Trimming The Dash Underside Cover Plate

After the fibreglass was set I started peeling off all of the masking tape and then peeled off the Styrofoam form I had made. The white glue acted as an excellent barrier both preventing the resin from eating or dissolving the Styrofoam and made for a smooth inner surface, not that anyone is ever going to see it lol. I trimmed off the rough edges with a coping saw and filed them down a little.

Next up was do do a little test fitting of my newly formed cover plate to see what kinds of additional adjustment I am going to need to make. As you can see on the curved part of the dash I will need to file down and then add in some more fibreglass and resin to make it fit more flush with the edge of the dash. Overall though it is coming along much better than I though this project would. Once I get my cover plate to fit nicely around the edges I can sand the exposed side of the cover plate smooth and then it should be ready for priming and painting. 

Glassing The Dash Underside Cover Plate

I had let the thick layer of white glue dry fully over night. Not long after breakfast this morning I cut up some fibreglass matting and mixed up about 4 Ounces of resin and hardener. You can see I marked with a Sharpie Marker a straight line I estimate to be close to the dash. This is the first layer done, I'll give it another layer in about an hour or so. I don't think it needs to be super thick as it's not in a high stress area and serves as just a cover plate to hide and protect any wires hanging in under that area of the dash.

Again so far this idea is looking like it should work. I'll know a lot more once the second layer has been applied. Then I can begin shaping it more, sand it flat and eventually prime and paint. ;)

Dash Underside Cover Plate

In trying to come up with an idea for making some sort of dash underside cover plate to protect and hide any visible wires I figured I would give this idea a shot.

Basically  so far I have taken a piece of thin Styrofoam 1/4" thickness and taped it into position on the underside of the passenger side of the dash. I then so far have coated it with a generous amount of white glue, once that completely dries I'll mask off any exposed areas of the dash and begin laying on some fibreglass resin and matting. My plan is to see if I can make some sort of under plate that I can screw onto the dash once it is installed into the car. In my head right now it seems like a pretty viable idea, I'll keep you all updated on how the progress of this is going and see if it's a winner or a big fat failure of an idea, but so far it's looking like it should work. ;)

Some More Work on the Upper Console

I did some more work on the Upper Console with getting the multi coloured buttons mounted in place. I had to make some more mounting brackets using some "L" channel aluminum. I cut out middle sections and bent tabs outwards for mounting my Lexan plastic strips too that I ran through the centre part of the electronics board sandwich between the button bases.

I Contact cemented the aluminum brackets in place similar to the ones on the 2 TV Dash electronics install. Once the Contact cement was set I fibre glassed the brackets securely to the underside of the Upper Console.

Once the fibreglass resin was set overnight I had to do a little more filling to better accommodate my buttons assembly a little better. Once that was done I was able to drill some holes in the folded out tabs to place in some small bolts and washers to secure the board to the inside of the console. I wish I had pre-drilled my holes before I fibre glassed my brackets in place because it was a real pain in the butt drilling the holes with the brackets already fibre glassed in place. Just a little mental note for next time should I find I have to mount my buttons this way again.

Finally I Contact Cemented my black plastic trim into place. I have a little clean up to do once the Contact Cement dries tomorrow, but that's OK because I still need to pick up the other buttons for the console and install those before I can paint it. I also need to do another test fit in the car and see if I can figure out where to drill my holes for the mounting screws. I'm also still trying to decide if I want to keep my roof light assembly and if so if I should mount it to the back part of the console. I have removed the light assembly from the car and have it sitting on my work bench. I wouldn't mind keeping it, all I would have to do is extend the wires and make a hole in the back of the Upper Console to accommodate the light fixture. 

Knight Rider Dash Arrived Today

I'm very stoked that my 2 T.V. Knight Rider Dash arrived by Fed Ex today all the way from Italy. I ordered on December 11th from Knight Rider World on eBay. You may recall that I chose this dash over many of the others available  because this one has the extra side and centre panels for a much better dash placement. I was very impressed when I saw this version available from Italy, it cost a little bit more but for me it made sense to spend that little extra seeing how I saved so much on the other parts such as

 the gullwing steering yoke, upper and lower consoles that I also got from eBay from Knight Scan. 

Now I need to find some instructional videos on what type of rotary tool is needed to make the cut outs for installation of the electronics and installation of the dash onto the current one in the 1982 Trans Am Firebird.

If anyone knows of any good ones I would sure appreciate the pointing in the right direction ;)