Looking for some advice and a little inspiration, I'm starting to fabricate a complete aluminum or aluminum frame and plastic panel dash, trying to keep it as simple as possible, just flat and one piece, preferably without welding, using as much of the OE mounting as I can. Bottom frame (1 1/4" aluminum) is bolted in to the OE mounting points but I'm having trouble trying to figure out how to secure the top one and then join the two, I've seen a few examples of complete DIY dashes in here but everything that I can find is built off of a cage using it as the base frame and then attaching a cluster panel directly to it, which I plan to do in a sense just without the cage somehow. Any pics would be helpful, or redirect to any threads if my question has already been covered in depth somewhere else. Cheers!

 

Weld a tab up top or use a rivnut in the square tubing and put a bolt in. I think you can actually get complete fiberglass dash units

 

Mine is race only. Nothing special and minimal gauges. Sheet aluminum cut and bent to shape. The bottom lip is bent under to add rigidity. Minimal bracing to hold the dash in place. Originally it was all aluminum however the sun reflecting off the top surface was blinding so I covered the top with carpet.

 

Not exactly what you are looking for, but I used the stock dash and its mounting points to build my custom shaved dash. Here you can see the panels and bondo that closed things up.


Further along... Will be getting a Dakota Digital universal dash insert. Sorry no pics of that in there right now.

 

I did the same as AlkyIROC, then had it covered.





More pics, HERE



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