Modernizing the Dash

When I first starting on the car about 30 years ago, I had the idea of restoring it to its original "new" condition. I looked into purchasing a wood-graining kit for the dash which would provide the original look. Before I purchased it however, I had changed my mind and decided to build a street rod. I decided that a wood grain would not fit with my exterior and interior colors (Jill was very happy as she was not a wood-grain fan).

The 2 pictures below shows the dash just after I removed it from the car.

Pictures showing the cleaned up dash and the primed dash.
The hole for the radio is still set for a stock radio.

My car never did have an original stock radio, but the hole was still there. I went out and purchased a more modern Alpine radio (Boxing Day sale) and proceeded to adjust the hole size for this radio.

After I installed the dash in the car, I tried the radio in the slot. I quickly found that I had a problem. With the radio installed, I had no access to the air conditioning ducts from the evaporator behind the radio!

I again modified the hole so that it would be used for 2 separate air conditioning ducts.

The 2 pictures below show the front and back of the dash with the Classic Instrument gauges and clock installed.

Ready to install in the car!