[piecesparts]

What I would do, if it were mine: I would grind the rough edges down to make the panel smoother, then I would make a filler plate to fit behind the hole in the dash out of 18 gauge metal. This plate would be shaped to follow the general dash shape and then I would either weld it to the dash or I would pop rivet it onto the present mess. before I made the plate permanent, I would cut the opening that I wanted for the next radio. I would then take the instrument cluster and make a panel the shape of the ower area (where the radio sets into it and align the radio in it to the hole in the filler plate that was made for the dash. The plat that I would make for the instrument cluster would then be painted to match the panel (black, I imagine) and then I would mount the instrument cluster and then screw the outer cover panel to the instrument cluster and dash in one process. That way you strengthen the dash and provide a place to mount the radio at the same time. The lower panel on the instrument cluster panel is big enough to put a standard "DIN" style radio and a Equalizer like Alpine makes in that spot.