When I ordered the car from Fran I left off the digital dash thingie. I know they are cool and all but I can't read them when I am trying to drive the car at anything quicker than cruisin down the highway speeds. Since this is going to be a track car then I want to be able to read the instruments.
Thus I intended to do my own dashboard. The fiberglass OEM one isn't big enough to mount the gauges I want so I made my own. The design objectives for my dashboard were, must be able to remove the panel face from the car and work on it on the workbench, do not cut up the OEM dash so that I can save it for another day should I want to convert to a streetcar, break even on weight and replace with a complete bolt in system.
I wanted to be ale to remove it from the car with the windshield in place but it can't be done and keep the top piece one piece. I could have used two halves but it would not be stiff enough with out getting far more complicated. This car may use a lexan windscreen in the end and if so I won't glue it on anyway. I will just hold in in place with tabs like most other race cars.
Here's what I did. The whole thing is just about the same weight as the fiberglass OEM part. The three mounting corners allow the roll cage tubes to be partially covered. The top flat piece is stiffened on the bottom with ribs. And the face of the gauge panel is big enough to fit everything I want on it neatly.
The last thing is, the entire center body secton will come off the car and all this stuff remains in place.
