Hi everybody. My dad and I were thinking about building third gen related wall art, and I wanted to get a feel for what people would be interested in. Our next project is going to be building an Iroc dash with clocks/ thermometers/ humidity gauges in the stock Speedo/ RPM locations. The gauges would look stock, but be more suited for household use compared to a speedometer and tachometer... I would love to hear if people would be interested in something like this. Other ideas are a firebird rear bumper with functional tail lights, etc. All of this stuff would be hung on a wall and can make a bedroom/mancave/garage look a lot cooler

 

very cool idea. I seen a mustang dash with working gauges before looks good

 

Would these be a 1:1 scale, or smaller? I think the Camaro front bumper would be cool on a slightly smaller scale. The headlight area would make a cool shelf for things. Maybe even a glass shelf perched in the center, above the headlight "shelf" area.

 

It would all be 1:1 scale made with the real parts. I would take a front bumper for example, paint it all nice in whatever color, then attach the back side to a piece of wood that would mount to the wall. For a front bumper I would probably reinforce the inside to prevent the headlamps from sagging so it could be used as a shelf. Some other ideas are turning backseat a into couches, obviously hanging hoods on walls is easy. I would also do other things a customer were to suggest. Any ideas are helpful.

 

An idea Ive been pondering for years is a charcoal grill made from the entire front clip, but cut down in size. The front half of a hood and front half of the fenders with a steel box in the engine bay trimmed out around the edges nicely. Pop the hood to open your grill and look cool while grilliN in style.
Weld a set of headers coming out of the fender sides for a little smoke action, paint it all flame resistant hot rod black with some flames....you get the idea. Maybe some straight legs in the back, but a fabbed up axle to mount a cool set of wheels under the fenders

 

I would be interested in some of the wall art for my shop too if the prices are reasonable. It may not be worth your time however unless you were to get into some sort of mass production of smaller scale stuff. I can see it as being an expensive venture for you unless the parts are widely available to you and CHEAP.

 

Out of curiosity, what would you pay for a 1987 iroc dash, with a minute clock and an hour clock instead of the speedo/tach?

 

It depends on what we are talking about here. Are we talking about a full size complete dash with a nice dash pad sitting on top of it with clock, thermometer in the guage holes, or are we talking simply a gauge cluster with clock setup? I would literally have to see what you have made. A nice guage cluster with a wooden top shelf that is cut out with routed edges to look like a dash pad and stained black would look cool and be less expensive for all parties, where as an original, full scale dash from drivers side to passenger side, Iroc emblem included, with just a dash pad cover is going to run big bucks off the bat ($140.00 for just the pad cover) and you may never sell one as most people on this forum are still dealing with a cracked dash in their car that they cant afford to replace...lol The ones who HAVE replaced their dash pad know the expense and value in a good dash pad and would probably never use the money for wall art and if they did, they will probably be using it for parts in the future when the pad in their car cracks..LOL The audience you will want to target obviously are those who can afford to throw around $1000 for shop/Garage wall art. For that audience you are going to have to make something immaculate. If you can somehow make just the cluster and guages with a nice clock, thermometer, barometer type setup with a wooden shelf made to look like a dash pad on top of the cluster, and keep the costs UNDER $400....then you may do well.

 

I say just make whats on your mind, and throw it up for sale. See how it goes

 

I have a steady supplier for the dash housings. I would be making them from full scale real dashes, and I would buy dashpads with windshield or speaker grill cracks since the nack will need to be cut off anyway

 

Spare set of Tail Lights
Lights Off


Lights on

 

I love that!! That's a great idea!!

 

I'm getting the dash today, I'll post updates on it while it is built. Not sure what thread to sell it on however...


mantaguy that is exactly what I am talking about! That looks really cool, I actually have a set of base firebird taillights that I did the same with. I plan on adding a rear bumper and the back end of the quarter panels to it, so it looks like someone literally just sliced the back 8 inches off of the car

 

Got my dash and took it all apart! Let the fun begin! Will be for sale when completed

 

This will be cool - following.

 

So far I have started to cut up and fill the cracks in the donor dash pad. It is coming along well so far. As of now, the plan is to put the thermometer behind the stock speedometer using the stock numbers, while the tachometer will be stripped and repainted to become the clock. Pics coming soon.