease. It is lightly tacked to the existing structure on the top and better welds underneath where they cannot be seen. What I had to do was make some simple sheet metal ends that would blend the rather large gaps. Those ends are going to get redone. They interfere with the door panels and are angled out to far. Sometimes stuff just does not work...
I have yet to figure out what I want to do with the old center vents. I would like to run some AC vents out those holes, but have not found a vent I like, and those outside square body vents are going to have to go when I redo the ends at some point.
The center console is not finished either. We busted a hump to get it done enough to drive to LST, but we did not finish the 2 upper side panels. They are supposed to link together with a bridge piece that fits right under the dash. Hard to describe but you will understand it when we get it done. It just looks so unfinished right now...
The gauges are out of the donor burb. I mated them to the 61 original dash panel, and so far they have been serving me well. When I was doing this my budget was a bit short and this was an easy way to go. I might get a fancy set of gauges but that is a long way away...
So I hope this gives you a current idea where I am at with the dash and where we are headed in the long run. Still under construction would be the best way to describe it!
Stay tuned!