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This is my thread about making an entire dashboard and instrument panel for a GT from scratch. Any idiot can do what I’m going to try to do. I’m not going to use exotic materials. I’m going to try to assemble it’s basic structure with sheet metal, nuts, bolts, and screws. The dashboard part will be styrofoam on a sheet metal base and vinyl upholstered. Nothing is carved in stone at this time and I might change direction or start all over again at any point. Lots of racer dudes have made sheet metal dashes with lots of gauges and switches. I’m doing the same thing, but I’m finishing it off a bit further for esthetics and adding conveniences that you would expect in an every day, average driver, car. Nothing new here, as far as the dashboard, that lots of other people haven’t already done.
The layout of the instruments will be radically different, however. I will be installing an all-in one digital instrument cluster that puts all the gauge info in front of the driver where the oem tach and speedo are. I will be using a Dakota Digital cluster that I had made specifically for my GT. Early discussions of this idea can be found in these threads:
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/general-discussions/29236-electronic-instrument-panels.html
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/1e-oth...ing-order-together-dakota-digital-guages.html
Another big change will be the installation of a double-DIN size all-in-one media center similar to the one seen here, that I put in my Solstice:
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/member-projects/53010-got-red-2.html#post702666
The discussion that led to this mod was started here:
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/sound-systems/29701-auto-audio-ideas.html
I plan on mounting the all-in-one stereo unit high in the area currently occupied by the 3 center console gauges. Switches and storage compartments with be mounted below and the center-of-the-car part of the dash will be extruded outwards to approximately the front of the ashtray. I drive automatics, so how far out will be determined by the clearance needed to easily grab the tranny selector when it is in park. This dash will go in the GTX, which has had the flip over headlights deleted in favor of tunnel lights, so there’s no need to leave room for the headlight flip lever. A more useful center console will be designed and integrated into the extruded out dash and the parking brake lever will be deleted and an alternative might be installed, as per discussions in this thread:
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/group-5-brakes/29641-relocating-parking-brake-lever.html
The top of the dashboard will continue straight across on the passenger side, rather than indenting and having a dash-mounted urinal for a glove box. A proper glove box/storage area will be installed instead.
It’s likely that I will redesign and reduct the heater/defroster to take up less space and only function as a defroster. I removed the heater box area in the engine compartment, for better side draft carb access and fitment, and I will be using a Manta/Kadet fan to blow at the heater core and my own sheet metal enclosure and ducting after that.
Okay, on with the show:
MAKING THE TOP
After many years thinking about this, weighing pros and cons, being honest with myself about my skills, and what design would be the most fun and least stressful to do, I decided that I would make the dash’s basic structure like an Erector Set. Receiving an Erector Set at age 7 for Xmas was what got my passion started for my mechanical work path in life, so why not come full circle and incorporate the Erector Set concept on this project. My concept centers around being able to attach everything to everything else with nuts and bolts. In particular, my concept involves being able to have bolts or “posts” sticking down from the top of the dash to mount everything to. You’ll see what I mean later. Making the top of the dash out of a piece of sheet metal with lots of holes already in it seems like a good starting point. I got this idea from a hunk of “craft metal” that Norbert had sent me along with the grill lights he made for me.
If anything goes wrong with this design………it’s Norbert’s fault!
I couldn’t find a big hunk of sheet metal with holes at Home Depot or the hardware store, so I went to a huge metal products place nearby called Fazzio’s and sniffed around for something to do the job. The choices were almost zero………until I saw The Holy Grail of Perforated Sheet Metal:
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Holy Cow! Look at all them holes! Wheeeee! It’s a $50 4’x4’ hunk of 1/16” thick, pretty rigid, perforated with overlapping ¼” holes, aluminum sheet metal. Surprisingly heavy, too. I had to check it with a magnet to believe that it was really aluminum.
I like the shape and curve of the oem dash, so I just needed to trace an existing dash onto the metal and cut it out. I used the plastic dash cap that Jimmy had sent me a while back and that made the job a cinch. The edge of the dash closest to the driver/passenger is virtually straight, so I was able to align that with the nice finished edge of the sheet metal:
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To make the snipping a bit easier, I used my table saw to trim off the excess sheet metal.
![]()
The layout of the instruments will be radically different, however. I will be installing an all-in one digital instrument cluster that puts all the gauge info in front of the driver where the oem tach and speedo are. I will be using a Dakota Digital cluster that I had made specifically for my GT. Early discussions of this idea can be found in these threads:
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/general-discussions/29236-electronic-instrument-panels.html
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/1e-oth...ing-order-together-dakota-digital-guages.html
Another big change will be the installation of a double-DIN size all-in-one media center similar to the one seen here, that I put in my Solstice:
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/member-projects/53010-got-red-2.html#post702666
The discussion that led to this mod was started here:
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/sound-systems/29701-auto-audio-ideas.html
I plan on mounting the all-in-one stereo unit high in the area currently occupied by the 3 center console gauges. Switches and storage compartments with be mounted below and the center-of-the-car part of the dash will be extruded outwards to approximately the front of the ashtray. I drive automatics, so how far out will be determined by the clearance needed to easily grab the tranny selector when it is in park. This dash will go in the GTX, which has had the flip over headlights deleted in favor of tunnel lights, so there’s no need to leave room for the headlight flip lever. A more useful center console will be designed and integrated into the extruded out dash and the parking brake lever will be deleted and an alternative might be installed, as per discussions in this thread:
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/group-5-brakes/29641-relocating-parking-brake-lever.html
The top of the dashboard will continue straight across on the passenger side, rather than indenting and having a dash-mounted urinal for a glove box. A proper glove box/storage area will be installed instead.
It’s likely that I will redesign and reduct the heater/defroster to take up less space and only function as a defroster. I removed the heater box area in the engine compartment, for better side draft carb access and fitment, and I will be using a Manta/Kadet fan to blow at the heater core and my own sheet metal enclosure and ducting after that.
Okay, on with the show:
MAKING THE TOP
After many years thinking about this, weighing pros and cons, being honest with myself about my skills, and what design would be the most fun and least stressful to do, I decided that I would make the dash’s basic structure like an Erector Set. Receiving an Erector Set at age 7 for Xmas was what got my passion started for my mechanical work path in life, so why not come full circle and incorporate the Erector Set concept on this project. My concept centers around being able to attach everything to everything else with nuts and bolts. In particular, my concept involves being able to have bolts or “posts” sticking down from the top of the dash to mount everything to. You’ll see what I mean later. Making the top of the dash out of a piece of sheet metal with lots of holes already in it seems like a good starting point. I got this idea from a hunk of “craft metal” that Norbert had sent me along with the grill lights he made for me.
If anything goes wrong with this design………it’s Norbert’s fault!
I couldn’t find a big hunk of sheet metal with holes at Home Depot or the hardware store, so I went to a huge metal products place nearby called Fazzio’s and sniffed around for something to do the job. The choices were almost zero………until I saw The Holy Grail of Perforated Sheet Metal:
Holy Cow! Look at all them holes! Wheeeee! It’s a $50 4’x4’ hunk of 1/16” thick, pretty rigid, perforated with overlapping ¼” holes, aluminum sheet metal. Surprisingly heavy, too. I had to check it with a magnet to believe that it was really aluminum.
I like the shape and curve of the oem dash, so I just needed to trace an existing dash onto the metal and cut it out. I used the plastic dash cap that Jimmy had sent me a while back and that made the job a cinch. The edge of the dash closest to the driver/passenger is virtually straight, so I was able to align that with the nice finished edge of the sheet metal:
To make the snipping a bit easier, I used my table saw to trim off the excess sheet metal.
