69/70 owners....anyone ever want a fiberglass dash?

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You know, for years, I've been thinking about doing a real street sleeper car... very deceptive kinda thing. Make it look like a total restoration of a '69 Mach with a 351W 2 barrel, except use all fiberglass where I could. That site pretty much has it all. Yep, I think a nice stroked 427W with a mild cam, ported exhaust manifolds, 3.5 inch single exhaust, 2 barrel Nascar prepped carb with original air cleaner, 5 speed TKO with a classic Hurst 4 speed handle. Yep, look like a nice sedate 16 second stock as a rock Mach that runs low 12s... I'd like that. :)
 
DarkBuddha said:
You know, for years, I've been thinking about doing a real street sleeper car... very deceptive kinda thing. Make it look like a total restoration of a '69 Mach with a 351W 2 barrel, except use all fiberglass where I could. That site pretty much has it all. Yep, I think a nice stroked 427W with a mild cam, ported exhaust manifolds, 3.5 inch single exhaust, 2 barrel Nascar prepped carb with original air cleaner, 5 speed TKO with a classic Hurst 4 speed handle. Yep, look like a nice sedate 16 second stock as a rock Mach that runs low 12s... I'd like that. :)

I hear ya, but I'd go more extreme with the deception and weight loss. I'd use the fibreglass, and an aluminium 302 block with forged internals. The sound would be less hostile than a big block when cruising, and the weight would be WAYYY down over the big block. Once you hammer it though, the sound would be nastier than the big block IMO, high-revving screamin' demon.
 
Route666 said:
I hear ya, but I'd go more extreme with the deception and weight loss. I'd use the fibreglass, and an aluminium 302 block with forged internals. The sound would be less hostile than a big block when cruising, and the weight would be WAYYY down over the big block. Once you hammer it though, the sound would be nastier than the big block IMO, high-revving screamin' demon.
Nice idea with the aluminum block, but a 302 never came stock in a Mach. A stroked 351W (to 427) would still look stock and non threatening, but I'd definitely do aluminum heads and intake (ground clean and painted blue of course). Its definitely a fine line to walk but a damn tasty line. :nice:
 
i'm kinda goin sleeper with the 69 coupe but i'm using all the original steel panels, if i had the money i'd go 'glass. they also have fiberglass quarter skins for early cougars, and there are other places that make complete glass front ends as well. now that would be one helluva sleeper, an all glass 69-70 cougar. i may have to get that glass dash and play around with it a bit :shrug:
 
DarkBuddha said:
Nice idea with the aluminum block, but a 302 never came stock in a Mach. A stroked 351W (to 427) would still look stock and non threatening, but I'd definitely do aluminum heads and intake (ground clean and painted blue of course). Its definitely a fine line to walk but a damn tasty line. :nice:

Well if one of us wins a lottery of sufficient monatary volume, we must build our version of this car of which we speak, and give money to the other for them to build their version, and bring them together at some race tracks! :nice: ahh dreams...
 
Hehe, sweet. Sorry bout the jacking there.

What benefits would you get from a fibreglass dash anyways? Weight? Make up your own gauge cluster, paint it I suppose. Any negatives, apart from it not being original? Is it a direct replacement thing, or require fabbing?
 
benefits

Well for starters Shelby used glass so he saw some advantages. I have been fighting rust on my car ever since I started working on it and fiberglass is very appealing to me for that reason alone. It is lighter than steel and it doesn't deform or dent but it does "spider" crack on hard impacts. I think a lot of people turn away form using glass because of some companies' bad production molds that result in doing body work on new panels to get them straight. Even with the best pieces available there is probably always going to be some prep and fabrication to make the stuff look and fit like stock pieces. That could be looked at as another benefit, if ya screw up just cut or sand it off and mix up some more.