I never liked the chequer plate dash all that much. I was keen to get the car registered as quick as I could so it would do in the short term. I always intended to put a later model dash from a late thirties or early forties Ford when the time was right. My plans changed after I saw a Model A coupe that had a 1953 Ford dash. I really liked the gauge cluster hump and the height of the dash would hide the brake booster.
I found a near complete dash at a swap meet for a good price in February 2016. My rough plan was to remove the chequer dash and then chop, paint and fit the 53’ dash in June 2016.
Never quite worked out that way but fast forward to early 2019 and I started.
Overall length of a standard 1953 dash is approx. 1400mm. The inside of the Model A is approx. 1000mm. There are heater and air vent controls that aren't needed for my application but I wanted to retain as much of the dash as possible to keep the fifties feel.
I made 7 cuts to dash body to get it to fit evenly inside the cab. I cut as best as I could to get it the gauge cluster centre to the steering column and the clock as close to the centre of the car as possible.
I also had to weld in to straight sections at each corner as the original shape is curved and the Model A dash header panel (where the dash meets the windscreen frame) is flat. I lost count how many times I had the dash in and out of the car during the dummy up stage.
The old set up had a lot of mis-matched additions made to it as the car progressed over the years. Extra gauges, warning lights, ignition controls and switches. With the new dash I wanted to keep everything as uniform as possible.
I like the bomber style hot rod interiors with aluminium parts riveted together. I wanted to incorporate some of that styling but did the dash on the budget. A compromise was use acorn nuts to bolt everything together. If I need to change anything it's easy to unbolt than un-rivet.
Didn't take to long to get it in primer once it was all welded up.
The steering wheel was hitting the top of the dah so the solution was to extend the steering column and put in a longer steering shaft.
All the bits were masked up, primed and painted separatley.
All the aluminuin trim was polished and clear coated.
I replaced all the previuos plastic switches with metal toggle switches.
The gauge cluster came up OK with a tear down and clean.
I thought about painting the dash the same purple as the firewall / Rims but thought that the stainless and aluminium would look better against black.
A good part of the wiring had to be modified as a lot of things were moved from one side of the dash to the other. Also gave me the opportunity to change and improve a few things that I wasn't entirely happy with the first time I wired the car up.
I had trouble laying down the 1k black. I couldn't get it to flow evenly. My fault, I couldn't get the air settings right on my spray gun. The dash has orange peel but I'm not too fussed. It is after all a hot rod so doesn't have to be perfect in my eyes.
Pretty happy how it turned out. Took 2 solid months to get it done.
