The immediate focal point of any hot rod or custom car is the exterior, but over the years customizers have treated themselves to plenty of unique interior modifications as well. The obvious candidate for alteration is, of course, the dashboard. Hot rodders have shoehorned a number of dashes into earlier Fords, quadrupled the number of necessary gauges, and spent hours engine turning aluminum panels of various shapes and sizes.
One of the long-standing traditions for mounting gauges in early '30s Fords, however, is the Auburn dash insert. The shape and elegance of the Auburn instrument panel complements the '32 dash so well, in fact, that they are now being reproduced (slightly smaller) in aluminum. Some guys like to take it a step further and have installed an entire Auburn dashboard.
With tradition in mind, Mark Mariani was persistent enough to find an original and complete dashboard from a '31 Auburn closed car, including the original faux woodgrained dash, as well as the insert, and gauges. Mark recognized the similarity between the Ford and Auburn closed-car dashboards and asked Roy Brizio and his crew to make it fit in his '32 five-window.
While the header piece of the Auburn dashboard looks very similar to the Ford, we still had to modify it severely to fit in the smaller Ford. To begin with, we had to section the dash down the center in order to narrow it. We also had to change the sides of the dash to fit the Ford A-pillar. Once installed, though, the Auburn dash looks like it was designed for Mark's coupe and will make for a unique interior and a great conversation piece.
Shown side by side, you can...
Shown side by side, you can see the basic similarities between the Auburn and Ford dashboards. Besides being severely recessed in comparison, the Auburn dash is also a few inches wider.
The first thing we did was...
The first thing we did was cut the Auburn dash in half in order to get an idea of how it fit the Ford cowl. This cut didn't need to be precise since we would be removing material a few inches to either side of the cut, but we needed to make sure it was in the ballpark. We used a cut-off wheel and followed our line straight through the center of the dashboard. With the dashboard in halves, we could overlap the center to determine exactly how much will need to be cut from each half.
With one half of the dash...
With one half of the dash held in place, we could see that the overall fit was pretty close. The first issue was the slight angle built into the sides of the Auburn dash which we fixed by marking a straight line on both sides of the dash and cutting off the excess at the top of the dash.
The second problem was the...
The second problem was the thickness and height of the upper edge of the Auburn dash. While the radius across the top matched the Ford cowl perfectly, the flange was deeper than the Ford dash, and the top of the dash should not stick up past the window flange. We'll need to remove some material from the lip in order to make the top of the dash flush with the window opening.
The depth of the top flange...
The depth of the top flange of the Auburn is greater than the Ford, so we measured the Ford and found that we needed to remove 1/2 inch out of the Auburn flange. To do this, we ran a piece of tape across the dash to mark our cut line. This cut remedies two problems at once: both the depth and the height of the upper flange are reduced.
We then mocked in both halves...
We then mocked in both halves to get an idea of how much we'll have to cut out of the center. After marking one side of the dash, we measured the total amount of the overlap and divided that amount in half to determine how much each side needed to be cut (we cut equal amounts out of each half to make sure the peak at the lower edge of the dash lined up).
With the center "section"...
With the center "section" removed, we clamped the dash in place. This gave us our first idea of how the finished dash will look. Our seams and mounting points lined up, so we removed the dash, clamped it in place, and tacked it together.
Since the top lip of the dash...
Since the top lip of the dash has been cut away, we decided to add some strength here by welding in a 3/4x1/8-inch thick steel strap. This way we could also radius the front edge of the lip and give it a more "finished" look. In order to match the radius of the dash lip, we clamped the steel strap in place and then tacked the outer edge of the strap to the dashboard before removing the clamps.
After another trial fit we...
After another trial fit we decided it was safe to weld up all of our seams. We welded the entire length of the upper lip and the sectioned area down the center of the dash. We then rounded the edges of our steel strap to give this edge the finished look we wanted.
There isn't enough room to...
There isn't enough room to weld behind this panel so we marked the flanges of the cage nuts on the front side of the dash, drilled holes on either side of the cage-nut opening, and temporarily mounted the cage nuts in place so that we could weld them up. We rosette-welded the cage nut flanges to the dash mount panel through the two extra holes and then removed the temporary screws.
With the dash welded and ready...
With the dash welded and ready to be mounted, we turned our attention to the original screw holes in the header piece of the Auburn dashboard. We marked, center-punched, and drilled pilot holes in the cowl for new mounts. The Auburn dash is recessed so there is no way of accessing the back side of the cowl to use a nut on the mounting screws, so we decided to use cage nuts. These will provide a slight amount of adjustment since the captive nut can move around slightly in its "cage." We measured the diameter of the opening to determine what size hole to drill in the cowl flange.
Since we welded the dash in...
Since we welded the dash in the center, we needed to drill a new center mounting hole in our dash header. We determined the exact center, both side to side and top to bottom, and drilled a 1/4-inch hole. We needed to countersink our new center hole to match the others, so we used a countersunk piece of round rod as a die.
The Auburn dash has about...
The Auburn dash has about a 3/4-inch gap between the header piece and the Ford mounting flange, so we used these 3/4-inch spacers to take up the space and allow the mounting screws to be tightened sufficiently without crushing the dashboard. The screw holes are countersunk so we chamfered the openings of the spacers so that they would fit flush behind the countersunk sheetmetal.
We welded a small pad to the...
We welded a small pad to the die and tacked the die to the back of the dash to ensure that it remained centered behind the mount hole. Using a 1/4-inch countersunk screw as a stamp, we placed the dash in an arbor press and pressed the screw into the die welded to the backside of the dash until the face was flush with the surface of the dash header. When we removed the screw we were left with a perfect countersunk hole.
We removed the die and then...
We removed the die and then tacked each of our chamfered spacers to the back of the dashboard.
Another subtle difference...
Another subtle difference between the Auburn and Ford dashes is the slight angle built into the Auburn's side flange. We could have left thisalone but since we needed to weld up these holes anyway, we decided to make a new piece with a straight side flange.
We measured out a patch piece,...
We measured out a patch piece, making it 1/2 inch longer and taller than we needed so that we could bend small flanges into the front and bottom edges. We cut out the corner so that we could bend the flanges 90 degrees. Using a box and pan brake, we bent each edge of our patch pieces.
We welded up the seam and...
We welded up the seam and ground the weld down to make a radiused corner. The flanges were much too long, but we cut off the excess once we determined exactly how wide they needed to be to match the Auburn dash corners. With the patch piece ready to be installed, we mocked it in place and scribed a line to cut out the corner of the dashboard. We cut along our line with a cut-off wheel, tacked our patch pieces in place, and then welded up the seams.
Here is the final piece, complete...
Here is the final piece, complete with the original insert (after the hole was enlarged and the lower switch holes filled and redrilled). The original Auburn column drop was also used (though lengthened).
We installed the dashboard...
We installed the dashboard to make sure our patch panels lined up with the A-pillars and to determine where we would need to thread a mounting screw into the body.
There isn't much material...
There isn't much material to attach a screw on the Ford A-pillar so we cut mounting plates out of 3/16-inch steel plate. This gave us plenty of material to drill and tap for a mounting screw. Using our marks as a guide, we tacked the mounting plates into place.
We then determined a good...
We then determined a good place for a corner screw, approximately 1/2 inch from each edge of the dash corner, and drilled straight through the dash and into our mount plates. We tapped the mounting plate for a 1/4-20 screw to match the upper mounting screws.
Here is the final piece, complete...
Here is the final piece, complete with the original insert (after the hole was enlarged and the lower switch holes filled and redrilled). The original Auburn column drop was also used (though lengthened).