Aluminum Dash Kit.... or kinda
 

So should I keep doing this cause its a PITA!! The switch plate took me like 3 hours, dont have access to a CNC machine or anything so I'm having to do all the fabrication by hand. I think it will look good when its done but... I'm not even positive.
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/alumswitch.jpg

It looks good but dont waste your time doing half of it if your not going to finish it

looks nice, what more were you thinking of doing to it?

that cleans up the look to it alot since alot of dirt gets on the edges of the switches makes it look good

Oh sorry I should clarify... I'm planning on doing an entire kit, not just the switch plate. All the console plates,switches, shifter, ashtray, radio/hvac trim, dash, ac vents, cluster cover etc. Anyways I'm working on the shifter plate now... but having a bit of trouble cutting it out right. Good thing I went with cheap material :)

Lookin' good, I plan on doing that as well. But my dad has a cnc machine shop so I'll probably cnc some really nice stuff eventually.
And p.s where'd you get that white overlay for your shifter? And is it indiglo?

Looks sweet! Nice work so far :goodjob: I saw that on a firebird on this site and it looked pretty good and have been wondering if anybody did it for a camaro. I have two questions for you. What kind of alluminum are you using and how are you cutting it? I dont have access to a cnc machine either and was wondering if I would somehow be able to do it myself.

Cool man, If you get some good stuff dialed into the cnc machine make some extra!

the overlay is from a kit I ordered on ebay.. its not indiglo and it doesnt even fit right. The P and the 1 match up but the spacing in between everything else is pretty off. I ordered another from MacEwen as well as a white guage kit.. but after two weeks and two phone calls with the owner of the company promising it would be shipped the next day I still have nothing.

Thanks I definately need support for this project. There is actually a company tha makes a kit for the camaro, bt I've yet to see one and at the price they want for what the layout looks like I'll pass http://www.streetracerparts.com/inde...ROD&ProdID=239

I'm using some really thin aluminum sheet. Dont recall the guage but I bought like a 12" x 10' roll at Lowes for like $8. As far cutting its thin enough to cut with some good shears and I'm cutting the middle pieces out with a dremel, Ill probably have to make holes for the bolts on some of the pieces with a drill as well. After that theres alot of filing and sanding involved. I made some polished aluminum emblems by hand and thats basically how I decided I could do this... but its a complete PITA as I knew it would be :) :doh:

so are you making it like an overlay or what? I take it that it's like an overlay...
and how does it stay in place? Did you glue it or anything?

Yea its basically a thin aluminum overlay. In the pic it was being held on by basically.. my finger. I'm not gonna actually install it til I get all of the panels done. But I'm planning on just siliconing it and if that doesnt hold Ill throw some 3M double sided tape on there

Kind of a crappy progress pic if anyone cares. Anyone have any ideas on how I can dull this stuff up?http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/alumconsole.jpg

use thin sand paper... I have no idea maybe 340 grit? and sand the aluminum... but 340 might be too coarse... try some diff grit... the sanding will dull the plates... but if you do it too coarse it'll be ugly

what's up bro?

Well, are you wanting to get a "brushed aluminum effect" or just "dull"? I think brushed aluminum would look pretty good..that's how I did my switch panel. In order to get a brushed look...just use sand paper and sand it in one direction. I'd probably start with....I dunno...320...or 600. Try different grits on a spare piece of aluminum if you have it. Good Luck :D

I'm likin the HVAC overlay...I might have to get me one

Yea The switch panel I tried to put a "brushed" or just give a duller appearance, and I sanded it down to 400 and then used some steel wool on it. I dunno maybee it cant really get much duller but its pretty shiny despite the finger prints and aluminum dust on it in the pic. I'm thinking maybee spraying it with some sort of dull coating or like a clear with a black tint to it, so it doesn't stick out so much.

Glass bead blast it, that will give it a nice even satin finish.

:hail: grngryoutmyway it looks really cool! i had the same idea for making the auto shift plate but mine did not came out nice at all. so i want to remake it some time but man yours it looks really nice. you should ether buy or make a gauge bezel. are you going to do the heater/raido trim?:goodjob:

wow that is so cool i might have to do this for my car but next year i will have acess to a cnc so ill probelly do it than looks great keep it up whats r u all doing r u makeing one for every platye and r u doing the gauges too keep it up

IMHO i think i'd love a set of those. You should make a template for all those peices and sell them to people on TGO for what ever you think your time and material costs. You could make some good money and we could have some cool looking dashes.
I dont think you should sand them down for everyone though, sell them raw and let people sand it down themselves, or get **** engraved on them...just a thought because then it would be A: Less work for you B: It will keep everyones car a bit more unique. and if they wanna pay for it C: You could sand it down or paint it or how ever they want it done and make more money.

Just a thought because I really like the look, and I wouldn't mind buying a set. (Mine raw of course because i have a few ideas on how i'd like to customize them more)

search for powermite, he has a thread (very long) that he shows off his aluminum dash stuff, i believe he used coarse grade steel wool in one direction to get that brushed aluminum look. everything he did is amazing, you could probably get some good pointers reading his thread.

Hey the shifter plate was definately the hardest one so far.. I think i redid it like 5 times before it came out right. Actually if you want the one in the pic you can have it the holes I cut out for the screws are a little lopsidedy, so I made another, pm me. I actually bought one of the guage bezels off ebay and had it painted body color... I'm not sure if I'm gonna keep it like that, or refinish it, or just buy another, and yes I'm doing the hvac/radio trim as well I cut one out today but forgot about the curvy corners :doh:
Good idea... but with everything being done by hand it probably wouldn't be very profitable. I probably have... i dunno a dozen or so odd hours into it now so if im lucky thats.. 25 for a complete set at $8 an hour = $200 + materials... at the price I would have to charge to make it profitable they would want alot more precice panels than I can make with a dremel. If I do get access to a cnc machine I could scan these in and then have them cut right. I wouldn't mind making extra and selling them if thats the case

Yes I have seen powermites thread :hail: mine isn't going to look nearly that good when finished but it should hopefully look nice considering my budget and material constraignts. I re read the thread a little while ago and I believe he used soft scrub or something, which I tried.. and it didnt do much , the aluminum I'm using is some weird alloy and its really shiny, I have a bunch of sand paper and various grades of steel wool lying around... and i just ordered some stuff from testors that i plan on using to help with the finish so I think im gonna wait til there all cut out and just go at it on the finish, ....it should turn out interesting none the less.

You have to use good aluminum. The cheap stuff wont brush very well. I am going all the way on mine. The shifter part is .090 thick and replaces the current bezel. The hard part was cutting all the ashtray parts off and reattaching them to the metal. I would be curious to see your radio plate. The only way I can see to make it look good is to just machine a new radio bezel out of billet blank. So if you can get some pictures when your done please post them up.

just an idea but ive gotten a neat sorta brushed finish on aluminum using a 1 1/2" wire wheel and a drill. Its worth a shot to try it on that material.

Hey in regaurds to machining a whole new bezel....
I was looking at doing that for the shifter plate but how would you get the strip that goes on the shifter and slides with it to work? And also in the "column" area where the shifter moves forward and backwards it's deep and beveled, seems like it would be pretty hard, and take a pretty thick piece of aluminum to start with if you were going to machine out of one piece?
You know what I mean?
And how do you get by these obstacles?

I dont think he was machining a whole bezel I think he made a base and then was making the top plates to stack on top? I'd like to see pics but its not something I would go to the trouble of. As far as the shifter I assume he would plan on just removing the piece from the bottom of the original panel. The "column" area that moves as well as the gear designation plate are a seperate piece of plastic that attatches to the bottom of the original panel. I'm not getting too in depth with this thing as its really just entertainment. I always wanted to know what a alum dash kit for a camaro looked like and no one has ever produced pics... so I'm makin one! As far as finish I plan on brushing it with either a steel drill brush or sand paper and then applying a black tinted clear... then sanding that down a bit so the "brushed" parts are darker and applying a dull clear on top.. this is all planning so who knows how it will end up

oh wow I guess those two parts are riveted on the bottom, makes the idea of a whole new bezel piece sound a little easier. But I still think I'm gonna try the overlays like you grngry first :)
Keep us updated with those pics :)

As requested... Radio/HVAC bezel, sorry for the crapy pics it seems the only free time I have is after its already dark. I was having a little trouble getting it to stay on cause I havent attatched anything yet, but it fits just about perfect. Hopefully all will be cut out this weekend and redy to put a finish on! Just the dash, vents and guage trim left!
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/alumhvac.jpg

I was actually able to brush it ok with some lower grit paper. Anyways this is kinda what I was thinking tho this is with black tinted spray and a dullcoat on top. Opinions?
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/blackalum.jpg

As opposed to this
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/brushedalum.jpg

A little contrast
http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/contrast.jpg

Hey lookin' way good so far!!!
And I can't cnc right now, I haven't had time, and we'd have to change the setup of the cnc's 'cause atm they're setup for a specific job so I can't cnc new plates. But I still want to do the overlays like you're doing, but my question is where did you get your aluminum, how much was it and what should I be looking for?

thanks if you can help heh, I tried Home Depot on the phone and they said they don't carry aluminum sheet metal. (?)

That looks great, better then I would have thought. Good Work. I think I will still do a complete panel and have it machine turned. The one thing I have never like about the console in the 13 years I have owned it is the crack that allow crap to get stuck in.

No HD doesn't carry aluminum really at all. Lowes has some thicker guaged stuff, but what I'm using is in the roofing section, its just aluminum sheet in a big role. I bought like a 10"x10' roll for under $10, if you plan on screwing up a bit you might need more tho still cheap as hell at any rate. They do also carry larger guage aluminum but it would be a minimum like $60 worth just for enough to cut out a single panel for each application. Thick aluminum sheet can most likely be found through other sources for alot less. Right now I'm taking the easy route, if I decide to keep it for awhile i'll cut it out of thicker guage and re-do the whole thing.

CD - are you talking about the cracks in between the panels? If so the type of kit I'm making wont help.. in fact it will probably allow more crap to get stuck in there. My car stays pretty clean so thats not really my problem... I'm just making something to occcupy me til I have another car and can let this thing sit long enough to do a 4th gen dash swap and swede the hell out of the interior :D

As an FYI so that you all know what to ask for, the rolls that he is using is aluminum roof flashing. Both Lowes and Home Depot carry it, and it should be available at any home improvement store. Usually available in different length rolls.

Yes Yes... I'm bringing my own thread back from the dead. I thought I had posted some finished shots in here but I guess not. Anyways here is a pic from a show in May.

http://www.ls1camaro.net/freehosting/G98.jpg

that looks really good man.

Veyr nice work! looks great!

Are you making more? If so I will pay for a set. I have cash...:D

I like it on the dash, the black dash that everyone has gets boring. Good job, looks good.

Thanks for your intrest Capt unfortunately I'm not going to make any more. I thought about it for a long time and opted against it for several reasons. Including; I would have to buy a CAD program and edit the scan ins of the originals myself since all the lines aren't perfect, I would have to apply the brushed finished by hand which would take awhile (probably 4 hours per set), it would cost ALOT if I did a run of 10 I would have to charge atleast $150 to break even, and thats without me getting paid for my time, the originals would probably be destroyed so I would never have a set if it didnt work out, badging - theres a different dash badge for almost every year so each dash panel would have to be custom cut. When it came down to it I just dont think I could offer the quality I would like at a price anyone would be willing to pay, even if I sold high numbers of them.

But thank you for the compliments everyone, its something that took a whole lot of time. I dont know that it was worth it in the end but its nice to have something no one else does. If anyone decides they want to try and make some I'll gladly try to help you, just takes a good eye, thick fingertips, and a whole lot of time :D