Padded dashboard

[rulle7]

Hi all,
does anyone have a picture of a padded Midget dashboard without the padding?
I punctured the padding in front of the passenger carrying some lumber in my '78 Midget, and am thinking of taking the opportunity to get rid of the padding alltogether ( never really liked it to begin with...)
Curious what it looks like under all that plastic.
Thanks in advance!

 

[ChrisS]

This is a shot of one of mine.

 

[jollyroger]

All my racers that have that type of dash have the padding removed. They look very good.

 

[rulle7]

Chris,
thanks a bunch!!
After seeing your dash, me thinks it wouldn't be a big issue making something decent looking...an empty canvas, as it were! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif

 

[jcatnite]

I think it has potential as well. Another pic I stole from an eBay auction looked to be one of the best layouts that I've run across. I know it won't help you Carl as you have punctured yours on the passenger side but I was wondering how difficult it would be to retrofit a late model spridget with a dash similar to this? The credit for this beauty goes to Dave Riker. This vehicle was up for auction on eBay but there were no takers. I would have gladly paid the asking price if I had the funds available.
JC

 

[ChrisS]

I didn't want to steal Jack's (lesingepsycho) thunder, but this is his website https://www.cardomain.com/id/lesingepsycho showing a stripped dash. A nice look as well.

 

[rulle7]

JC, I currently have a setup similar to Dave Riker's car.
Instead of wood, I have aluminum around the gauges thanks to a violent and swift extraction of the light switch ( escaping smoke episode ... )
I'll post some pics when I get to my own computer.

 

[lesingepsycho]

Thanks for the plug!! I was going to list a link to my midget ChrisS beat me to it!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

I stripped the dash and then gave it a hefty clear coat to keep it from rusting. As you can tell from the pic I also swapped the gauges for Autolites and replaced the light switch with two seperate toggles, one for parks, one for healights and removed all heater controls and put another gauge in its place.

Bottom line is it does look nice without the padding and it is indeed a blank slate or empty canvas if you please.

Have fun with it! To me the fun of having and working on a "cool" car (or any car for that matter) is making it uniquely your own and distinct from anyone else's car on the road.

JACK

 

[rulle7]

Finally got a pic that's under 200kb...
Well, here's what my dash looks like at the moment ( punctured 'pillow' just outside the pic )
The aluminum dash is just a 'slip-on-top job that I made after I hastily ripped out a very smoking light switch and damaged the vinyl around it.
Padding is now getting ripped out and new home made dash will take its place.
It's a de-rubbered '78, so it's alredy been fiddled with so I dont feel too bad about losing the original anything especially when it's a dash I never liked to begin with. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif

 

[Morris]

That's purty! Do mine now!

 

[jcatnite]

Carl,
That looks very nice bud. Too bad it got punctured.
JC

 

[rulle7]

It's really just a 2mm sheet of aluminum, cut, drilled and filed and bent to fit over and on top the existing dash.
Toggle switches instead of rocker switches.
Two toggles side by side for the lights (left-parking lights,right -head lights plus a matching toggle for the fan swith)
It's a snug fit around the speedo and rev counter bezels, so no screws are used to hold it in place. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif