Thread: lots of questions under one post

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Well, I have a few questions so here it goes:

1) I'm planning on tossing a 350 into my plymouth and I'm curious about my steering. The steering box is mounted on the inside of the frame. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that it'll be right in the way of the motor. Does anyone know what I can do to fix this problem?

2) I switched the electrical system over from 6v to 12v. Which, in turn fried all of my gauges, radio, etc. i was wondering if anyone has any pointers for doing a 'custom' dash. I was thinking about either taking some diamond plated steel and tac welding it into place from the rear, but I don't want it to look cheesy. Any suggestions.

Originally posted by Rodz'nrangerz
Well, I have a few questions so here it goes:

1) I'm planning on tossing a 350 into my plymouth and I'm curious about my steering. The steering box is mounted on the inside of the frame. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that it'll be right in the way of the motor. Does anyone know what I can do to fix this problem?

2) I switched the electrical system over from 6v to 12v. Which, in turn fried all of my gauges, radio, etc. i was wondering if anyone has any pointers for doing a 'custom' dash. I was thinking about either taking some diamond plated steel and tac welding it into place from the rear, but I don't want it to look cheesy. Any suggestions.

1) There's always rack & pinion.
2) Everybody has there own opinion when it comes to design, but I don't see diamond plate steel looking good on anything but maybe a catwalk.
You could get measurments of your dash and then scour the salvage yards for something you like that is close enough in size to modify.
Or you could make one from fiberglass, I know that works. The possibilities are endless.

Pro70,
You're probably right about the diamond steel. i've never heard of the fiberglass method... details?

Originally posted by Rodz'nrangerz
Pro70,
You're probably right about the diamond steel. i've never heard of the fiberglass method... details?

You can see the fiberglass dash I built and some other ideas in this thread

http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/sho...iberglass+dash

Fiberglass is nice but I don't know it gives me the idea of a ricer because they use that a ton.... I am not saying it's for ricers but it just gives me a picture in my head of ricers. But ok don't even mind what I just put, that was dumb. Fiberglass (if done right) look's slick. I like the aluminum method better.... I am a guy that like metal though so it all depends, if it were me then it would be aluminum and you can even mix it with fiberglass like the top of the dash do in fiberglass and the face (where the gages will be) do in aluminum.

I would have had the same problem in my '48 but I am using a mustang II front end with rack&pinion. I was way to leary of putting modern HP in my old car and trust those old spongy drum brakes. There are several kits out there with short headers, steering knuckle systems that reroute steering and modern motor mounts that allow you to keep your stock suspension. If you do you may want to look into converting it to disc.

As for your dash, there are also several guage companys such as dolphin that offer after market billet inserts and modern 12v guages.