I'm confident that 90% of people that look at the progress pics I post of this dash, look and say to themselves "what the hell is this guy doing"?
(And I mean that in a negative context)
Like the body mods to the red car, 75% of the people that like their standard factory Fox interiors are saying That I f'd that up all to hell. There are times that I've sat and thought that myself.
Whether I have, or have not is at the too bad phase now, I'm pretty well entrenched at this stage.
The turning point for me on the dash was my decision to cut the console away from the lower bar of the dash and build that as a separate unattached unit. It got better when I decided to build the top attachment bar, and better again when I built the gauge pod.
For the last two days, I've made inroads towards accepting it even more.
Believe it or not, building a bar like this takes a really long time. Not only do you have to make a whole bunch of bends at varying degrees and angles, everything has to be welded in the proper orientation once all of that is done. Compounding that, is the fact that I have to make another exact duplicate to run beneath it. Then, once I've made the sister bar, and welded it to the other, I have to find a way to attach it to the door that allows me to make adjustments to the alignment, and spacing because this door bar has to mesh with the dash bar, (when the door is closed) and cant be too close (or the paint will chip) and cannot be too far away or crooked or there'll be a wonky gap at the intersect point. It's times like these that I'm glad that i repurchased my tubing bender back, and thankful for all of the experience I've had building roll bars for all of the sorry assed drag cars I've had in my past. in addition to the bars, A flat, rectangular pad will angle off of this steel top bar that will be the platform for a padded upholstered armrest
I shoulda did that,.......(built that sister bar) but I didn't. Seems that when ever i have a million projects like this car (or the house) I never stay focused on the smaller battles to win the war,...I jump around to several smaller skirmishes, so I can see more progress on a grander scale, to give the impression I'm farther along. It's been that way with the whole stupid car.
1. Cut down the bumpers to section them so they don't hang all "Jerry's Kids" off of the body.
Only the rear bumper is cut, and the two end pieces are unwelded. ( those two end pieces are around here somewhere...........)
2. Build the Gila Gills that will act as inlets for the rear heat exchanger.
Only the Drivers' side is done.
3. Put the power windows in the doors.
Only the pass door is done.
4. Mount the seats.
Only the drivers' side is done, and barely at that.
5. Remove the glass so as not to ruin it from cutting and grinding sparks.
Only the windshield is removed,..the other glass is already ruined.
6.Build the housing to encase the rear mount heat exchangers.
The front is on, not the back.
And this **** goes on, and on almost everywhere you look. I still have just as much time and work in front of me to finish the "other sides" as I've already put in.
This is my next example:
This is the under pod that will hold the head unit, and the HVAC controls. The passenger side of the box is on, I ran out of time and just clamped the thing in place to get a perspective.
( the actual "true" mount location will be slightly to the right, It just was too hard to hold it in place while lying on your back to get that stupid vise grip clamped on.
This thing also took the better part of a day to build to this point of completion. Because the front fascia is actually rounded at the corners, I just cant weld the four corners of the box together square, I have to round them over before welding, and that takes a little while, and THAT is why there's only one side done.
But the things' hangin' there, and I'm happy with the way it looks. A rectangular opposite of the oval gauge pod