95ONE

I guess I just want to share why it takes so long to get this project finished. I hope to example just how much work goes into small things like making something as simple as Dash tabs. It took me five hours to make today. I was putting it together in my head for about a week. Tabs, dash and all else involved. I am still not done. I need more brackets once I get the dash plate bolted to these tabs, then I need to make a few more finishing pieces and end caps. It will be worth it in the end since everything to make the dash will weigh a total of about 5lbs. A strong solid dash.. 5lbs. This is excluding any gauges or switches. To make it this light, SHape has more to do with strength than thickness. So bead rolling and folding on thin gauge steel was in order.

Step 1. I had to draw out what was in my head. Then I had to put some exact numbers on it. Then I put it on some posterboard and cut it out as an example to test fit. Here are the pics for that.







Step 2. It Seems to work in posterboard. So now it's time to transfer that to Steel. I grabbed some scrap thin gauge steel in the shop. I cut it into workable pieces,then cleaned it up to draw the shape. It took me 30minutes to cut it out. 3 different pieces are needed.. So multiply all these steps by 3.











Step 3. It's time to do the detail work. First I drilled the holes. Then I cleaned up the radius with a metal cutting air dremel. Then I finish sanded the edges. I then test fit the piece on the car. SO far so good. Getting the point this takes a while?








Step 4. Final strengthening of the piece. I pulled out the bead roller to press in a strong bead for both lateral and vertical strength. I then put it on the Brake bender. I did the major ones first and the smaller ones on a metal anvil using a hammer. Then I welded the joints that were bent together. The piece was crazy strong at this point. I think I could have gone to a thinner gauge than what I was using. I know I should have at this point, but the work is done, so lesson learned.

I then welded in the nuts on the back side. All is finished.. then just to weld them in place in the car with a mig and then a quick spray of primer to keep it all sealed for now.

This was just the tabs. I now have to finish the aluminum dash part. Then the finishing pieces to attach the plastic tabs that will hold the dash veneer. Then the end caps. There is more to go.. maybe about 5 more hours. Don't forget to add in all the fun time I had looking for the stupid tool i had JUST put down, and now I wish I knew where I put it So I could hide secret documents in the same place later because NO ONE will ever find them there.

m73m95

Very Very good post!!

I don't think most people understand what goes into making something from nothing. Whether it be physical, electrical, and/or programming.

V2Rocket

I wish I had (access to) half the stuff you get to play with.

ShApE

good job! We should have a fab thread where members can post their fab pictures.

odurandina

thanks for sharing !

ausgeflippt951

All this does is remind me of the time I DID have access to all this stuff.

That said, you'd be surprised at what you can accomplish with some basic metal working tools in your garage. Go buy yourself a die grinder, angle grinder, chop saw, dremel, a drill press, jig saw, and bench vice. Hell, old Bridgeports and lathes are very easy to come by and let's be honest: you don't need the sophistication of a DRO for home use. Then, find yourself a nice used Lincoln or Miller MIG; all you really need is at most a 25% duty cycle for home application anyway.

All of this should cost you in the neighborhood of $3k. Cutters and other wear items will be costly but you hopefully won't be going thru them often. Then there's the final component of convincing your wife that she's no longer allowed the parking spot she's become so accustomed to....


Great post Bruce. Love reading your threads -- I always find them fascinating and give me cool ideas for the future.

ausgeflippt951

Oh and add rivet gun and tin snips to my list mentioned above as well.

95ONE

Exactly! Thank you. So many other variables on top of just making the above. Should I have made 4 of them or maybe just 2 were good enough? Was my spacing correct, or should they be further apart or closer together. When I install the dash, how many screws should I use? Stuff like that drives me crazy. Don't even get me started on how I spent 2 days customizing a TOOL to make a custom part for my custom part. lol.


R.O.F.L. I know right! I am extremely blessed to have access to all this stuff. I did kinda plan it that way when I gave my friend that owns all this stuff about 15K in shop equipment when I closed the doors to my race shop. (It was just a bolt on shop back then) I knew he'd be useful in the future. The bonus was that over time he has become my best friend. Recently, I was fortunate enough to be his best man in his wedding.

Shape, I always enjoy your posts and the pics of your welds. Bad a$$.

Definitely. You could down size much of what I have and still make these just as well or better. The bead roller was so important to me a while back, that I talked the shop owner into buying it. I paid half. Was only about $250 ea. But for everything else, a decent home garage could have the tools to make it. The other major investment would be the TIG, but a mig could do this just as well. I used both in this project.
- The wife. Always a concern. Funny, but a valid point.

F18Rep

Good post... I live in a parallel universe, strangely familiar - except I have a lot more plasma dust. The only thing I would add would be a small stash of weld nuts. McMaster-Carr if they can't be found anywhere else....Bruce

"Why do you have little holes in all of your shirt sleeves?"

95ONE

Yes. I should add a LARGE stash of weld nuts! Always needing something like that.

Small holes in sleeves, shoulders, top of my head sometimes when I'm too lazy to put on a cap.

LOL Plasma dust. I guess that's the grease monkey equivalent to fairy dust?

Alpineace

why not just water jet the peices out of slightly thicker material and tap them? would have saved a lot of effort, for about $50

95ONE

That's the question isn't it. My answer is weight.

This whole thing is to answer the same question and accusations I get over and over again. How is your car lighter than mine when we both have about the same platform and weight reduction mods? I tell them I have done way more in every way. They call BS and tell me I'm lying. Some versions are more polite, some curt. That's really not such a terrible thing since I used to laugh at the bewilderment and disbelief. Now, it's just something I would like many to understand that even the tiny differences add up to some large numbers. - My favorite is; why not just lose 20lbs. of fat? Fine. . that's valid, if you're looking to lose just 20lbs. How about 100, 200, 1000! I can't lose that kinda weight. There's truly a point of diminishing returns. But if diligence is taken, amazing things can happen. Truly amazing.

Did you realize the bats under ONE bridge in Houston eats over 2.5 TONS of insects in a single night? LOL. What would a 2.5 ton pile of insects look like?! That's extreme, but big numbers when you consider one insect doesn't have any perceivable weight.

Along the same lines, there's the importance of weight DISTRIBUTION. Take two cars that weigh the same, with the exact same suspension hardware, but one lost all the weight OUTSIDE the tires and the other lost weight inside the tires. Which one do you think will handle better? So many layers.

Paulyy

custom work FTW!

ausgeflippt951

"Hi my name is Bruce and I am addicted to adding lightness."

95ONE

I admit it.. I have an addiction. half way there to recovery.