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OK.

Let's just say I'm going a little stir crazy. Frustrated because I'm in a "damned if I do, damned if I don't" kinda place. The dash, and console have been at the same level of stagnation for about a month now. I've been holding on posting pictures of that because they'll just make no sense to most,.....that's changed. Today I'm putting it up for public scrutiny. Ordinarily, I'd bounce around to some other part of the car, and let time resolve the stagnation, but w/ work, the house, and the overall lack of funds, there really isn't another place to bounce to.

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The console is almost complete as you see it, save for the top will have a cover made out of a see through perforated mesh. As opposed to just laying on top of the bars, that cover will actually be bolted down at a point about middle of the bar. The console itself will "float" on top of the carpet, all you should be able to see is just the out side of the bars that make that up.(Right now the pic shows a piece of scrap that's laying across the top. It really serves no purpose.)
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The dash is a different story. This is far from complete. The 89 factory dash that is underneath is just there as a place holder. Right now the plan is to roll a piece of sheetmetal from the middle of the top bar to the windshield, and the same will happen from the bottom bar to the bottom of what would be the stock dash. The gauge cluster will arch up from the top. (I plan to make that out of a single 3" exhaust tubing U bend., opposite of the roll for the dash.

(See I told ya,....it's gonna require a stretch of imagination)


Over the past weeks I've been nickle and dime-ing my way towards getting all of the sensors and pigtails to get the engine compartment wired. I have all of the right wire to make an engine harness, I just need a few weatherpack end terminals to allow me to disconnect the engine w/o having to cut wires, or unbolt fasteners.The engine compartment harness is about 95% away from being able to happen. Bought the TPS and what will become my fast idle valve for cold starts. (those items alone cost right at 100.00) The weatherpack "kit" will almost be another 100.00.

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Hopefully, my last Chevy item I use on this car. The original purpose for this is to switch between fuel tanks on a Chevy Siverado. On the Monster, it is a 12V activated vacuum leak. One that comes from un-boosted filtered air on the inlet of the turbo. The Megasquirt uses it in the cold start fast idle process. The sweet part of the deal, Unlike most vacuum leaks is that the MAP sensor compensates for the lean condition, the engine runs 500-700 RPM faster when activated, and the "vacuum leak" will stop at 120 degrees.


Pshhhhhhh.... I'd have used 3 inch pipe all the way. :shrug:
 
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Inquiring minds needs to know. Has do it twice Mike already done the piping twice before posting, or will we be seeing part deux in a later chapter?
This idea has been in my head since before the red car. ( that makes it 2007) I built a similar structure for the Studebaker streetrod (That got sold to support said red car) but it never saw any further progress than where I am currently w/ the Monster either.

I think the concept is cursed. Doomed to failure. Tomorrow, come hell or highwater, I'm getting the steel to build the cover portions for the top and bottom of the dash to see whether or not I just spent 200.00 for scrap.
 
Well, only one way to find out. I like the concept, and think you can pull it off. Seems like I remember you bending a couple sheets of metal and making some cool s hit, so whats in a dash to hold you back? I was watching an old episode of the show Rides, and it was about the 2005 Shelby Cobra Concept. Im digging the concave face of the dash.

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And after going back and re-reading your design idea, and looking at the spacing of the bars, I see you are doing something very different than what I pictured reading it the first time. But oh well, I still think the dash above is worthy of drooling over since I already posted it.
 
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It's no secret.

For weeks now I've been vacillating. Pissing, and moaning about lack of motivation, lack of material, lack of funds, lack of confidence.
Last night, after hearing me whining, the wife offered me some words of wisdom to help get me past my stalling point:

"Get over it!"

So I did.

I called Metal Supermarket, and confirmed that they had the type,and quantity of the sheet metal that I needed. They did.

I went to Harbor Freight first. I needed a windshield removal tool. I bought it for 19.00.

I went to my Car audio guy next, and bought the audio system for the car, one of the last major financial hurdles to jump.
A first for me, I bought a Pioneer non-CD head unit. Only capable of playing streaming media via either a hardwired "aux" in, or via Bluetooth. Because of the lack of a CD mechanism, it has a really short, light chassis that is perfect for the dash that has to be able to hide everything from sight w/o alot of ways to do that.
I bought a single Pioneer low profile 12" sub that is intended to fit under a seat, (mine will be mounted on the surface of the rear seat delete) a pair of Pioneer High dollar 6.5" component door speakers, and a Pioneer sub amp to drive the sub.

Then I went to the metal supermarket.

I got the 20ga. for the top and bottom of the dash, the SS perforated covers for the centers of the bars, and some 1/4" x .125 flat bar to use a s backer material for all of the converging steel. The guys at MS cut the stuff, and bent what I wanted bent. When dud asked how I wanted to pay, I said that depended on how much he was gonna charge me. he said 35.00.

I threw two twenty's at the guy.

When I got home, I got out the HF windshield removal tool, and cussed and bitched while trying to cut the stupid piece of junk windshield outta the car. I ended up heating the glass w/ a torch,.....it was the only way I could even get the knife to slide along the glass. In doing so, I managed to trash the newly painted cowl, but I finally managed to get that stinkin windshield out.
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I moved the shattered remnant out to the trash can, and snagged the piece of steel intended as the top of the dash.
It was flat, and need to be rolled. Not having the means to do it correctly, I resorted to doing what I always do. I improvised.

I hand rolled the thing against on of the support poles in the basement. I rocked, and rocked that thing till there was sufficient crown in the thing, then trial fitted the piece. Once it looked close enough to start fitting it, I drew a cut line from underneath, and whipped out the cutoff wheel, and made mincemeat outta that mouse.

All I had time left for today was to put the roughed piece in place, and takes these couple of pics.
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I am no longer conflicted on whether or not I'm gonna be able to make this idea work.
 
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Do I see the makings of a similar air conditioning setup to what was put into the red car?




Oh and this:

http://www.harborfreight.com/professional-windshield-removal-kit-96339.html

No,...this A/C system will hopefully work. The rear mounted system on the red car only worked at night, when the sun wasn't heating the car, and even then just barely.AND, I had no dehumidified defrost. All of that is different this time around. Front mounted, 3.5 vents blowing directly on the driver/passenger, and dehumidified/heated defrost ducted to the windshield.

As for that tool, I saw that one as well when I purchased the pull knife instead. I have always just seen glass guys use the one I bought so, that.........
 
Not much stuff to talk about, as I only had a couple of hours free to mess with the car today. I did manage to inch forward on the cover for the dash, and the center console.
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This is a stainless steel mesh that was part of the stuff I bought on Friday. It will be left perforated so in effect you could see through it if you tried hard enough. In reality, you cant, because it's dark underneath, and the view angle will be such that you'll see the holes, but you wont see through the holes. I'll add a 1/4" piece of flat bar around the perimeters as trim to hide the cutlines, and it'll all be painted combinations of brown, black, and tan.

Aint I sneaky?

The shifter will stick barely through, and if that goes as planned, the ball will hover about 1.5-2 inches above the mesh. I'll make additional rectangular cuts for the head unit, the HVAC controls,the gear position indicator (also digital) and a couple of switches for lights, and a button for the O/D. The wipers, brights, and horn will still be controlled by the multifunction switch, everything else will be keyswitched, or controlled by the ECU.
 
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